Your Extremely Bay Area Guide to the 2024 SFFILM Festival

The time has come to excitedly pore over the just-announced program for the 67th San Francisco International Film Festival, taking place April 24–28 at six San Francisco venues and its traditional East Bay outpost, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

But first, some changes. You may have clocked the shortened time frame? This year’s five-day festival is less than half the length of last year’s 11-day fest, but the programming remains just as robust, with 82 films screening in total.

Anne Lai, SFFILM’s executive director, said Wednesday morning that the new schedule is an experiment in the festival feel and experience. With a more densely packed program, festival goers might bump into each other more often, or take advantage of a neighborhood’s charms without rushing across the width of the city.

On that front, the 2024 festival is centered in the Marina and Presidio, at the Premier Theater, Marina Theatre, Walt Disney Family Museum and Vogue Theatre, with special presentations at Dolby Cinema, SFMOMA and Fort Mason’s Gallery 308. In an “Encore Days” presentation, the Roxie Theater will screen a selection of titles curated from the full festival May 2–4, including audience award winners.

Now on to the good stuff: a Fremont-made feature, a celebration of Joan Chen, the future of local filmmaking, and so much more! Here’s your guide to five extremely Bay Area screenings to seek out when festival tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, March 29 at 10 a.m.

‘Dìdi (弟弟)’

April 24, 7:00 p.m. at Premier Theater
April 24, 8 p.m. at Marina Theatre

Fremont-born Sean Wang is on a roll. Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó, his charming portrait of his grandmothers, was nominated for best documentary short at the Academy Awards, and Dìdi (弟弟), his feature debut, won two audience awards at Sundance. Now, it’s gracing SFFILM’s opening night.

Filmed in Fremont and starring mostly first-time actors from the Bay Area, the semi-autobiographical story is set in 2008 (picture AIM chats and MySpace) and follows a 13-year-old Taiwanese American in the awkward and earnest months leading up to freshman year.

As a bonus, Wang will take the stage on April 25 at the SFFILM Festival Lounge to talk about filmmaking in the Bay Area.

‘Seeking Mavis Beacon’

April 26, 7:00 p.m. at BAMPFA
April 27, 4 p.m. at Premier Theatre

Yes, that Mavis Beacon. She of the smiling computer software packaging, who taught typing skills to youngsters of a very particular (*cough, millennial*) generation. Director Jazmin Renée Jones picks up the question of “What ever happened to Mavis Beacon?” in this documentary feature, using novel visual approaches in a “spellbinding cyberspace adventure” that looks at issues of representation, feminism and digital personas while celebrating the beauty of glitch art.

A Tribute to Joan Chen + ‘Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl’

April 28, 1 p.m. at Premier Theater

San Francisco legend Joan Chen is more than worthy of a tribute night. The actor, screenwriter, producer and director has double-billing at this year’s festival, playing the role of a mother in Dìdi (弟弟) (which she also executive produced), and getting her flowers alongside a rare 35mm print of her debut directorial feature, 1998’s Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl. This coming-of-age melodrama, set at the end of the Cultural Revolution, centers on a young girl left in a bleak Tibetan landscape to learn horse breeding. It was described by Jason Sanders in the 1998 SFFILM program as “austere, uncluttered … Xiu Xiu achieves a purity of vision not found in most contemporary cinema.”

‘Counted Out’

April 28, 5:00 p.m. at Marina Theatre

Bay Area filmmaker Vicki Abeles, once a Wall Street lawyer, made her documentary directing debut with 2010’s Race to Nowhere, about students pushed to their limits by the pressure to achieve academically. Now, she’s turned her lens toward the power of math to determine a child’s future in our increasingly algorithm- and data-driven economy. According to SFFILM, Counted Out debunks the idea of “math people” and shows what can happen for students when the subject becomes more inclusive.

‘Shorts 3: Lineages of Love’

April 28, 1:30 p.m. at Marina Theatre

We’ve got two Bay Area titles in this shorts program, which centers stories about love bringing people (and animals!) together even when the powers that be would seek to keep them apart. María Luisa Santos’ a film is a goodbye that never ends is about a woman waiting for a U.S. visa who befriends a dog named Turbo. And San Francisco-based documentary filmmaker Darian Woehr’s We Exist in Memory centers on conversations between a displaced grandmother and grandchild. Both Santos and Woehr are expected to attend the screening in person.

‘Shorts 6: Family Films’

April 27 at 10 a.m. at Marina Theatre

Note the family-friendly early start time of this program! The program includes a new Pixar short — Searit Kahsay Huluf’s Self, featuring a blend of stop-motion and computer-generated animation. And San Francisco-based Japanese animator Daisuke ‘Dice’ Tsutsumi has Bottle George, a sensitive depiction of alcoholism in a family. Both directors are expected to attend the screening in person.

‘Shorts 6: Youth Works’

April 28, 11 a.m. at Marina Theatre

Last but absolutely not least, catch this shorts program for a peek at the future of Bay Area filmmaking. Locals Kayen Manovil (FATALE), Kaiya Jordan (like a stone or flower) and Kea Morshed (Majid, the Muslim Rapper) bring their attention to teenage femininity, Asian American artists and an up-and-coming Oakland rapper, respectively. All three directors are expected to attend the screening.