San Antonio Film Festival Explained

SAFILM - San Antonio Film Festival
Number:145
Location:San Antonio, TX, U.S.
Language:English and international
Website:http://www.safilm.com/

The San Antonio Film Festival (SAFILM) was founded in 1994 by Adam Rocha as a video festival. It was later renamed the San Antonio Underground Film Festival and then finally the San Antonio Film Festival. It is now the biggest film festival in South Texas.

The non-profit festival is held each summer at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. Its mission is to serve as an accessible and inclusive platform for artists in the category of cinema and provide cinematic culture to a diverse audience.

The 22nd annual SAFILM was held July 25–31, 2016. 145 films were screened, including a local premiere of Hell or High Water, starring Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, and San Antonio actor Gil Birmingham, who attended the screening.[1] The festival awarded its 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award to Marcia Nasatir, a San Antonio native and the first woman to become Vice-President of Production at a major motion picture studio (United Artists) in 1974.

History

After his sophomore year at San Antonio College, Adam Rocha was invited to screen his short film at the San Diego Latino Film Festival in California. The experience inspired him to organize his own film festival. In 1994, the first festival screened a dozen films and awarded low-rider bikes to the best picture.

That year, Fredrick Weiss, the founder of the Texas Music Coalition, encouraged Rocha to develop the festival into a more substantial event. Renamed “The San Antonio Underground Film Festival,” the small festival expanded over the next five years into an event that attracted wider participation, larger audiences, and greater news coverage.

The non-profit's mission statement still drives the organization: “to offer an accessible and inclusive platform for artists and to provide cinematic culture to a diverse audience,” while maintaining a sociable, community-centered atmosphere. For several years, the historic Instituto Cultural de México partnered with the festival to provide a venue.

In 2006, the organization adopted its current name.

In 2016, the festival joined forces with the Historic Pearl to offer the first SAFILM – San Antonio Children's Film Festival at the Pearl Studio.

In 2023, the festival returned for its 29th year, screening over 200 films in six days at three locations.[2]

Throughout the year, SAFILM volunteers encourage students to appreciate the arts and become involved in filmmaking by visiting high schools to give guest lectures. The festival itself helps students begin film careers, highlights outstanding filmmakers with a variety of awards, exposes rising talent, and reminds the public of the value of art.

Since its inception, SAFILM has also showcased local visual artists. Artists Mig Kokinda, James Cobb, Robert Tatum and Rigoberto Luna are among those who have designed festival posters. The 2009 SAFILM poster created by Rigoberto Luna was selected as a finalist for the 39th annual Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards for Theatrical Print - Festival Posters.[3]

Awards

2023 SAFILM Award winners[4]

2022 SAFILM Award winners

The 2021 Official Feature Selections include:

Jason Biggs (American Pie, Orange Is The New Black) character takes a dramatic turn as a successful white documentary filmmaker dealing with fallout from his last film, which caught the murder of a Black teenager on tape.

Award-winning documentary chronicling eight survivors of a horrific battle during the Vietnam War.

Q&A with three veterans after the screening: Bill, Woody Davis, and Bubber Fishburne Trailer: https://vimeo.com/421978193

Richly filmed in black and white on the cityscape of Los Angeles, three young millennials meet by chance, form a whole-hearted ménage à trois and subtly challenge social norms surrounding love, sex and questioning.

Made on a micro-budget ($10k), this coming-of-age story stars Vic Trevino (Pee-wee's Playhouse, American Me) as James, a fugitive with an unknown past hiding in the woods, who meets Sam, a 12-year-old boy and his treehouse. Filmmakers in attendance.

A man's life turns into a living nightmare when he befriends an unstable rideshare driver who becomes obsessed with him. Filmmakers in attendance.

“We’re returning to our roots,” says SAFILM Founder and Executive Director Adam Rocha, who celebrated last year’s 26th annual festival virtually due to the pandemic. “It’s time to bring back the intimate screenings, safely, like we did in the old days, and celebrate our filmmakers who were cheated from showcasing their work to a REAL audience.”

2020 SAFILM-SAN ANTONIO FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS

2020 AUDIENCE CHOICE WINNERS

WINNER - Audience Award for Best Narrative FeatureThe Good Wolf, directed by Wilfred H ShipleySynopsis: Made on a micro-budget (10k). The Good Wolf is a coming of age story about a fugitive named James played by Vic Trevino (Pee-wee's Playhouse, American Me) with an unknown past hiding in the woods. There, he comes across a treehouse, where he meets Sam, a 12-year-old boy. The two become an unlikely pair of friends and spend the summer together surviving and learning from one another. As the summer comes to an end, police begin to get closer to finding James's whereabouts, leaving James with limited options for survival.

WINNER - Audience Award for Best Documentary FeatureMy Father's Brothers directed by Shawn KelleySynopsis: The filmmaker interviewed his father and seven survivors of a horrific battle in the jungles of Vietnam in 1966. Following ill-conceived orders, one of the company's platoons is blindsided by Vietcong forces. Separated from the other platoons and far from rescue, they suffer an intense battle that would forever shape each of their lives.

2019 SAFILM-SAN ANTONIO FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS

2018 SAFILM Award winners

2017 SAFILM Award winners

2016 SAFILM Award winners

2014 SAFILM Award winners

2012 SAFILM Award winners

2011 SAFILM Award winners

2010 SAFILM Award winners

2009 Award winners

2008 Award winners

2007 Award winners

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.expressnews.com/entertainment/movies-tv/article/Hollywood-takes-note-of-San-Antonio-Film-Festival-8403176.php Hollywood takes note of San Antonio Film Festival
  2. Web site: Hickok . Mason . 2023-07-20 . San Antonio Film Festival returns for 29th year; three screening locations offered . 2023-09-26 . KSAT . en.
  3. http://www.keyartaward.com/finalists_cat.php?id=16 2009 SAFILM Poster nominated for a Hollywood Reporter Key Art Award
  4. https://www.artscenesa.com/5762-2/