The 28th Annual San Luis Obispo International Film Festival (April 26-May 1) announced this year’s robust film lineup bookended by critically-acclaimed documentaries —the Opening Night selection of Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love and the Closing Night selection of Isabel Castro’s Mija. The festival will celebrate its return to in-theater screenings and in-person events, including its famous Surf Nite, a tribute to Philip Glass, Cal Poly Shortcuts, and entrants in this year’s Reel Challenge debut.
Following an all-virtual event last year, the 48th Seattle International Film Festival will return April 14–24, 2022 with a hybrid event that includes both in-person and virtual screenings. The 11-day festival will present the best in international and independent films from around the globe – with screenings at SIFF theaters and venues throughout the city as well as virtually on the SIFF Channel.
The Ashland Independent Film Festival released the complete schedule for its 20th annual festival presented this year as a “double feature”– online, with most films available coast-to-coast from April 15-29, and live and outdoors in Ashland and Medford from June 24-28. AIFF’s 2021 festival will present approximately 100 new independent films, including 35 feature films and a dozen shorts programs, accompanied by Q&A’s with filmmakers, virtual parties, mixers, and panels.
The world premiere of Corey McLean’s Havana Libre, documenting the fight to legitimize surfing in Cuba will open the 2021 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula. The festival will close with Ann Kaneko’s Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust, a documentary on a fresh interpretation of the Japanese American confinement site by examining the environmental and political history behind the World War II camp.