Exclusive: SFFilm’s 67th festival shorter but not lacking star power

The San Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest such event in the Americas, but longtime observers will notice a couple of stark differences with the 67th edition next month.

This year, after decades as an 11-day festival, SFFilm’s main showcase has been reduced to five days, April 24-28, beginning with an opening-night presentation of Sean Wang’s Sundance Film Festival prize-winning “DìDi,” an ode to his childhood growing up in Fremont, SFFilm announced Wednesday, March 27. There will be a set of encore screenings May 2-4, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco.

The festival is also venturing into new venues in the Marina and Presidio neighborhoods.

Executive Director Anne Lai told the Chronicle the shortened calendar isn’t permanent but is part of a process of the festival rebounding from the pandemic. The 2020 festival was canceled, the 2021 edition was online and at a pop-up drive-in theater, and while the last two years it has returned to in-person screenings, it has struggled both with venue availability and the slow return of in-person audiences that has affected every part of the theatrical industry.

Lai’s personal vision of a festival is one that operates in a geographically close space, like last year’s main venue, the CGV San Francisco at 1000 Van Ness Ave., which is now closed. It recalled the days when the festival was centered at the Kabuki theater in Japantown.

“It’s us experimenting a little bit, because over the last few years we have had to reenvision our venue footprint from year to year,” Lai told the Chronicle. “How do we make it a little bit easier for audiences to get to? How do we also create a space where filmmakers might run into each other? How do you try to create a centralized hub? How do you make it a little bit easier for audiences to go from film to film, grab a bite to eat, get a coffee?

“We knew we would be able to achieve that more in five days, rather than flattening it out over 10 or 11 days.”

So this year’s festivities will take place at the Premier Theater at One Letterman, the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio, and the Marina Theatre and a festival lounge in the Marina. Other venues include the Vogue Theatre and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

The Castro Theatre, a longtime home of the festival’s big events, is undergoing a renovation projected to last into summer 2025. 

In addition to showcasing Wang, the 67th festival is also set to honor San Francisco actress Joan Chen, who plays the mother of the character based on Wang in ‘‘DìDi,” and Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Lai and Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks were at the world premiere of “DìDi” at Sundance, where it took home the U.S. dramatic audience and dramatic special jury ensemble awards. It was a source of pride, Lai said, since SFFilm had been involved with the project since its very beginnings.

“It was something we had supported with the Rainin Grant, a $25,000 grant that was supporting Sean through the time when he was developing the script and trying to get it to the place where he could begin moving it forward,” Lai explained. “A number of his executive producers and producers all came together through introductions made by SFFilm.”

Chen, best known for her roles in the Oscar-winning “The Last Emperor” (1987) and David Lynch’s television series “Twin Peaks,” will be honored at a rare 35mm screening of her 1998 directorial debut, “Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl.”

Ejiofor, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Solomon Northup in the best-picture-winning “12 Years a Slave,” will be honored at a screening of “Rob Peace,” which he cowrote, directed and stars  as the father of a young New Jersey science prodigy headed to the Ivy League.

Other highlights programmed by Fairbanks and her team include “The Idea of You,” about a 40-year-old single mom (Anne Hathaway) embarking on a romance with a 24-year-old boy band singer (Nicholas Galitzine); “Sing Sing,” in which Oscar nominee Colman Domingo stars as a man imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit who finds purpose by acting in a theater group alongside other incarcerated men; and “Luther: Never Too Much,” San Francisco filmmaker Dawn Porter’s documentary about singer and musician Luther Vandross.

The closing night film is “Thelma,” the first starring role for 94-year-old June Squibb. The Academy Award-nominated actress (“Nebraska,” 2013) is scheduled to attend in person.

Fairbanks noted that submissions remained high at about 5,000 despite the writers’ and actors’ strikes last year that slowed production.

“We are definitely seeing that a lot of talent is currently tied up in production right now, as they should be,” she said. “But I would say that there has been no shift in terms of the volume or quality films that are available, and for that we feel incredibly lucky.”

Legendary Bay Area exhibitor, theater chain founder, festival director and theater owner Gary Meyer will receive the Mel Novikoff Award, named after the late San Francisco repertory film exhibitor and theater owner. Meyer is one of the few recipients of the award who not only actually knew Novikoff — going back to the 1960s — but worked for him. Novikoff was even the godfather of Emily, the daughter of Meyer and his wife, Cathy, who also worked for Novikoff.

“Being given this honor is the highest reward I can imagine,” Meyer told the Chronicle. “Rarely does a day go by when I don’t think of Mel. It might be a memory, an anecdote, a bit of wisdom — wondering what he would have done in a situation I might be facing — or just being grateful we were in each other’s lives.”

Ticket sales begin Wednesday, March 27, for SFFilm members, while general sales start Friday, March 29, at www.sffilm.org.

Reach G. Allen Johnson: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com