This year may be the sex number edition of the SFFILM Festival (hereafter “SFFILM”), but making out in various iterations is generally the farthest thing from the minds of this year’s selections (aside from Olivia Wilde’s outrageous adaptation of a Spanish sex comedy). The 69th SFFILM instead highlights more pressing current concerns such as the effects of climate change, Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians, and even authoritarian repression of various stripes. In other words, come to SFFILM for the types of films that the likes of Paramount Skydance owners Larry and David Ellison would prefer to see dead or buried.
Running from April 24, 2026 to May 4, 2026, SFFILM returns with 79 programs from 40 countries for screenings at such familiar venues as the Marina Theatre, the Grand Lake Theatre, and the Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive. This year also sees the festival kicking things off and wrapping things up at the Castro Theatre. Whether the movie-going experience in the Castro will be the same as or better than the pre-renovation days is a question people who can afford to go to these screenings can best answer.
I Love Boosters
Admittedly, some of the screenings listed here (e.g. Boots Riley’s hilarious Oakland-set tale of retail fashion theft, “Star Wars Episode V” with Anthony Daniels) have already sold out of advance tickets. But there’s something to be said for the eternal hope of still getting in that is standing in the Rush Line on the screening day. What follows Is a taste of what you can expect at SFFILM 69:
Opening Night honors go to two films. The first of these is “Late Fame” from Kent Jones, who’s gone from directing the New York Film Festival to directing movies. Veteran Post Office worker Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) is on the cusp of retiring after many years. But Saxberger’s life transition takes an unexpected zag thanks to a discovery made by a group of bohemians led by Gloria (Greta Lee, “Past Lives”). The bohemian clique has found the slim but obscure volume of poems Saxberger had published back in his youth and wants to honor the retiring man.
Putting the 69 into SFFILM’s 69th festival is the other Opening Night film, Olivia Wilde’s comedy “The Invite”. In this San Francisco-set tale, Joe (Seth Rogen) is spectacularly less than thrilled his wife Angela (Wilde) has invited upstairs neighbors Pima (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) to dinner. Knowing how straitlaced Angela is, the husband decides to get some petty revenge on her by taking his guests to task for the disruptiveness of their frequent lovemaking. But the results from Joe’s attack is something far different than what the dinner hosts expect.
Memory Of Princess Mumbi
Photographer Kwame Brathwaite’s work celebrated a far different type of physical beauty. His photographs honored Black existence, whether the setting was 1960s Harlem or The Jackson 5 on tour in Africa. The well-known phrase “Black Is Beautiful” got partially coined by Brathwaite. Now Brathwaite’s heirs seek to bring long-overdue recognition to their talented forefather. Learn more in Yemi Bamiro’s documentary “Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story.”
A different sort of visual artist serves as the central character in Damien Hauser’s mockumentary “Memory Of Princess Mumbi.” Kuve is an aspiring filmmaker who has come to the African nation of Umata to do a documentary about the lingering effects of a near-future war which has resulted in the outlawing of addictive technology such as AI (which filmmakers like Kuve still use). In Umata, he meets aspiring actress Mumbi and the two develop a relationship. But their romance is doomed by Mumbi’s arranged marriage to a prince once she turns 21.
Alejandra, the central subject of Maite Alberdi’s documentary “A Child Of My Own,” is another woman trapped by societal expectations. She responds to the pressure to produce a child by going from a white lie about being pregnant to actually kidnapping a baby. Alberdi mixes recreated scenes and interviews with the actual participants to capture the shame and family pressure prompting Alejandra to perform this desperate crime.
A far more innocuous theft, that of a garden gnome, is performed by a nine-year-old boy in Noam Rignault Clement’s animated short “Little Things.” The motivation for the theft: enjoying the little things in life with a companion while traversing the French countryside..
Enjoyment of the experience of going to school leads the endlessly curious 9-year-old Rabia in a far-different direction. She wants to find out whether her school’s shutdown was really the result of a teacher getting possessed by an evil spirit. Seemab Gul’s drama “Ghost School” reveals the school closure resulted from more mundane causes such as corruption and patriarchal bias.
Alysa Nahmias’ documentary “Cookie Queens” shows what happens when determined little girls are let loose to pursue success. Girl Scouts Ara, Shannon Elizabeth, Nikki, and Olive vie for such prizes as summer camp or a trip to Europe via selling Girl Scout Cookies over a spectacularly short selling season. See these little entrepreneurs struggle to balance the demands of business with finding time for enjoying childhood.
The Baddest Speechwriter Of All
Legendary trailblazing tennis player Billie Jean King, another example of female excellence, recounts her life and career in Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Woll’s documentary “Give Me The Ball!” King led the way in the fight for equity in professional women’s sports. But doing so meant keeping a number of personal sacrifices under wraps: staying in the sexual closet, dealing with eating disorders, and even endangering her personal health.
Other blasts from the past can be found in SFFILM’s special sidebar section “From The Vault.” It brings back films previously screened at the festival which celebrated emerging artists and iconic creatives. The titles include: “The Wages Of Fear” (Henri-Georges Clouzot’s classic thriller about four desperate men driving two nitroglycerine-laden trucks over treacherous terrain to put out an oil well fire); “Vagabond” (Agnes Varda’s tale of a young drop-out who wanders the south of France in winter in search of freedom); and “The Arch” (T’ang Shushuen’s romantic drama about the incredibly virtuous widow Madame Tung, the captain of a troop of soldiers sent to protect her village, and the widow’s struggles to control her attraction to the captain).
Sophy Romvari’s semi-autobiographical film “Blue Heron” looks likely to be a future From The Vault entry. Sasha and her family emigrated from Hungary to Vancouver Island in the 1990s. For the little girl, life is a paradise of outdoor swims and watching cartoons. For Sasha’s older brother Jeremy, this relaxing environment doesn’t curb his increasingly antisocial behavior. Sasha’s parents know something’s wrong with Jeremy, but what aren’t they telling their daughter?
A far bigger open secret is the subject of Yael Bridge’s follow-up to her socialism documentary “The Big Scary ‘S’ Word.” “Who Moves America” looks at the working lives of UPS Teamsters as they deal with long hours, unsafe working conditions of various stripes, and the pressures involved in keeping America moving. Can collective labor action remedy the inequitable situation for delivery drivers and logistics workers?
For all the labor-management clashes at UPS, such conflict is better than being stuck in the middle of a shooting war. A case in point is Elise Sawasawa’s documentary “Enough Is Enough.” This film follows the director and his friends as they navigate Kivu War fights among the forces of Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and the rebels. At stake is control of and/or access to rare earth minerals.
A far different refugee experience befall 9-year-old Somira and her younger brother Shafi, the protagonists of Akio Fujimoto’s drama “Lost Land.” They’re two Rohingya children who leave a Bangladesh refugee camp for hoped-for safety at a relative’s Malaysian home. But getting there means facing such dangers as smugglers’ extortion or possibly permanent separation.
Can multimedia storytelling help improve the lot of an oppressed minority, such as the Palestinians under the Israeli government’s bootheel? That question is at the heart of Mohamed Mesbah’s mid-length documentary “Still Playing.” Its central subject is Palestinian video game creator Rasheed Abueideh. Aside from raising two sons, he uses his video game work to both process his grief for Palestine and advocate for his country. But are his efforts enough?
Poh Si Teng’s documentary “American Doctor” refers to subjects Drs. Thaer Ahmad, Mark Perlmutter, and Feroze Sidhwa. They’ve come to Gaza to provide medical assistance thanks to Israel’s ongoing attacks devastating the area’s medical infrastructure. The three medical professionals want to take a politically neutral position while delivering care, but circumstances will soon render that desire quaint.
The “Scenes From The Divide” program brings together a trio of shorts about American politics past and present. Alison Klayman’s “Scenes From The Divide” shows how Zohran Mamdani’s run for New York City Mayor reveals the generational divide in the city’s Jewish community on such issues as Zionism, socialism, and Palestine. Clarence B. Jones is “The Baddest Speechwriter Of All.” Stephen Curry and Ben Proudfoot’s film recounts the life of the man who would become Martin Luther King Jr.’s speechwriter. Cristina Costantini’s “”La Tierra del Valor (The Home Of The Brave)” recounts what happens when at a Dodgers game Nezza defiantly sings the U.S. national anthem in Spanish.
In Theo Hanosset and Mathieu Georis’ animated short “La Petite Reine Blanche,” a small Belgian town’s parking lot gets commandeered by local residents for a game of pelote. Traffic may come to a halt, but the players are having fun.
Every Contact Leaves A Trace
Born blind at birth, Josef Carl Engressia just wanted to connect to other people. That seemed like an impossible dream in an age of analog telephones with its onerous costs for long distance calls. But Engressia’s special gift for perfect pitch allowed him to make free calls anywhere in the world. The unamused phone companies would call this theft. Lucky viewers will call this part of the joy of Rachel J. Morrison’s documentary “Joybubbles.”
Theft for a good public cause also happens to be the subject of SFFILM 69’s Centerpiece Film, Boots Riley’s newest satirical comedy “I Love Boosters.” Keke Palmer’s Corvette.leads the gang of female shoplifters known as The Boosters. To them, retail theft is both an act of defiance and a community service. However, fashion mogul Christine Smith (Demi Moore) is Not Amused. Someone needs to ask Riley what role local media hyperventilating about retail theft played in this film’s creation.
Could the hungry yearling polar bear that’s the subject of Jack Weisman and Gabriela Oslo Vanden’s Sundance Grand Jury award-winning documentary “Nuisance Bear” truly be blamed for stealing food from Canadian humans’ towns? Shrinking sea ice makes normal hunting difficult for the ursine. Yet the tourists visiting Churchill, Manitoba and the inhabitants of Arviat, Nunavut definitely aren’t happy with the bear stepping out of its environmental niche.
What sort of eulogy can you compose for a glacier lost to climate change? That’s the unenviable task facing Icelandic writer Andri Snaer Magnason, the human subject of Sara Dosa’s documentary “Time & Water.” Okjokul has become the first glacier victim of climate change. The loss of that icy mass affects Magnason personally, as his grandparents’ personal histories are linked to now disappearing landscapes.
Still around is the fictional gingko tree that plays a central role in Ildiko Enyedi’s new film “Silent Friend.” For people with an inseparable connection to the environment, this ancient piece of botanical garden topiary has been a companion to people for many years. This film tells a triptych of stories set in the years 1908, 1972, and 2020. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai stars in the 2020 story as a Hong Kong neuroscientist doing university research shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic hits.
Yo (Love Is A Rebellious Bird)
“The Oldest Person In The World” program brings together works by two SFFILM veterans. Don Hertzfeldt’s animated short “Paper Trail” uses the marks left behind by an everyperson to trace the course of that person’s life. “The Oldest Person In The World” sees filmmaker Sam Green begin with a simple premise: travel the globe to interview the person the Guinness Book Of World Records currently identifies as the oldest person in the world. But as the title changes hands and there are new oldest people to interview, the director winds up ruminating on human endurance and time’s passage.
A far different look at one’s life comes from this year’s Persistence Of Vision Award winner Lynne Sachs. Her new personal documentary “Every Contact Leaves A Trace” applies the forensic science concept of “trace” to allow Sachs to examine her own life and memories. Her medium of choice: 600 business cards accumulated over 40 years from such sources as a textile artist, a therapist, and gay filmmaker Lawrence Brose.
Anna Fitch and Banker White’s amazing hybrid documentary “Yo (Love Is A Rebellious Bird)” provides a unique way for Fitch to remember her deceased close friend Yo. The film mixes miniature recreations of the home where Yo spent her final years and recorded memories and anecdotes about this headstrong yet adventurous woman who dealt with challenges ranging from motherhood to aging on her own terms.
Another woman who lived life her way is legendary singer Marianne Faithfull. In Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s biopic “Broken English,” Faithfull speaks to a fictional Record Keeper about her musical career, which yielded both the classic album that gives the film its name and unique interpretations of Brecht/Weill songs. There are also performances of classic Faithfull songs by such artists as Beth Orton, Natasha Khan, and Courtney Love.
Daniel Neiden’s animated short “Whale 52 - Suite For Man, Boy, and Whale” centers on a magical pen and journal that proves a lifesaver for two people enduring loss and sorrow: a boy with selective mutism, and an aging widower. These magical instruments allow these two damaged souls to hear each other’s unspoken thoughts and even find healing. The legend of “the loneliest whale” also plays a part in this story.
First They Came For My College
Rebecca Zweig and Efrain Lazaro Mojica Rubio’s mid-length documentary “Jaripeo” presents a culture based on a different man-beast relationship. Central Mexican rodeo culture may have bucking broncos and bull rides. But this culture is also marked by the friction among queerness, masculinity, and desire. The film’s main subjects struggle to balance their particular town’s traditions with truly acknowledging their gender expression and sexuality.
Challenging the status quo in his way was Amilcar Cabral. This agricultural engineer turned anti-colonialist revolutionary worked to free Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde from Portuguese rule. Miguel Eek’s impressionistic biography “Amilcar” recounts this revolutionary’s life through letters written by Cabral to his wives, as well as a soundtrack spiced with revolutionary slogans.
On the other hand, revolutionary slogans come across as hollow in Mariana Rondon and Marite Ugas’ drama “It Would Be Night In Caracas.” Adelaida has returned to the titular Venezuelan capital in 2017 to bury her mother and plan her next steps. But when her dead mother’s apartment gets commandeered by members of the armed resistance, she’s forced to take refuge in an empty apartment along with a formerly jailed colleague named Santiago. Can they find a way to escape both their building and the chaotic city itself?
The Berlinale Silver Bear Award winner, Emin Alper’s “Salvation,” tells the story of a tribal power struggle in a remote Turkish mountain village. At stake: the right to harvest land coveted by two different tribes. Mesut claims that his prophetic dreams entitle him to claim the title of shiekh and thus have his tribe claim the land. But his power grab winds up inspiring calls for revenge from the rival tribe.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis planned to do away with the “liberal ideology” of Sarasota’s New College’s curriculum and replace it with a curriculum having an extreme right-wing bias. But students attending New College worked with their professors to resist the state’s efforts to crush free thought at the school. Patrick Xavier Bresnan’s documentary “First They Came For My College” recounts the story of that battle.
SFFILM 69 wraps things up with a special Star Wars Day screening of Irvin Kershner’s “The Empire Strikes Back.” The Death Star may have been destroyed, but the Empire’s attack on the Rebellion’s Hoth base will devastate our heroes. Trying to pick up the pieces, Luke Skywalker seeks further Jedi training with the reclusive Master Yoda (who sounds like “Sesame Street”’s Grover Monster, just saying). Meanwhile, Darth Vader sets a trap to push Luke to the dark side. Sweetening the event is a personal appearance by Anthony Daniels aka the voice of C-3PO.
