Morgan M. Hurley | Editor 

San Diego Film Fest returns for year 13

For the 13th year in a row, the San Diego Film Festival will return to the streets of Downtown San Diego for its showcase of U.S. and international independent films.

The five-day festival, which runs from Sept. 24 – 28, is produced by the San Diego Film Foundation and will screen films at both the Reading Gaslamp 15 Cinemas located at 701 Fifth Ave., as well as the ArcLight Cinemas at 4425 La Jolla Village Dr. in University Town Center.

“The San Diego Film Festival will celebrate the year’s best independent cinema from emerging and established filmmakers showcasing their latest works to some of Hollywood’s most buzz-worthy award season releases,” said Tonya Mantooth, vice president and director of programming, in a press release. “We’ve curated a wide selection of films that we hope movie lovers of all genres will enjoy.”

Last year’s attendance topped 15,000, and with 89 total films this year, organizers expect to exceed that number in 2014. Three types of films are curated: 25 narrative (traditional feature length films of all genres), 14 documentaries and 50 shorts. Within those three categories there are “tracks” — such as Native American, animation, foreign film, LGBT, etc. — and the short films there are divided further into nine specific track themes.

As is the case every year, the festival will open with what Mantooth calls “Gala Studio Films,” new releases from the big studios that are on their tour of the film festival circuit.

This year’s opening film is “Wild,” starring Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, directed by Jean-Marc Vallee. It will screen at the Reading 15 in Gaslamp at 7 p.m. on Sept. 24.

The “closing” gala film, which will screen at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at Reading Cinemas, will be “You’re Not You,” with Hillary Swank and Josh Duhamel, directed by George C. Wolfe. Though not the last night of the festival, it is considered the final of the larger studio films. Rumor has it that Duhamel will attend the screening.

Last year the festival organizers chose Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” to open the festival, a film that was later nominated for nine Academy Awards and went on to win three, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The festival received over 1,500 submissions this year. The process to pare that number down to the final 89 is an arduous but important one, Mantooth said.

“The system that we’ve refined over the last two years, we bring in screeners that we hand pick,” she said. “All the films are seen two to three times and they are all rated. As they are rated they either move up to the next level or they fall away. They continue to pyramid up.

“We’ve got an amazing group of screeners,” she continued. “We read their reviews, we see how they’ve rated them and that will tell us whether it needs to move up, maybe it needs to go to two other screeners, maybe its too conflicting. It’s a process just to move [the films] through, but we just feel like every filmmaker really deserves to have multiple pairs of eyes to see it. Not every film is for everybody.”

There will be plenty of Q & A’s with the filmmakers and actors, and attendees will have the option to take in a series of industry panels — one for studio executives, a critic’s panel and an actor’s panel — that Mantooth said will allow for lots of interaction.

Mantooth mentioned several films that rose to the top of her favorites during the selection process, and she hopes they people will see them.

“Little Accidents,” directed by Sara Colangelo and starring Elizabeth Banks and Josh Lucas is one of those films.

“It takes place in a small town, and there’s a coal mining accident and the disappearance of a teenage boy, and the whole story unravels,” she said. “The teen is a brilliant actor.”

Mantooth described the Romanian film “A Love Story, Lindefield,” as “graceful and so elegant; it touched me, and I want everyone to see it.”

Jason Priestly, best known from his days as part of the “90210” cast, will have his directing debut at the festival in “Cas & Dylan,” which stars Richard Dreyfuss.

San Diegans will want to see “OUT in the Lineup,” an Australian-made documentary about the taboo of homosexuality in the surfing world. Much of the film was shot in San Diego and there are a number of locals with large roles.

A timely documentary is “The Hornet’s Nest,” filmed by David Salzberg and Christian Tureaud. Mantooth said it is about a career war journalist who is imbedded in Afghanistan.

“You get to see what they go through, the rollercoaster of emotions,” she said. “It’s commendable that he is risking his life every day as a journalist.”

In between all the films there will be plenty of time for socializing and elbow rubbing. The Thursday evening Filmmaker’s Tribute will again be held at La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Arts – but the honoree is yet to be announced. Former tributes went to Judd Apatow and Gus Van Sant.

The opening party for the festival will be held at Andaz Rooftop.

The juried Filmmaker Awards will be held Saturday night at the US Grant Hotel.

“Hopefully every year we’re trying to improve the system, we’re trying to raise the level of independent films, bring more filmmakers here for the Q&A,” Mantooth said. “It’s really about trying to give the highest quality and the broadest reach of independent film line up that we can.”

For the entire lineup and schedule of the San Diego Film Festival, visit sdff.org.

—Morgan M. Hurley puede ser contactado en [email protected].