Oh Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey! Toni Basil's song played in my head all day and for good reason, I was planning on spending the night with Mickey Rourke. Me and about 2,500 other people.Roger Durling, Executive Director of The Santa Barbara International Film Festival was a frontrunner in recognizing the resurrected career of Mickey-where’ve-you-been-Rourke and swooped in to honor him for his heartbreaking performance in The Wrestler...
The producers panel aptly named “Movers and Shakers,” included Charles Roven-Dark Knight, Christian Colson-Slumdog Millionaire, Dan Jinks-Milk, Jim Morris-Wall-E, Neda Armian-Rachel Getting Married were asked questions by Los Angeles Times writer Pat Goldstein that pried open Pandora’s industry box and let fly what it takes to bring a film from concept to fruition. First question went to Slumdog’s Christian Colson about the recent criticism regarding the youngest lead actors of the ...
On Friday night, another mob scene waited outside the Arlington for their honoree and ultimately filled the house. Every year the Santa Barbara International Film Festival presents a Director In Residence and this year the versatile David Fincher opened up at the Q & A, dishing the 411 on his film career and the industry in general. Jake Gyllenhaal and Taraji P. Henson were also on hand making additional contributions as per their experience working with Finch with Pete Hammond on deck ...
Last night’s red carpet event could have been something written in a movie. Our Modern Master had a local driver drop him off at the award ceremony. With fans filling the streets and ticket holders wrapped around the block, red carpet access was limited to say the least. So limited in fact, that when I arrived there was nary a sliver of space to even sneak through, which made Mr. Eastwood’s entrance all the more incredible. As the festival powers-that-be, press and fans waited ...
For decades Clint Eastwood has been captivating macho men, swooning weak kneed women and setting box office records with his relentless talent as an actor, director, producer and composer. As an elder statesman of filmmaking, Eastwood’s cool, one-take / two-takes-top directing style is only one ingredient making his films unique, personally composed soundtracks is the other. As a musician and jazz aficionado, Eastwood lays down haunting melodies that seep into the marrow of yo...
An impromptu conversation that took place in the Lobero Theater green room was the direct result of an accidental drop off of both Melissa Leo and Rosemarie DeWitt at a red carpet event, albeit not for the Virtuosos Awards, but for the surf film Waveriders.
“Looking for something hot to do in Santa Barbara? Check out the new film Surfer Dude … no wait, Super Dude, yeah, that’s funnier. Okay, Super Dude it is … I saw lights, I saw a red carpet … did I look at th...
As a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching local culture and raising consciousness of film as an art form, SBIFF, now in its 19th year, presents quality American Independent, Spanish and Latin American, European, World and Documentary cinema.
This was one of those perfect mornings where I whiled away the hours just watching films. Starting with the Bestor Cram documentary Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison, I found this to be a real throw back to a time in Cash’s life that’s not really been explored. In depth interviews with family members, band members and former Folsom Prison inmates, offer insight to Johnny’s writing process and expose it and his songs with more intimacy than we’ve seen before on film. Next up, was ...
After taking a breath and viewing only movies for two days, the energy here in Santa Barbara is once again building with anticipation for two spectacular events planned for this evening. At 7:30 tonight the Arlington Theater screens The Road To Fallujah, directed by Mark Manning, this film documents the controversial war in Iraq. While most films that focus on conflict involving the U.S. Military usually draw opinion and perspective solely from Americans, Fallujah provides an outlet f...
If you don’t know Danny Boyle or his films by now, you don’t know what you’re missing. Today is a unique day here in the SB Festival Hood with a complete Retrospective of the incredible work of filmmaker Danny Boyle, including Millions, Sunshine, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and the newly acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire. This morning the Metro 4 screened Millions, with the aforementioned films to follow, check www.sbiff.org for schedule times. Saturated in brilliant color, spec...
Santa Barbara Sunday
The opening weekend successfully kicked off with incredible films and celebrity tributes and today was no exception. What ticks me off is having so many great films and not enough hours in the day to see everything. By the time I got my blog posted, half the day was shot and so I shoe-leather-expressed it up to the Victoria Hall to check out one of this year’s nominees for The Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award for Documentary Film entitle...
Having just attended the most historic event of a lifetime, the 56th Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, I can think of no better way to segue back into community than by attending The 24th Santa Barbara International Film Festival.My personal love affair with this festival started nine years ago and each year is no less exciting than the previous year or will be as exciting as the next. With no shortage of global representation in film offered, my first inte...
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is proud to honor Penélope Cruz with the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 24th edition of the Fest, which runs January 22-February 1, 2009, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling.
Cruz, who returned to theaters this summer with two powerful and diverse back-to-back performances in "Elegy" opposite Sir Ben Kingsley and Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," opposite Javi...
Man of Two Havanas Trailer
On Friday night, Tommy Lee Jones was in town to accept the American Riviera Award. Andy Davis, who directed Jones in “The Fugitive,” was here to present. In addition to snagging interviews with each, we also managed to get a behind the scenes peak at went went on from the stage of the Arlington Theater.
“I think this is the most important role of my life,” Angelina Jolie remarked upon playing Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart. Pearl is the famous widow of fellow Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan. Pearl’s heart is mighty indeed, as the clips shown in Jolie’s conversation with film critic Pete Hammond reveal. She graciously accepted the award presented by renowned actor and director Clint Eastwood. The two praised each other...
Prolific actor Tommy Lee Jones can't name his favorite film role. “I don't think that way,” he answered while he strolled down the evening's red carpet with a bit of a grin. He's a professional, he states, working at whatever role he finds himself in. During the discussion and movie clip viewing, Jones was intense. He leaned forward to raptly watch the film clips and sat on the edge of his seat to dicuss reading every...
Chance and Happenstance, the World Premiere of the Spanish Film 3:19 by Felicia TomaskoOn a whim, we walked into one of the screenings of the world premiere of 3:19. The danger is that this story could be depressing. After all, it takes its title from the Genesis passage ending “for dust you are and to dust you will return.” One 26-year-old member of a trio of friends is dying of terminal cancer. While this story of friendship, love and loss could conceivably be dark and mournful, director...
Deisler Kim 
