For those outside of Southern California, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a well-kept secret. Sorry to blow it. Though popular on the weekends (it’s an easy daytrip from Los Angeles), there was plenty of ticket availability during the week. An added screening of the Oscar-nominated Bullhead was held in the cavernous 1931 movie palace the Arlington, capacity 2100. With only about 60 in the audience, it was virtually a private screening—bliss. And with temperatures reaching over 70 degrees in February, and not a cloud in sight, the location is a no-brainer for a mid-winter event, whether for business or a movie binge.
For filmmakers, there are advantages to participating in a regional event, even one without the bragging rights of Sundance. Here, the festival’s the only game in town, affording filmmakers media access that they can only dream of in New York. For example, a Sunday 6:00 PM local news broadcast devoted over five minutes to the distributor-less documentary Pretty Old, about an annual beauty contest for seniors, and the Santa Barbara News-Press offered a full page of activities and articles daily.
This year before packed houses at the Arlington the festival presented its annual American Riviera career award to Martin Scorsese and its Virtuoso Awards to six actors hitting professional plateaus last year: Demián Bichir, Rooney Mara, Melissa McCarthy, Patton Oswalt, Andy Serkis, and Shailene Woodley. (All of the above made it to town except for McCarthy.) Earlier in the festival, Viola Davis won Outstanding Performer of the Year and Christopher Plummer the Modern Master Award. (Most festivals just give out one or two honors.) Year to year, the SBIFF reads the tea leaves and imbeds itself into awards season, and the number of journalists and photographers on the red carpet press gauntlet outmatched those of the Tribeca or New York film festivals
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