Founded in 2007, the first ever Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival (SDFF) boldly curated 44 films that brought into focus a wealth of talented filmmakers from Sonoma County and the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
Sixteen years later, nearly 700 titles from 62 countries were openly submitted for SDFF 2023. Sixty-three films were programmed, attended by 93 filmmakers and an impressive audience, through in-person and streaming delivery.
SDFF honors diversity in all forms. We continue to provide equal opportunity for filmmakers through open calls for entry; explore what it’s like for any life to wake to its existence.
SDFF is an Oscar® qualifying Film Festival for documentaries in the short form. Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival is proudly progressive, often featuring spotlights on social justice, journalism, current issues. When the right films come through we’ve programmed different POV’s of the same story. Given the proliferation of AI, documentary might become our only touchstone for what was ‘real’ at a moment in time. What better platform than a non-fiction film festival to encourage fresh and critical thinking?
Indigenous Land Acknowledgment
We respectfully and gratefully acknowledge that we live and work on the unceded, traditional lands of the Me-Wuk (Coast Miwok), Southern Pomo, Kashaya people.
SDFF Through the Years
Franklin J. Schaffner Jury Awards
Director Franklin J. Schaffner began in live television, where he won 4 Emmys in Direction: one for the teleplay Twelve Angry Men (1954), two for The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1955) and one for an episode of The Defenders (1962). Soon after, he progressed to the silver screen where he helmed such notable projects as The Planet of the Apes, Patton (for which he won both the Directors Guild of America Award and an Academy Award® for Best Director), Nicholas and Alexandra, Papillion, and The Boys From Brazil. He is considered one of the great epic directors of his time, along with Richard Attenborough and David lean, and widely revered by filmmakers and historians for his body of work.
Filmmaker recipients and SDFF are honored by the Schaffner Foundation’s support. It strengthens our commitment to excellence in craft, storytelling and authenticity.
For 2025, we again are awarding three Jury Awards. We are privileged to have three renowned jurors selecting the Award winner in each category.
The Feature Film Jury Panel judges documentaries which are greater than 39 minutes in length. The jurors for 2025 include:
- Bernardo Ruiz: Bernardo Ruiz is a three-time Emmy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker and Academy Award® member. Among his feature documentaries are: El Equipo (SDFF 2023), The Infinite Race. Harvest Season (SDFF 2019), Kingdom of Shadows and Reportero.
- Betsy Pollock: Academy Award®-winning co-producer and American Film Institute Associate Dean, Pollock created and taught AFI’s signature first year film production program.
- Davina Pardo: Emmy® award-winning documentary filmmaker. Davina is an Emmy and Peabody-award winning filmmaker in New York City. Her most recent film, JUDY BLUME FOREVER, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released on Prime Video in 2023. She has directed several Documentary shorts: 116 CAMERAS, MINKA (SDFF 2017) and BIRDLINGS TWO
The Short Film Jury judges films which are from 10 to 39 minutes in length, and the winner in this category is Academy Award® Qualifying. Jurors for this year are:
- Amy Bench: Amy is a Sundance-supported, Emmy award-winning, Oscar®-shortlisted director and cinematographer. Her short animated documentary “More Than I Want to Remember” (SDFF 2023- Jury Award) won an NAACP Image Award.
- Mostafa Salehi Nezhad: A documentary filmmaker, journalist, and university professor with over 13 years of experience in cinema and media based in Iran. His works have been screened at numerous festivals, including Oscar® and Canadian Screen Awards-qualifying festivals. Collaboration with organizations such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP), has allowed delving into critical human and social issues on an international scale. Three Meters And A Few Centimeters (SDFF 2021)
- Juan Blanco García: Juan Blanco García is a two-time Emmy winning filmmaker from Spain. His short films The (Other) 700 Club (2022) and Untitled Film #1 (2017) have screened at festivals like DOC NYC, Big Sky, Rooftop Films. In 2022, he graduated from the MFA in Media Arts Production at The City College of New York as a Fulbright scholar.
The Mini Doc Film Jury judges films which are up to 9:59 minutes in length, and the winner in this category is Academy Award® Qualifying. Jurors for this year are:
- Alex Kahn:Alex’s film, Dear Max, was the SDFF 2023 Mini-Doc Jury Award Winner. His time in Argentina and Colombia was spent producing Spanish-language documentaries on topics such as education and religion. In New York City he works in brand content production. He continues diving deep into some of the most pressing and fascinating topics in the world: housing insecurity, criminal justice reform, climate change and AI ethics.
- Jan Selby: Jan’s short film, A Circle and Three Lines, was a vital part of SDFF 2010. Beyond the Divide, a feature, screened at SDFF 2014. The politics and casualties might be history but deep scars remain among those who served and those who fought different wars. Her production company, Quiet Island Films, has been in the storytelling business, creating award-winning digital content, for well over a decade.
- Chris Metzler: Chris is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker and lead producer at Tilapia Film. He has pursued making subculture documentaries on subjects as far-ranging as rogue economists, lucha libre wrestlers, swamp rat hunters, ganja-preneurs, Black punk rockers, and evangelical Christian surfers. His award-winning films include: EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE (SDFF 2010), RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE and JACK HAS A PLAN (SDFF 2023). He also serves as the Director of Programming for three irreverent San Francisco-based film festivals: SF DocFest, Green Film Festival of San Francisco, and SF IndieFest.
Results from these jury panels are announced at Opening Night, March 27, 2025.