News

Under executive director Roger Durling, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (taking place January 30 – February 9) has flourished by riding the awards season wave via starry onstage interviews with Oscar contenders. Every year, screenwriters, directors and producers promote their causes on panels, and the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Rami Malek, Yalitza Aparicio, Glenn Close, Sam Elliott, and Richard E. Grant will submit to in-depth tributes from the likes of Leonard Maltin and Pete Hammond, among others.

On the festival’s first weekend, I will have the pleasure of a wide-ranging conversation with Best Actress Oscar-nominee Melissa McCarthy, star of “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

And I will also moderate the annual “It Starts with the Script” panel on Saturday, including Will Fetters (“A Star Is Born”), Lauren Greenfield (“Generation Wealth”), Kevin Willmott (“BlacKkKlansman”), Paul Schrader (“First Reformed”), Brian Currie (“Green Book”), Barry Jenkins (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), and Tony McNamara...

Under executive director Roger Durling, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (taking place January 30 – February 9) has flourished by riding the awards season wave via starry onstage interviews with Oscar contenders. Every year, screenwriters, directors and producers promote their causes on panels, and the likes of Viggo Mortensen, Rami Malek, Yalitza Aparicio, Glenn Close, Sam Elliott, and Richard E. Grant will submit to in-depth tributes from the likes of Leonard Maltin and Pete Hammond, among others.

On the festival’s first weekend, I will have the pleasure of a wide-ranging conversation with Best Actress Oscar-nominee Melissa McCarthy, star of “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

And I will also moderate the annual “It Starts with the Script” panel on Saturday, including Will Fetters (“A Star Is Born”), Lauren Greenfield (“Generation Wealth”), Kevin Willmott (“BlacKkKlansman”), Paul Schrader (“First Reformed”), Brian Currie (“Green Book”), Barry Jenkins (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), and Tony McNamara...

Exclusive: The 34th annual Santa Barbara Film Festival kicks off tonight with its opening-night film Diving Deep: The Life and Times of Mike deGruy, the world premiere of the documentary about the Emmy-winning filmmaker, biologist and adventurer who also happens to have been a Santa Barbara local. His wife and filmmaking partner Mimi deGruy directed the pic, which highlights her husband’s remarkable career and life — a life tragically cut short when he was killed in a 2012 helicopter crash in Australia while filming for director James Cameron.

Check out the first look at the docu with its trailer above.

Mike deGruy filmed in oceans the world over and was a passionate advocate on behalf of the sea creatures he often helped discover. He became an outspoken environmental activist especially after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, which directly impacted the his Alabama birthplace.

His...

It’s been one year since deadly fires and mudslides came close to shutting down the 33rd edition of the Santa Barbara Intl. Film Festival. The Thomas Fire and subsequent flooding devastated the city and left 23 dead in the Montecito area. After some soul searching, organizers decided to carry on as scheduled.

“Last year there was a lot of questioning about whether we were going to move forward with the festival,” admits executive director Roger Durling, at Sbiff since 2004. Ultimately, the disasters gave organizers a renewed sense of purpose.

One year later, they are preparing to open the 34th edition of the festival with a greater appreciation of the event’s role in the community. Sbiff gets under way Jan. 30 with a lineup that includes 63 world premieres and 59 U.S. premieres from 48 countries.

The lineup is bookended with films deeply rooted in Santa Barbara: Mimi deGruy’s “Diving Deep: The Life and Times of Mike deGruy...