Santa Barbara Film Fest Set for In-Person Celebration to Welcome Global Film Community
variety.comKathy A. McDonald One of California’s leading film festivals returns with a full slate of live screenings, industry panels and starry tributes, offering movie lovers a ray of sunshine in the gloom of COVID.
The Santa Barbara Intl. Film Festival (SBIFF) unspools March 2-12, for its 37th year via an in-person program. Although the fest adapted in 2021 to COVID health safety protocols and hosted drive-in screenings and virtual Q&A sessions, “This year will be closer to way things used to be,” promises executive director Roger Durling, who’s marking 20 years as the prestige West Coast fest’s executive director.In all, the 200-film festival will host 95 U.S.
premieres (62 features and 33 shorts) and 48 world premieres, including 21 feature films. “Being back in person, being at the festival, congregating and sharing opinions, it’s something we desperately missed,” says Durling of the SBIFF’s reawakening.
Festgoers will notice a major change to the festival’s downtown Santa Barbara location: State Street, the main thoroughfare and home to the festival’s first-run theater venues, is car-free and pedestrian-only. “It adds to the festive atmosphere,” says Durling, who notes in a shift from the past, the festival will have two outdoor lounges for receptions and daily filmmaker events.Veteran film critic and festival programmer Claudia Puig led SBIFF’s programming team for the 2022 edition. “I have left her to drive the car this year (pun intended),” says Durling.
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