SDFF Home - Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival

We stand in solidarity with people of color and anti-racists protesting police violence and other forms of state-sanctioned white supremacy. In support of this ongoing movement, and in-keeping with our belief in the power of documentary to help us look beyond ourselves and to foster critical thinking, we’ve added a permanent, evolving section to this website, dedicated to social justice in documentary media. This section is intended to supplement, not supplant, the inclusion of these issues in the festival’s film selections, news updates and other content, and to provide a central place for our audience to find information and resources. Click Here to see the current iteration of this page.

SDFF 2022 DATES: MARCH 24-27

SEBASTOPOL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

A Doc Festival for All

In 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named SDFF a Qualifying Festival for the Documentary Short Subject category. Recipients of the SDFF Jury Award for Short Subject and Jury Award for Mini-Doc are now eligible for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.

An all-volunteer Steering Committee of filmmakers, film scholars and critics, and film lovers run SDFF. MovieMaker magazine named SDFF “One of the Coolest Film Festivals” twice. While that was a nice feather in our cap, seeing the raves of filmmakers, festival attendees, and our community is our greatest satisfaction.

The inspiration behind the founding of the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival in 2007 was an immense curiosity into lives outside of our own. Over the years since, we’ve worked to serve as a bridge for independent non-fiction filmmakers to audiences keen to explore and learn.

SDFF brings the best documentaries and filmmakers from around the world to northern California for an annual celebration of non-fiction films. We’ll exhibit 70 to 75 films over four days on six screens in Sebastopol. Our audience includes documentary film lovers, industry professionals, filmmakers, and curious bystanders.

SDFF 2022 is Returning as an In-Person Event March 24-27

Live Dates will be followed by a Virtual Event featuring a Limited Selection of Streaming Films

View SDFF 2022 Health & Safety Protocols

WATCH SDFF 2021 VIDEO EXCLUSIVES

News from SDFF

SDFF NEWS BITS: ALUMNI UPDATES, FESTS, HONORS, NEW DOCS, INDUSTRY HAPPENINGS

11 JANUARY 2022 AWARDS. HONORS. FESTIVALS Snowy (Kaitlyn Schwalje & Alex Wolf Lewis, 2021), a short about a tiny turtle’s happiness, is one of five films...

SDFF NEWS BITS: ALUMNI UPDATES, FESTS, HONORS, NEW DOCS, INDUSTRY HAPPENINGS

4 JANUARY 2022 AWARDS. HONORS. FESTIVALS Waad al-Kateab (For Sama w/ Edward Watts, 2019) was recently announced as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Gold...

Congrats to SDFF Alumni On Making Oscar Shortlist for Short Docs!

Two SDFF 2021 films, Sophie and the Baron (Alexandria Baron, 2020) and When We Were Bullies (Jay Rosenblatt, 2021) and a short film from multi-year SDFF alumni filmmaker Ben Proudfoot, Queen...