Hot on the heels of the Gasparilla International Film Festival, the 19th annual Sarasota Film Festival kicks off Fri., Mar. 31 and runs until Sun., April 9. SFF ‘17 offers a wide-ranging slate of narrative and documentary features, several shorts programs and a ton of events. The lineup this year is stacked; here’s our guide to making it manageable.
Know where you’re going. SFF is fairly easy to navigate. All film screenings, save for the opening and closing night movies, are at the Regal Hollywood 20 (1993 Main St.). The opening/closing films are at the Sarasota Opera House. Panels and events are at various locations, listed in the festival guide. The box office is located in the lobby of the Regal, and opens an hour prior to the first screening of the day. Plan accordingly!
Choose wisely. Most films screen twice, but even so there’s no way you can catch everything. The narrative film curation tends toward drama and comedy, while the documentaries cover too many subjects to name. Keep an eye out for the directorial debuts of Archer’s Aisha Tyler (Axis) and actor/author Amber Tamblyn (Paint it Black), as well as documentarian Eleanor Coppola's feature debut Paris Can Wait and other cinephiliac fare like Terence Davies’s rapturous Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion and the Dardenne brothers’ typically idiosyncratic take on a mystery, The Unknown Girl. There are also 25 docs, films, and shorts produced here in Florida; catch a few and see what local talent draws your eye. One of those homegrown features is FSU grad Xander Robin’s Are We Not Cats, which is, surprisingly, the festival’s only horror movie: a lonely romance cut with repulsive body horror (look up “trichophagia”) and thunderous doom metal. That’s a recommendation, by the way.
Support women filmmakers. Through Women’s Eyes, a festival in partnership with SFF, is screening eight features and 15 shorts about and produced by women — not just cis and not just white, either. There are films in the main SFF program by women, of course, but TWE spotlights a curated selection from a pool of 500 submissions. You can catch TWE on Apr. 1 and 2 at the Regal, for an additional ticket price.
Branch out. The best, and most daunting, thing about film festivals is the sheer volume of stuff to watch. If you’re not a fan of documentaries, give some a try. If you don’t watch shorts, well, they’re attached to most screenings to begin with, but consider sitting in on a shorts program or two. Also, try to talk to people involved with the fest. Maybe they have an under-the-radar favorite, and you’ll get a sense for the curatorial taste at play; what SFF likes, and why. Film is as vital and exciting an art form as it has ever been. If you think otherwise, you just aren’t paying attention. Pay SFF some attention and you might be surprised.
Sarasota Film Festival/Through Women's Eyes
Sarasota Opera House/Regal Hollywood 20
Mar. 31-Apr. 9
