San Francisco International Film Festival 2013 (year 56)

[Chris Knipp]

Opening, closing, and centerpiece films announced.

SFIFF56 Opening Night: What Maisie Knew
April 25; Screening 7:00, Party 9:30 Castro Theatre and Temple Nightclub
Directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel and Actor Onata Aprile Expected!





The 56th San Francisco International Film Festival opens with a screening of What Maisie Knew.

In this contemporary adaptation of Henry James's 1897 novel of the same name, Scott McGehee and David Siegel focus on the effects of a marriage's unraveling as viewed through the eyes of a couple's six-year-old daughter. Shuttling between narcissistic parents and bemused but compassionate parental stand-ins, young Maisie comes face to face with the mercurial world of grown-ups who are anything but. With Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgård, Onata Aprile, Steve Coogan.


SFIFF56 Centerpiece: Inequality For All
May 4; Screening 6:30, Party 8:30 Sundance Kabuki Cinemas and Roe
Director Jacob Kornbluth and Subject Robert Reich Expected!



At the center of the Festival is an extraordinary event featuring an impassioned new film by a celebrated director followed by a chic lounge party at one of San Francisco's hottest nightspots, Roe. Be part of one of the Festival's most anticipated events. For more film and party details, visit sffs.org.

In this Inconvenient Truth for the economy, the Sundance Special Jury Award-winning Inequality For All introduces former Secretary of Labor (and current UC Berkeley professor) Robert Reich as an inspirational and humorous guide in exploring the causes and consequences of the widening income gap in America and asks what is means for the future of our economy and nation. Passionate and insightful, Reich connects the dots for viewers by providing a comprehensive and significantly deeper understanding of what's at stake if we don't act.


SFIFF56 Closing Night film: Richard Linklater's Before Midnight
May 9; Screening, 7:00, Party 9:00 Castro Theatre and Ruby Skye *
Director Richard Linklater Expected!



They're still the same romantic, articulate and gorgeous couple that met on a train in Linklater's Before Sunrise (1995), but now, nearly 20 years on, Jesse and Céline (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) are approaching middle age and facing questions of commitment, family and, as ever, the staying power of love. Before Midnight, with a funny and touching screenplay cowritten by Linklater and his two lead actors, is that rare sequel (rarer still: a sequel to a sequel) that not only delivers the charm and energy of its antecedents but adds layers of poignancy, standing firmly on its own as a mature observation of love's pleasures and discontents. With Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Prior, Charlotte Prior.