Sonoma Valley Film Fest: The show must go on — online, that is

While moviegoers are missing the typical theater-going experience, the Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF) is bringing the movies to comfortable couches everywhere with its SIFF 2.0 Virtual Film Festival.

From July 30 to August 2, the pandemic-adjusted festival will offer an online showcase of more than 110 features, documentaries and short films available for passholders to watch in their own living room through their electronic devices. The features hail from around the globe, as the catalog includes premieres from 26 different countries.

Originally scheduled for March, the annual film festival was forced to reschedule at the last minute due to the rapid escalation of COVID-19 cases. The plan originally was to simply hold the event later in the summer, but with California and Sonoma County experiencing a renewed surge in cases, organizers made the hard decision to convert the fest entirely to an online format.

“We were hopeful we could hold the festival in theaters, and it was looking better, but [COVID-19] cases went off the rails,” SIFF Program Director Steve Shor told the Index-Tribune earlier this week.

While the transition has been mostly seamless, there are a few changes to the annual “Sonomawood” experience. The festival will not present passholders with post-film conversations with directors or other special guests as in years past, as due to the virtual format focus will be placed solely on the films, themselves. Additionally, a couple films originally scheduled to be shown in the original March slate have been dropped due to distribution rights restrictions.

Festival Director Kevin McNeely is excited to proceed, regardless of the difficulties, explaining, “SIFF 2.0 has films for everyone with different interests. I know that everyone is getting tired of Netflix and Amazon content, so here’s a chance to see fresh films that no one has seen before. I promise it will be titillating and fascinating.”

A notable aspect of this year’s festival is that, according Shor, “SIFF 2.0 also met its commitment to the 50/50 gender parity by 2020 film industry pledge by programming a rich selection of female-driven films that highlight women both in front of and behind the camera.”

Among the more than 100 films are some standouts including “The Artist’s Wife” starring Bruce Dern and Lena Olin. The film follows a wife attempting to plan her future with her husband, an artist struggling with dementia. “The Cave” chronicles the cave rescue of a youth soccer team in Thailand. Shor added some other must-see films including comedies “I Love My Mom,” and the Swedish film, “The Duck Pond.” “We also have some excellent period pieces,” added Shor citing Russia’s “The Lenin Factor” and “The Bird Catcher’s Son.”

McNeely said that one of his favorite films is “Fire on the Mountain.” “This film has amazing cinematography from everywhere from snowboarding to surfing to mountain biking to skiing all to Grateful Dead music,” said McNeely.

Along with the feature film slate, SIFF will also continue its long tradition of highlighting the best from the Sonoma Valley High School Media Arts Program. An assortment of student films will be made available for viewing during the festival.

For $75, passholders have access to all films in the program and those who choose a select number of films to screen can pay $10 per film. Showings will only be available during the July 30 to August 2 weekend. Those who purchased passes previously will have access to the film library and do not have to register again.

McNeely noted that for those who purchased their initial pass before the shutdowns, SIFF is planning on giving them a “major discount” for next year’s pass and “we are hoping that they will want to support our nonprofit and our youth education program which their pass cost supports.”

In addition to the virtual fest, SIFF had originally planned to host multiple outdoor screenings after the success of its July 3 and 4 drive-in event at Sonoma Skypark Airport. However according to Jody Purdom, SIFF director of development and sponsorship, that’s no longer the case. “Due to county guidelines and regulations we will no longer be having these events as part of the festival. It’s a bummer but we want to keep people safe,” Purdom said.

Despite the pandemic and problems it presents, SIFF is looking forward to presenting movie lovers with the best experience possible and getting back to the traditional festival next year.

“Everyone loves to go to a theater, listen to the Q and As, go to the backlot, grab a glass of wine and talk about the films they are seeing,” he said. “While we can’t do that this year, we are looking forward to bringing back the full experience in 2021.”

For tickets, trailers, film descriptions and show times, visit sonomafilmfest.org.