The U.S. Premiere of Thomas Napper’s Widow Clicquot starring Haley Bennett will kick off the 27th annual Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF) taking place March 20-24, 2024, and featuring 43 narrative features, 16 documentary features, along with 48 short films representing more than 25 countries.
Widow Clicquot is based on the true story of the “Grande Dame of Champagne,” otherwise known as Veuve Clicquot (Haley Bennett), who against all odds advanced her late husband’s techniques to create the recipe for modern-day champagne.
The World Premiere of Extremely Unique Dynamic directed by Harrison Xu, Ivan Leung, and Katherine Dudas is the the Gay-La Spotlight Film, with a party to follow hosted by actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and musician John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch).
Other headliner films include Ethan Hawke’s Cstarring Maya Hawke will screen as The Centerpiece Film, and the Closing Night Film is Luc Besson’s Dogman starring Caleb Landry Jones.
“Building off last year’s festival, the highest attended in the history of SIFF, we are excited to welcome veteran actor Beau Bridges, and provide a showcase for premieres and extraordinary films from notable filmmakers and talent,” said Carl Spence, SIFF Artistic Director. “The Sonoma International Film Festival exemplifies why film festivals are essential to introduce appreciative audiences to the best and brightest from around the world. By creating unique, in-person experiences–through our films, parties, special events, and community initiatives–we bring people together; we ask them to look closer.”
The festival will host a Closing Night Special Presentation of Pablo Berger´s Academy Award©-nominated film Robot Dreams at Sonoma Academy´s brand new state-of-the-art Community Performing Arts Center in Santa Rosa, supported in part by the KHR McNeely Family Fund, featuring Dolby Atmos and Meyer Sound with a 4k Christie Laser Projector.
The Bay Area premieres of star-studded films include Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters (Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley); Tony Goldwyn’s Ezra (Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, Robert De Niro, Vera Farmiga, Whoopi Goldberg, Rainn Wilson); Daina O. Pusic’s Tuesday (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Gilles Legardinier’s Mr. Blake At Your Service (John Malkovich, Fanny Ardant); Giorgio Diritti’s Lubo (Franz Rogowski); Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast (Léa Seydoux, George MacKay); Bob Byington’s Lousy Carter (David Krumholtz, Olivia Thirlby); and Stephen Soucy’s Merchant Ivory (Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Vanessa Redgrave, Hugh Grant), amongst others.
Award-winning actor Beau Bridges will be presented the SIFF Lifetime Achievement Award. As part of the tribute to the actor and his illustrious 40-year film and television career, Beau Bridges will participate in an on-stage conversation followed by a 35th Anniversary screening of The Fabulous Baker Boys.
Award-winning chef Susan Feniger will be presented with the Culinary Excellence Award at a special dinner and screening event featuring the Bay Area Premiere of director Liz Lachman’s Susan Feniger. Forked and a multi-course dinner curated by Feniger.
The five-day festival is curated by Artistic Director Carl Spence, along with senior programmers Amanda Salazar, and Ken Jacobson, and shorts programmer Oscar Arce Naranjo.
This year’s jury includes Jason Hellerstein (Sideshow), Rosa Bosch (film impresario), Julie Huntsinger (Telluride Film Festival), Tyler Coates (Hollywood Reporter), Thelma Adams, Matthew Carey (Deadline), Rob Williams (Participant Productions), Jannette Napoli (ITVS), and Tabitha Jackson.
HIGHLIGHTED FILMS:
Widow Clicquot is based on the true story of the “Grande Dame of Champagne,” otherwise known as Veuve Clicquot, who against all odds advanced her late husband’s techniques to create the recipe for modern-day champagne. A love story of sparkling wine and female determination! (United Kingdom/89min)
Ethan Hawke directs Maya Hawke (“Stranger Things”), Laura Linney, Steve Zahn, Alessandro Nivola, Vincent D’Onofrio, and others in Wildcat, a literary biopic about Southern Gothic writer Flannery O’Connor. By cleverly collaging excerpts from her short fiction, personal letters, and journals, he illuminates her brilliance piece by piece, bone by bone. (USA/108min)
Dogman is a high-octane action film by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) that tells the incredible story of Doug (Caleb Landry Jones), who escapes his traumatic childhood with a psychic connection to dogs, the safety of a drag cabaret troupe and the desire to combat injustice in the human world with his gang of loyal friends. (France/114min)
In this deliriously silly stoner comedy, Extremely Unique Dynamic, two friends decide to make a movie about making a movie that stars two friends making a movie. When cameras start rolling, secrets and half-truths about their friendship, crushes, sexuality, and every other imaginable insecurity come out. (USA/73min)
Susan Feniger. Forked is a verite documentary film following award-winning celebrity chef Susan Feniger on her first solo restaurant, her passionate struggle and quest to bring global street food under one roof in the form of a new Los Angeles restaurant: Street. Shot by her longtime filmmaker partner Liz Lachman, it’s a story about starting over and about not if one fails…but how. (USA/92min)
Robot Dreams is Pablo Berger´s music-filled story set in 80s NYC about the miracle of true friendship between a dog and a robot is highly entertaining for adults but suitable for all ages. Academy Award Nominee, Best Animated Feature. (Spain/96min).