About 29% of the films in the lineup for the 2016 San Francisco International Film Festival are directed by women. Of the 173 films showing at the festival, 50 are directed by women. As previously reported, 35% of the features competing for the festival’s Golden Gate Awards are female-helmed.
The festival lineup includes Anna Fontaine’s “The Innocents” as part of the Global Visions program, which features contemporary films from around the world. Marquee presentations include Rebecca Miller’s screwball romantic comedy “Maggie’s Plan,” starring Greta Gerwig, and the world premiere of Susanna White’s film adaptation of John le Carré’s novel “Our Kind of Traitor.”
The SF Film Festival is honoring director Mira Nair with the prestigious Irving M. Levin Directing Award. According to the San Francisco Film Society, which heads the festival, the award is given yearly to “one of the masters of world cinema” who demonstrate “exceptional versatility in film.”
Nair’s breakout film was the Oscar-nominated “Salaam Bombay!” (1988). Her prolific career includes “Mississippi Masala” (1991), “Monsoon Wedding” (2001), “The Namesake” (2006) and “Amelia” (2009). She recently received the 2016 Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 Athena Film Festival.
Nair will accept her award at the Film Society Awards Night on April 25. A public conversation with the Indian filmmaker will precede the awards ceremony. “Monsoon Wedding” will be screened at the event, titled An Afternoon with Nair. The comedy-drama follows five romantic stories as they crisscross and jeopardize a wedding. Mixing a Bollywood sensibility with nuanced character renderings, the film is a great example of what San Francisco Film Society’s Executive Director Noah Cowan calls “a spirit of internationalism.”
The presentation will also include an exclusive first look at Nair’s next project, “Queen of Katwe.” Attendees will be able to see special footage of the film, which stars Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”).
For a complete line-up of films, visit the official website for the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival.
[via Press materials]
