INDUSTRY NEWS

News about the film and/or documentary industries.

Posters from SDFF alumni who are nominated for the 44th News & Documentary Emmys, including six films that showed at SDFF from 2021-2023: Let Me Be Me, MINK!, Body Parts, Wuhan Wuhan, Sapelo, and Nuisance Bear; and two new projects from filmmakers who showed at SDFF festivals in the past: Flight/Risk and Meltdown: Three Mile Island.

Congrats To SDFF Alumni On News & Documentary Emmy Noms

When the nominees for the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards were announced last week, the list included six films screened at SDFF from 2021-23, and two more projects made by alumni filmmakers. This year’s nominees were selected from 2,300 submissions that made their broadcast or streaming premiere in 2022. In a nomination field […]

Congrats To SDFF Alumni On News & Documentary Emmy Noms Read More »

Graphic Header for Bi-Weekly News Update for July 13, 2023. Includes posters for the following films featured in the update: Nelly & Nadine, At Your Cervix, Everything Wrong And Nowhere To Go, Big Water Summer, A Boy Called Piano. #SebDocsNews, #SDFFAlumni, #SDFFPartners

SDFF NEWS: ALUMNI UPDATES, NEW FILMS, FESTIVALS – 26 JULY 2023

AWARDS. HONORS. FESTIVALS. SPECIAL SCREENINGS + EVENTS. A trio of SDFF alumni—Ralph Arlyck’s I Like It Here, Magnus Gertten’s Nelly & Nadine, and Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice—are showing at the 43rd San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, which runs through Aug. 6 in the SF Bay Area, and was co-founded by one SDFF alumni

SDFF NEWS: ALUMNI UPDATES, NEW FILMS, FESTIVALS – 26 JULY 2023 Read More »

Congrats To SDFF Alumni Filmmaker Davina Pardo On Her Emmy Noms!

SDFF alumni filmmaker Davina Pardo and co-director/producer Leah Wolchok have been nominated for two Emmys for their documentary feature Judy Blume Forever (97 mins). Pardo and Wolchok have been nominated in the category of Outstanding Directing for A Documentary/Nonfiction Program, and the film is up for Outstanding Documentary/Non-Fiction Special. The Emmys will be announced during

Congrats To SDFF Alumni Filmmaker Davina Pardo On Her Emmy Noms! Read More »

Graphic Header for Bi-Weekly News Update for July 13, 2023. Includes posters for the following films featured in the update: Since I Been Down, Handwritten, Cara Romero: Following The Light, The Recall: Reframed, More Than I Want To Remember.

SDFF NEWS: ALUMNI UPDATES, NEW FILMS, FESTS, INDUSTRY – 12 JULY 2023

AWARDS. HONORS. FESTIVALS. SPECIAL SCREENINGS + EVENTS. Filmmaker Gilda Shepperd won the award for Best Documentary Director at the 15th New York Indie Film Festival for her doc about racism in the criminal justice system, Since I Been Down (105 mins, SDFF 2021). The film examines a morass of intersecting criminal justice and carceral issues by focusing on

SDFF NEWS: ALUMNI UPDATES, NEW FILMS, FESTS, INDUSTRY – 12 JULY 2023 Read More »

Graphic Header for Bi-Weekly News Update for June 27, 2023. Includes posters for the following films featured in the update: Dusty & Stones, More Than I Want To Remember, Move When The Spirit Says Move, Art & Pepe, Body Parts

SDFF NEWS: ALUMNI UPDATES, NEW FILMS, FESTS, INDUSTRY – 27 JULY 2023

27 JUNE 2023 AWARDS. HONORS. FESTIVALS. SPECIAL SCREENINGS + EVENTS. SebDocs 2023 Curtain Raiser doc, Dusty & Stones (Jesse Rudoy, 82 mins), about a Swazi country music duo’s journey to Texas to perform at a battle of the bands, took home the Best Documentary Feature Award at this year’s Atlanta Film Festival. The other jury

SDFF NEWS: ALUMNI UPDATES, NEW FILMS, FESTS, INDUSTRY – 27 JULY 2023 Read More »

Alumni Short Wins Cannes Emerging Documentary Filmmaker at American Pavilion Showcase

Jaime Sunwoo’s short Handwritten (SDFF 2023) won the award for Best Emerging Documentary Filmmaker at The American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes this year. Handwritten was one of 38 short films from five countries that comprise this year’s overall showcase, 22 of which came from women filmmakers. The film was screened on May 24

Alumni Short Wins Cannes Emerging Documentary Filmmaker at American Pavilion Showcase Read More »

Looking forward to a refreshed and vibrant SDFF 2025

SebDocs Pauses Annual Schedule to Reinvent and Expand Film Program and Festival June 1 usually opens calls for entries to the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival. Not this year.  As Michael Moore writes, “It is time for us to invent something new, something bold that is progressive and sustainable…” SDFF 2023 wrapped as a resounding success.

Looking forward to a refreshed and vibrant SDFF 2025 Read More »

2023 Jury Winner El Equipo Makes Hot Docs 20

After a three-year pandemic hiatus, OUTwatch Film Festival will re-emerge June 9-11 at Rialto Cinemas® Sebastopol, joining Sonoma County Pride’s celebrations for the first time. The festival El Equipo (The Team) (Bernardo Ruiz, 81 mins), which won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at this year’s SebDocs Festival, made the recently released HotDocs Audience

2023 Jury Winner El Equipo Makes Hot Docs 20 Read More »

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

24 JANUARY 2023 AWARDS. HONORS. FESTIVALS. SPECIAL SCREENINGS + EVENTS. Jack Weisman and Gabriela Oslo Vanden’s Nuisance Bear (2021) won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking at the 16th Cinema Eye last week. The awards, given out at an in-person ceremony at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, recognize

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

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

17 JANUARY 2023 NEW FILMS & PROJECTS FROM SDFF FILMMAKERS Three SDFF alumni directors have new docs showing at Sundance Film Festival: Davina Pardo’s Judy Blume Forever, about trailblazing children’s author Judy Blume; Luke Lorentzen’s A Still Small Voice, about an aspiring hospital chaplain completing her residency in NYC at the height of the pandemic;

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