"A River Changes Course," "The Kill Team" Win Top Documentary Film Awards at San Francisco International Film Festival

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The 56th San Francisco International Film Festival, awarded A River Changes Course, by Kalyanee Mam, the Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature at the 2013 festival. Among the many reasons, the festival jury said "This film stood out as an entity in terms of subject matter, beauty of filmmaking, elegance of expression, sensitivity, and representation of the people observed as they observe their own situation." Recognizing local filmmakers, The Kill Team directed by Dan Krauss was the Bay Area Documentary Feature. The jury noted: "We chose this film due to the importance of its subject matter and its moral complexity."

Other winners include:

San Francisco International Film Festival to Honor Harrison Ford

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Harrison Ford will be honored with the 2013 Peter J. Owens Award for excellence in acting at the upcoming 56th San Francisco International Film Festival to take place April 25 - May 9, 2013. The award will be presented to Ford at San Francisco Film Society Awards Night, Tuesday, May 7. Ford will also be honored at An Afternoon with Harrison Ford at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, on Tuesday May 7. A screening of a film featuring one of his iconic performances will follow an onstage interview and a selection of clips from his impressive career.

San Francisco International Film Festival to Honor Oscar Winning Screenwriter Eric Roth

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Academy Award winning screenwriter (Forrest Gump) Eric Roth will receive the 2013 Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival running April 25 - May 9, 2013. 

Inventor Ray Dolby to be Honored at 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival

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Ray Dolby, inventor of numerous recording technologies and founder of local industry powerhouse Dolby Laboratories, will be honored with the inaugural George Gund III Award at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 25 - May 9, 2013). The George Gund III Award, given in tribute to the longstanding Film Society chairman of the board who passed away earlier this year, honors a worthy member of the filmmaking community for their outstanding and unique contributions to the art of cinema.

2013 San Francisco International Film Festival Announces Big Nights Opening, Centerpiece and Closing Night Films

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The 56th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 25 - May 9) announced the films in its Big Nights series. Things kick off with the Opening Night presentation of returning Bay Area duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel's drama What Maisie Knew (USA 2012) starring Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan and Alexander Skarsgård. The celebration continues on May 4 with the Centerpiece screening of Jacob Kornbluth's Inequality For All (USA 2013), featuring local economist Robert Reich. The festival then comes to a close with Richard Linklater's (Bernie, SFIFF 2012) Before Midnight (USA 2013), the third film in the director's romantic trilogy starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. 

Steven Soderbergh to Deliver State of Cinema Address at 2013 San Francisco International Film Festival, May Address Retirement Rumors

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Director Steven Soderbergh, described as "one of the world's most celebrated figures in contemporary filmmaking," will deliver the tenth annual State of Cinema Address at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 25 - May 9, 2013). Soderbergh, reportedly recently announced his intention to retire from filmmaking, a decision which should provide a compelling framework for this live address. 

Previous State of Cinema speakers have been author Jonathan Lethem, film producer Christine Vachon, film editor Walter Murch, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, Wired publisher Kevin Kelly, actress Tilda Swinton, writer/director Brad Bird, cultural commentator B. Ruby Rich and longtime editor of the influential French film magazine Positif Michel Ciment. 

San Francisco International Film Festival Announces Lienup of Feature Films to Compete at 2013 Festival

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The 56th San Francisco International Film Festival scheduled to run, April 25 - May 9, 2013, today announced the films in competition for the New Directors Prize and the Golden Gate Award nominees for documentary feature.

Ten films will compete for the New Directors Prize of $15,000, which will be given to a narrative first feature that exhibits a unique artistic sensibility and deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible. Twelve documentary films will compete for the Golden Gate Award - the GGA documentary feature winner will receive $20,000 and the Bay Area documentary feature winner will receive $15,000. The winners will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards, Wednesday, May 8.

Deadlines Approaching for Filmmaker Entries to 56th San Francisco International Film Festival

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The San Francisco Film Society is now accepting submissions for the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival, recognized throughout the world as an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country's most beautiful cities. Works in all genres, forms and lengths are considered. The final deadline for short films Monday December 3, and the final deadline for features Monday December 10.

HOW TO ENTER  Entry form and information: sffs.org

San Francisco International Film Festival Announces 2013 Dates

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The San Francisco Film Society announced the dates for the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival scheduled for April 25 - May 9, 2013. The festival is now also accepting submissions from filmmakers.

San Francisco International Film Festival to honor Director Benh Zeitlin

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Benh Zeitlin, director of "the highly imaginative and much acclaimed independent narrative feature" Beasts of the Southern Wild, will be the recipient of the inaugural Graham Leggat Award at the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 19 - May 3).

Zeitlin is a director, animator, composer and a founding member of Court 13. He lives in New Orleans where dogs, cats, ducks, chickens and a 350-pound swine run wild in his home. Director of award-winning shorts Egg, Origins of Electricity, I Get Wet and Glory at Sea, he was named by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film." Zeitlin participated in Sundance Labs and won the NHK International Filmmakers Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival with his film Beasts of the Southern Wild, and in 2010 and 2011 he was awarded SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants for postproduction.

Beasts of the Southern Wild won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2012 and will be released June 27 by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film centers upon a forgotten but defiant bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee where a six-year-old girl exists on the brink of orphanhood. Buoyed by her childish optimism and extraordinary imagination, she believes that the natural world is in balance with the universe until a fierce storm changes her reality. Desperate to repair the structure of her world in order to save her ailing father and sinking home, this tiny hero must learn to survive unstoppable catastrophes of epic proportions.

Beasts of the Southern Wild will make its international debut next month at the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.