SFFILM, formerly known as The San Francisco Film Society, is a nonprofit arts organization located in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, that presents year-round programs and events in film exhibition, media education, and filmmaker services. The San Francisco Film Society rebranded as SFFILM in 2017. Leadership for each of the SFFILM's areas of activity is currently provided by Executive Director Anne Lai and Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks.

Exhibition

SFFILM presents more than 300 films annually through various festivals, series and individual screenings.

San Francisco International Film Festival

Running for 11 days each spring, the

San Francisco International Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by SFFILM, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and vid ...

(SFFILM Festival) was founded in 1957 by San Francisco theater operator Irving "Bud" Levin, who had attended film festivals in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

and decided it was time for the United States to have its own. The

is among the longest running film festivals in the Americas. The SFFILM Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007.

Education

SFFILM's Education programs serve more than 11,000 students and teachers every year, from kindergarten through college, to develop

media literacy Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy that includes the ability to access and analyze Media (communication), media messages, as well as create, reflect and take action—using the power of information and communication—to ma ...

, cultural awareness, global understanding and a lifelong appreciation of cinema. Since its launch in 1991, the SFFILM Youth Education program has reached a total of more than 95,000 Bay Area schoolchildren and 3,000 teachers from more than 350 educational institutions. All programs are designed to meet the Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards for California public schools.

Other programs

FilmHouse Residencies

FilmHouse provides 4,800 square feet of office space free of charge to narrative and documentary filmmakers working at any stage of production.

SFFILM / Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants

Awarded twice annually through a partnership between SFFILM and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the SFFILM/KRF Filmmaking Grants are open to filmmakers of narrative feature films that have a significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community.

SFFILM Documentary Film Fund

A grant awarded annually to documentary feature films in postproduction.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Film organizations in the United States Cinema of the San Francisco Bay Area Arts organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco