Paving the Way for SBIFF at 40

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival Unveils Its 40th Edition and Its Official Poster

Poster artist Mary Heebner with her work at the press conference for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

By Tue Jan 21, 2025 | 12:58pm

Starting on Tuesday, February 4, and running for 12 days and nights, the much-anticipated Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) will take center stage on Santa Barbara’s cultural calendar. On the festival’s activity map this year, changing up a years-long routine, are the familiar starry tribute evenings at the Arlington Theatre and a vast program of screenings in the newly acquired multi-screen SBIFF Film Center (former site of the Fiesta 5) and new festival-timed use of the festival’s Riviera Theatre, the state-of-the-art arthouse with a view, far from the downtown thrum.

Executive Director Roger Durling at the press conference for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

As a preliminary window on the grand 40th annual event, the ceremonial unveiling of plans — and this year’s official poster image — settled into the humbler but fitting venue of the prominent Sullivan Goss Gallery last week, when Executive Director Roger Durling led a gathering of press and other parties through a brief overview of what’s to come. The gallery setting was ideal, as the 2025 poster, a mythologically tinged and pink-hued image by well-established artist Mary Heebner, was doubly unveiled — both the poster form and its original collage piece currently hung on the gallery wall.

The press conference was postponed for a few days, in lieu of the unfolding tragedy of the Los Angeles wildfires, but a sizable group convened on Friday morning, including Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse.

As an introduction, Durling addressed the weighty subject on the collective mind, concerning the ongoing fire debacle down south. “As you can imagine,” he noted, “we’ve debated whether we should postpone the film festival. Should we change the dates? Should we cancel that work there? The answer was no. Art, for me, has always been a place of solace has always inspired me, in the darkest moments in life. Art has always been a beacon.”

Numbers speak clearly about the substantive dimensions of the increasingly important festival, founded by original director Phyllis de Picciotto and now having reached age 40. The vast and varied film program, led by programming director/film critic Claudia Puig for the fourth year, includes 32 world premieres, 74 U.S. premieres, films from 60 countries, and with 52 percent of them directed by women. Also in the mix are daily free films at the Arlington, family programs, panel discussions and a list of actor tributes to the likes of, among others, Timothée Chalamet,  Angelina Jolie, Ralph Fiennes, Zoe Saldaña, Kieran Culkin, Harris Dickinson, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Mikey Madison, Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce, and Colman Domingo.

A young photographer at the press conference for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

This year’s opening film, on February 4, is the U.S. Premiere of French director Laura Piani’s Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (Jane Austen a gâché ma vie). The French connection continues with the closing film, on February 15, with another  U.S. premiere, of Guillame Senez’s A Missing Part (Une part manquante).

Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Durling was especially proud of having negotiated the acquisition of the SBIFF Film Center, where the meat-and-potatoes film screenings will unfold over 12 days, moving away from the former festival screening home of the Metro Four theaters, owned by Metropolitan Theaters.

“It’s the first time that the film festival has a hub and a marquee,” Durling said. “We have a venue, and we don’t have to rent one out. After the festival ends, we will go through the remodel of the Film Center.”

Rowse, who was involved in the festival’s transforming the downtown five-plex last year, pointed to positive signs and changes in Santa Barbara’s sagging downtown quadrant, noting that “energy is starting to happen and the film festival’s a big part of it. When the film festival comes in this time of year, it really is an injection of vitality, energy and financial well-being.”

Heebner’s poster artwork is a rare instance of a festival image not directly related to cinema, at least on the surface. As the artist commented, the central figure is based on her collage piece, centered by an image of a terracotta figure from predynastic Egyptian art (3650 BCE) called “Bird Woman.” Heebner explained that “she’s raising her hands in celebration, and the protean pink is for the resurrection and from revitalization. Seemed a perfect way to celebrate women in the film industry, and also in the sense of regeneration, and she hovers above a California osprey, which is not endangered but in a critical status.”

The idea of regeneration and building on community seems particularly relevant in the wake of the L.A. fires, and the promise of SBIFF’s healthy state of affairs at 40. As Durling said, “In particular, the role of film festivals is about creating community, about bringing people together, as a conduit or conversation and as a place to deal with emotions. We’re not alone during the film festival. The process is to bring people together, not just to entertain and to distract, but to actually create community. At a time like this, our role has even strengthened.”

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will run February 4 to 15. See sbiff.org.

SBIFF Managing Director Sean Pratt | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
John Palminteri | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
SBIFF Managing Director Sean Pratt | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Journalists and others at the SBIFF press conference | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Journalists and others at the SBIFF press conference | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Benjamin Bhutani Goedert, development director at SBIFF | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Poster artist Mary Heebner before revealing her work at the press conference for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Poster artist Mary Heebner with her work at the press conference for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Executive Director Roger Durling at the press conference for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Journalist Josef Woodard at Sullivan Goss at the press conference for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
Executive Director Roger Durling at the press conference for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom
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