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March Events...

  • Ann Arbor Film Festival
  • BFI Flare
  • Festival Cinémarges
  • Glasgow Film Festival
  • Leeds Queer Film Festival
  • OGA (S)exhibition
  • ORLANDO
  • Sofia International Film Festival
  • Tampa Bay Transgender Film Festival
  • Toronto Queer Film Festival
  • Trans Film Fest Stockholm
San Francisco International Film Festival

San Francisco International Film Festival

Wednesday, 24 April 2024 until Sunday, 28 April 2024

The San Francisco International Film Festival presented by SFFILM is an essential stop on the circuit for emerging storytellers and established filmmakers alike. The 2024 edition will take place from April 24–28 in venues in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. The SFFILM Festival is the longest running film festival in the Americas, bringing films from around the world to discerning and warm Bay Area audiences since 1957. SFFILM is rooted in the culture of film appreciation by exploring film as an evolutionary art form, and as a transformative force for social change.

For over six decades, the San Francisco International Film Festival has hosted countless world premieres including Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense, Sydney Pollack’s Bobby Deerfield, Wayne Wang’s Center of the World, Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us, Helen Hunt’s Ride, and Stephan Eliot’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Past guests of the Festival include Akira Kurasawa, Greta Gerwig, Boots Riley, Michelle Yeoh, Bo Burnham, Charlize Theron, Savanah Leaf, Shah Rukh Khan, David Byrne, Wesley Morris, Sandra Oh, Christopher Nolan, Celine Song, Mary Harron, Steven Soderbergh, and many, many more.

The 2024 SFFILM Festival will take place from April 24–28, 2024 with both in-person and online events, parties, talks, and more. Screening schedules, venue footprint, and in-person event structure are all subject to some change based on the realities of producing a safe and accessible film festival at that time.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) recognizes SFFILM Festival as a qualifying festival for their short film (live action, documentary, and animated) competitions.

SFFILM Festival is a qualifying festival for Cinema Eye Honors for nonfiction filmmaking.

🏆 Golden Gate Awards

The Golden Gate Awards recognize the best of international and independent cinema by honoring excellence and superior innovation in narrative, documentary, shorts, animated, and youth-produced work.

The historic Golden Gate Awards will continue in 2024 with a slightly adjusted structure. Cash prizes will be limited to the Best Feature Film and the Best Documentary Film. All films outside of the Marquee and Gala presentations will be invited to be in competition, and juries will identify the winners of these two prizes and recognize a Bay Area Documentary Film, Cine Latino film, and Emerging Director. We will continue to honor short films for Best Narrative Short, Documentary Short, Animated Short, Bay Area Short, Family Short Film, and Youth Works. SFFILM will celebrate all finalists with festival laurels and recognition in a dedicated press announcement. As a reminder, SFFILM requires a CA premiere for all feature films and a Bay Area premiere for all short films. If you have questions about this please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Audience Awards for Best Narrative and Documentary Features will also be presented, decided by audience ballot.