Sonoma gears up for 21st annual film fest

More than 100 films and a handful of high profile celebs are headed to town next weekend.|

SIFF passes and tickets

The full Sonoma International Film Festival program is online at sonomafilmfest.org/film-festival-guide.html. SIFF Cinema Passes are $280 and Soiree passes (which have extended VIP area and evening party access) are $850. A four-film punch card is available for $35. For information about tickets, festival passes, prices and benefits, visit sonomafilmfest.org.

The 21st Annual Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF) program is hot off the presses and the lineup of entries includes several buzzed-about Hollywood flicks, as well as standout films from Europe, South America and Asia. In total, 110 films and 200 filmmakers from 18 countries, will be showcased from Wednesday, March 21 to Sunday, March 25.

“We have an exceptional program with a lineup of amazingly talented judges, stunning filmmakers from around the world, and the very best food and wine that Sonoma has to offer,” says festival director Kevin McNeely. “We’ve received an outpouring of support from filmmakers, distributors and actors as the region recovers from the devastating fires this last year and we have dedicated our 21st festival to the emergency first responders.”

The festival will feature seven screening venues each showing five films daily. Headlining the festival are two opening-night films and one closing-night film.

First up on Wednesday night is “Borg Vs. McEnroe,” the story of the legendary 1980 Wimbledon match between Björn Borg and John McEnroe from director Janus Metz, as well as the French film, “Back to Burgundy,” about three siblings reuniting to save their family winery, from director Cédric Klapisch. The closing-night film is “Chef,” the Indian remake of the 2014 American film, from director Raja Krishna Menon.

The judges for this year’s festival include director and actor Karen Allen (“Animal House,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark”); actor and director Ed Begley Jr. (“St. Elsewhere” and “Arrested Development”; Tom Davia, CEO and founder of Cinemavin; Scott Feingurg, The Hollywood Reporter’s awards columnist; Grant Gullickson, senior vice president at Amblin Partners; JD Heyman of People; John Kochman, executive vice president of Cohen Media Group; and agent Maren Olson.

On Saturday morning, SIFF will host a panel, “Reversing Gender Inequality by 2020,” with Allen, casting director Pamela Guest, Heyman, Ingrid Rudefors (former head of the Stockholm Film Commission), and Anna Serner, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute. The discussion is inspired by the 50/50x2020 movement to create gender-balanced leadership in all organizations by 2020.

Most notable this year are the sheer number of culinary films and events celebrating Sonoma film, food and wine. There are almost a dozen food or wine-crentric films and SIFF’s Opening Night Gala on the backlot, Wednesday, March 21, will be catered by OSO, Burgers & Vine, Girl & the Fig, Della Santina, Maya, EDK, Umbria and the Swiss Hotel; with apertifs by Gloria Ferrer, Breathless, Arrowood, Petroni, Imagery, Adastra, Cochon Wines and Sonoma Loeb.

During the gala, San Francisco and Silicon Valley magazines will host the inaugural SIFF Wine Country Awards featuring the best wines from the San Francisco Bay Area region with tastings available from all of the competing wines.

For the first time this year, the festival has partnered with chef Michael Howell, co-founder of the Devour Film & Food Festival, to host a special “Chefs & Shorts Culinary Extravaganza” on Thursday night. Five chefs will be serving five courses of spectacular dishes as the audience watches the short films that inspired each dish.

On Friday and Saturday nights, the backlot will be decorated with art from local Bay Area artists and tasting stations will feature food-and-wine chef pairings from chef Brian Jones of St. Francis Winery, chef Alejandro Garcia of Rodney Strong Vineyards and chef Mac of Petroni Vineyards. The “Rat Pack” theme of the Friday night party is “Frank and Ava.”

Saturday night’s party will celebrate the SIFF film and wine awards.

And there will be not one but two Sonomawood signs seen around town this year thanks to Creekside High School teacher Walt Williams and his students.

The signs will go up on the Plaza horseshoe and back by SIFF Village behind Veterans Memorial Building next Wednesday, alerting all that the movies have come to town.

SIFF passes and tickets

The full Sonoma International Film Festival program is online at sonomafilmfest.org/film-festival-guide.html. SIFF Cinema Passes are $280 and Soiree passes (which have extended VIP area and evening party access) are $850. A four-film punch card is available for $35. For information about tickets, festival passes, prices and benefits, visit sonomafilmfest.org.

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