SFFILM Lineup Revealed: ‘Stephen Curry: Underrated,’ ‘I’m a Virgo’ to Open and Close Fest

Sundance documentary “Stephen Curry: Underrated” and SXSW television premiere “I’m a Virgo” will open and close SFFILM, the 66th annual San Francisco International Film Festival.

SFFILM unveiled the full lineup for the fest along with the openers and closers. The Bay Area film festival, which screens in theaters across San Francisco as well as Oakland and Berkeley, will host 50 feature film programs (includes Workshop and “mid-lengths”), 46 shorts, and one TV screening (“I’m a Virgo”). Both directors behind “I’m a Virgo” and “Underrated” — Boots Riley and Peter Nicks — grew up in the Bay Area, more specifically in Oakland. Other films from Bay Area filmmakers whose projects will screen include W. Kamau Bell’s “1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed,” Savanah Leaf’s “Earth Mama,” and Babak Jalali’s “Fremont.”

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“It is SFFILM Festival season once again and I cannot wait to share this year’s program with local audiences,” Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s director of programming, said in a statement. “The line-up includes a wealth of Bay Area filmmakers across all sections, and highlights new — and seminal — work from eminent filmmakers. Our curatorial team, dedicated to showcasing evocative stories, prioritized films that unite us all through cinematic expression and outstanding narrative craft. We continue SFFILM’s legacy of bringing international work to the Bay with stories from 37 countries and an exciting array of emerging artists. For the third year in a row, half of this thematically diverse program is helmed by female or non-binary filmmakers and we are so proud to share these stories with festival attendees.”

Aside from the openers and closers, highlights from the festival include a centerpiece screening of Celine Song’s acclaimed Sundance premiere “Past Lives” the United States premiere of “American Psycho” director Mary Harron’s latest film, Toronto debut “Dalíland,” and a free screening of Judy Blume adaptation “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

Several special awards will be presented to filmmakers during certain screenings. Documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins will receive the Persistence of Vision Award during a screening of his documentary “The March on Rome,” while another of his films, “My Name is Alfred Hitchcock,” will also screen during the fest. The Mel Novikoff Award will be awarded to the documentary production company Firelight Media, during a presentation of Stanley Nelson’s “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.” “BlackBerry” by Matt Johnson will receive the Sloan Science on Screen Award, a prize presented in partnership between SFFILM and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Films that screen at the festival will be eligible for the juried Golden Gate Awards, which honors films in the following categories: New Directors Prize, McBaine Best Documentary Feature, McBaine Best Bay Area Documentary Feature, Best Mid-Length Film, the Cine Latino Award, Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short, Best Animated Short, Best Bay Area Short Film, Best Family Short Film, and Best Youth Works Short Film.

The San Francisco International Film Festival runs from April 13 through 23. Take a look at the full festival lineup below.

Narratives: U.S.

“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (Kelly Fremon Craig)
“BlackBerry” (Matthew Johnson, California Premiere)
“Dalíland” (Mary Harron, U.S. Premiere)
“Dreamin’ Wild” (Bill Pohland, California Premiere)
“Earth Mama” (Savanah Leaf, California Premiere)
“Fremont” (Babak Jalali, California Premiere)
“Past Lives” (Celine Song, California Premiere)
“I’m a Virgo” (Boots Riley, California Premiere)

Narratives: International

“Animalia (Parmi Nous)” (Sofia Alaoui, California Premiere)
“Daughter of Rage (La Hija de todas las Rabias)” (Laura Baumeister, Bay Area Premiere)
“Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” (Julien Chheng and Jean-Christophe Roger, California Premiere)
“The Gravity (La Gravite)” (Cédric Ido, California Premiere)
“I Have Electric Dreams (Tengo Sueños Eléctricos)” (Valentina Maurel, Bay Area Premiere)
“L’Immensità” (Emanuele Crialese, California Premiere)
“Love & Mathematics” (Amor y matemáticas)” (Claudia Sainte-Luce, Bay Area Premiere)
“Luxembourg, Luxembourg” (Antonio Lukich, Bay Area Premiere)
“Martinez” (Lorena Padilla, California Premiere)
“Peafowl (Gong-jak-sae)” (Byun Sung-bin, North America Premiere)
“The Pod Generation” (Sophie Barthes, California Premiere)
“Snow and the Bear (Kar ve Ayi)” (Selcen Ergun, Bay Area Premiere)
“Something You Said Last Night” (Luis De Filippis, US Premiere)
“Stone Turtle” (Woo Ming Jin, California Premiere)
“Vincenta B.” (Carlos Lechuga, California Premiere)

Documentaries: US

“Bad Press” (Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, California Premiere)
“Being Mary Tyler Moore” (James Adolphus, California Premiere)
“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” (Stanley Nelson)
“Confessions of a Good Samaritan” (Penny Lane, California Premiere)
“Home is a Hotel” (Kevin Duncan Wong, Tod Sills, and Kar Yin Tham, World Premiere)
“Hummingbirds” (Estefanía Contreras and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, California Premiere)
“Invisible Beauty” (Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng, California Premiere)
“Joan Baez I Am A Noise” (Miri Navasky, Maeve O’Boyle, and Karen O’Connor, California Premiere)
“King Coal” (Elaine McMillion Sheldon)
“Rally” (Rooth Tang, World Premiere)
“Stephen Curry: Underrated” (Peter Nicks, California Premiere)
“STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie” (Davis Guggenheim, California Premiere)
“The Tuba Thieves” (Alison O’Daniel, California Premiere)

Documentaries: International

“Against the Tide” (Sarvnik Kaur, California Premiere)
“La Bonga” (Sebastián Pinzón Silva and Canela Reyes, California Premiere)
“The Deepest Breath” (Laura McGann, California Premiere)
“The March on Rome” (Mark Cousins, California Premiere)
“Mariupolis 2” (Manta Kvedaravičius, Bay Area Premiere)
“Milisuthando” (Milisuthando Bongela, California Premiere)
“My Name is Alfred Hitchcock” (Mark Cousins, Bay Area Premiere)
“Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” (Anna Hints, California Premiere)

Family Workshop

“Mushka” (Andreas Deja, World Premiere)

Mid-Lengths

“1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed” (W. Kamau Bell, California Premiere)
“Creating Things” (Bryan Simpson, California Premiere)
“Southern Afternoon” (Tian Lan, North American Premiere)

“What These Walls Won’t Hold” (Adamu Chan, World Premiere)
“Sol in the Garden” (Emily Cohen Ibañez and Débora Souza Silva, World Premiere)
“How We Get Free” (Geeta Gandbhir, California Premiere)

“The Kidnapping of the Bride” (Sophia Mocorrea, California Premiere)
“Balikbayan” (Rebecca Rajadnya, California Premiere)
“No More Longing” (Connor Lee O’Keefe, World Premiere)

Shorts

Shorts 1: Generations
“Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma)” (Sean Wang, California Premiere)
“Carrion” (Yvonne Zhang, California Premiere)
“Mancha” (Nicole Mejia, California Premiere)
“Still Waters” (Aurora Brachman, California Premiere)
“The melting creatures (Las criaturas que se derriten bajo el sol)” (Diego Céspedes, California Premiere)
“Now I’m in the Kitchen” (Yana Pan, US Premiere)
“Rest Stop” (Crystal Kayiza, California Premiere)

Shorts 2: Traditions
“By Water” (Iyabo Kwayana, Bay Area Premiere)
“Sèt Lam” (Vincent Fontano, California Premiere)
“After We’re Gone” (Ima Iduozee, California Premiere)
“I Am Home” (Kymon Greyhorse, Bay Area Premiere)
“Addresses (Direcciones)” (Maria Luisa Santos and Carlo Nasisse, Bay Area Premiere)
“Cloistered” (Catherine Finsness, World Premiere)
“Birdsong” (Omi Zola Gupta and Sparsh Ahuja, California Premiere)

Shorts 3: The Body
“Persona” (Moon Su-jin)
“How to Carry Water” (Sasha Wortzel, North America Premiere)
“And Then I Was Here” (Alex Stergiou, California Premiere)
“Regard Silence (Mira el silencio)” (Santiago Zermeño, North America Premiere)

Shorts 4: Family Films
“New Moon” (Jeff Le Bars and Jérémie Balais)
“Pete” (Bret Parker)
“The Wind and the Trees” (Todd Stewart, California Premiere)
“Kintsugi” (Cleto Acosta-McKillop, California Premiere)
“El Moño” (Luis Fernando Puente and Lizde Arias, Bay Area Premiere)
“Swing to the Moon” (Marie Bordessoule, Chloé Lauzu, Adriana Bouissié, Vincent Levrero, Nadine De Boer, Solenne
Moreau, and Elisa Drique)
“With a Wool Ball (Con un Ovillo de Lana)” (Belén Ricardes, California Premiere)
“Dipsas Speaks” (Craig Daniel Leon)
“Labor of Love” (Richard O’ Connor)
“Code Rose” (Taye Cimon, Pierre Coëz, Julie Groux, Sandra Leydier, Manuarii Morel, and Romain Seisson, California Premiere)

Shorts 5: Youth Works
“Rational Functions” (Esmé Nix, Bay Area Premiere)
“Our Days in Dongshi” (Hsiang-Yu Li, Tse-Ling Huang, Po-Wen Yen, and Hsin-Yi Hung, California Premiere)
“The Sound” (Cole Willis, California Premiere)
“My Sisters in the Stars: The Story of Lee Yong-soo” (Ian Kim, Bay Area Premiere)
“Growing up with Memory Loss | A Gift for My 16th Birthday” (Keertana Sreekumar, Bay Area Premiere)
“Parental Orbit” (Dara Carneol, California Premiere)
“Hop Heel Drop” (Sania Bhatia)
“An Island in the Middle of the Sea” (Alberto Montull)
“American Ball Game” (Teja Mettu and Krish Mysoor, World Premiere)
“Shopworn” (Athena Cheris, California Premiere)
“The External-Internal Monologue of an Interdependent Insomniac” (Julian Felix Aaronson, California Premiere)

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