Save the date for SFF 2013: April 5-14! Thank you so much to THIS WEEK IN SARASOTA for having us here. Looking forward to coming back next year. TWIS, YOU ROCK! In the film Moulin Rouge the extraordinary stage show meant to top all that had come before was called the SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR! For me, that was this year at the festival. A dazzling high wire act complete with pyrotechnics as the Flying Wallenda Family performed at our Cinema Tropicale celebration at the glorious Sarasota Yacht Club (followed by an encore at our President’s Dinner inside [...]

IN CONVERSATION WITH TODD SOLONDZ: NOON TODAY! AT SARASOTA HIGH SCHOOL! Moderated by David Carr (The New York Times)!  Have you ever met a filmmaker whose work opened your eyes to a way of looking at the world that was at once alien and strange and yet perfectly familiar and speaking to you in a language that you thought only you understood. TODD SOLONDZ is an auteur in the true sense of the word. His films are firestarters. They are also wonderfully human and accessible, brilliantly observed, funny, and breathtakingly real. He is the director [...]

Todd Solondz, director of Dark Horse, our Centerpiece film, will be our Sunday IN CONVERSATION guest at NOON at Sarasota High School. Moderated by the legendary DAVID CARR (The New York Times; last year’s PAGE ONE documentary). Two brilliant, wild, witty and outspoken take-no-prisoner geniuses in a one-on-one you won’t want to miss!  CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS NOW! (Photo courtesy of Becky Boletti) If you are a fan of our in-depth Inside the Actors Studio-style discussions, then you must see this one. You will see it unfold live on stage before you [...]

RED ALERT REMINDER: This is the Big Show, everyone, and at all happens at the Sarasota Opera House! See our stars and filmmakers on the red carpet. Enjoy an amazing and fun presentation honoring our top liners! See a spectacular screening of Joe Berlinger’s documentary UNDER AFRICAN SKIES detailing the epic journey of Paul Simon to South African for the creation of Graceland, his biggest release, which helped shine a light on the very culture that apartheid sought to wipe out and his emotional and thoughtful return 25 years later to revisit this [...]

I bet your head’s spinning just from that title. I know mine is! Wow, we have Penelope Ann Miller today at her IN CONVERSATION, at the FILMMAKER TRIBUTE AWARDS and at the Q&A for her film THINK OF ME! Let’s start with a PLAN AHEAD suggestion then hit it hard with quick look guides to today’s big events and today’s films with filmmakers in attendance! Please note, we have fantastic audio interview with the director and producer of ARCADIA and the director and star of THE UNSPEAKABLE ACT in their entries in today’s film picks! PLAN AHEAD! IN CONVERSATION WITH [...]

Final day of Matinee Madness! All tickets before 5 PM only 8 bucks! Wow, where to start? Incredible movies? Check! Spectacular events? Check! It’s like a three ring circus today at SFF (and could that possibly have been a not so segue to spotlighting today’s 5:30 PM screening of THE SHOW MUST GO ON at the Sarasota Opera House, a riveting documentary about Sarasota’s own Flying Wallenda Family?) Yep, you got me! I had the pleasure of speaking with that film’s director plus Tino Wallenda and several members of his family about [...]