(SAN FRANCISCO) - January 19, 2024- Following the successful launch last year, San Francisco's film and media arts organizations are excited to announce the second annual "Spotlight on SF” filmmakers' reception. This event will take place in Park City, Utah, during the esteemed Sundance Film Festival and Slamdance Film Festival. Host organizations include the San Francisco Film Commission (Film SF), Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC Media), Berkeley Film Foundation, Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), Cinemama, East Bay Film Collective, Frameline, IATSE, ITVS, Jessie Cheng Charitable Foundation, Jewish Film Institute (JFI), QWOCMAP, SAG AFTRA, SF IndieFest, SFFILM, and Teamsters Local 2785, Local 350, Local 665, and Local 856.
"Building on last year's momentum, San Francisco continues to shine as a dynamic hub for filmmaking," says Manijeh Fata, Executive Director of Film SF, San Francisco’s official film office. "Our city's thriving filmmaking community, coupled with a robust network, resources, and the advantageous Scene in San Francisco rebate program, firmly establishes San Francisco as a top-tier destination for film production."
Film SF’s recently released Impact Report for the fiscal year 2022-23 showed that film productions in San Francisco generated over $19M in direct economic output during this period. The City continues to be a prestigious beacon in the world of film and media arts, boasting an array of high-profile, nonprofit organizations and hosting numerous globally acclaimed film festivals that are pioneers within their communities.
“It is our privilege and honor to collaborate with esteemed film and media arts institutions, the stalwarts of artistic development and exhibition. These organizations are instrumental in crafting the very infrastructure that magnetizes audiences to our theaters, sustaining a rich, cinematic tradition year after year,” says Fata.
During the reception, the organizers will recognize visionary filmmakers debuting their groundbreaking projects at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The celebrated titles and their creators, along with their respective supporting organizations for this year are as follows:
- The American Society of Magical Negroes, Kobi Libii (SFFILM)
- And So It Begins, Ramona S. Diaz (ITVS)
- Didi (弟弟), Sean Wang (SFFILM)
- Freaky Tales, Anna Boden; Ryan Fleck (Film SF)
- Look into My Eyes, Lana Wilson (SFFILM)
- Sasquatch Sunset, produced by George Rush (Cinemama)
- Seeking Mavis Beacon, Jazmin Renée Jones (SFFILM)
- Times of Harvey Milk, Rob Epstein, part of Sundance Film Festival’s 40th Edition Celebration Screenings And Events
Spotlight on SF at Sundance will be held on Sunday, January 21, 2024, from 6:00 pm-8:30 pm at The Cabin location at 427 Main St in Park City. For more information please visit https://www.spotlightsf.org/
“Spotlight on San Francisco” Host Organizations:
San Francisco Film Commission (Film SF)
Film SF and the San Francisco Film Commission champion filming in San Francisco. We are a City agency that strives to attract a diversity of storytellers to the cinematic city of San Francisco and foster filming in order to stimulate economic development, create jobs, and share the beauty of our city with the rest of the world. For more information, visit Film SF.
Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC Media)
BAVC Media has been a trusted community educator, collaborator, incubator, community builder, and resource for the media arts world since 1976. BAVC Media serves as a community hub and resource for media makers in the Bay Area and across the country, reaching thousands of freelancers, filmmakers, jobseekers, activists, and artists every year. We provide access to media-making technology, hands-on training, workshops, mentorship, preservation services, broadcast opportunities, artist development support, and more. Across BAVC Media’s programs, we advocate for those whose stories aren’t being told and provides the resources for anyone to create, share, and amplify their stories and those of their communities. For more information, visit www.bavc.org
Berkeley Film Foundation
The Berkeley Film Foundation (BFF) is a nonprofit grantmaking institution that offers educational programming, community screenings, and networking opportunities to the local independent film community in the San Francisco Bay Area’s East Shore cities. Since 2009, we have awarded over $2M in grants supporting both narrative and documentary projects by student and professional filmmakers with a strong focus on topics of social or environmental justice. To learn more about BFF, visit: www.berkeleyfilmfoundation.org.
Center for Asian American Media
For over 40 years, the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) has been dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. As a nonprofit organization, CAAM funds, produces, distributes, and exhibits works in film, television, and digital media. For more information about CAAM, please visit www.CAAMedia.org
Cinemama
Cinemama is an inclusive cultural hub for developing, producing, and exhibiting films in the Bay Area filmmaking community. Operating under the belief that filmmakers are essential to our culture, we are fostering connectivity and establishing Oakland, California, and the San Francisco Bay Area, as one of the central filmmaking hubs in the world. https://cinemamafilm.com/
East Bay Film Collective x Center for Cultural Power
The East Bay Film Collective (EBFC) is a group of filmmakers, culture makers, and community organizers that have come together with the ultimate goal of using filmmaking as a vehicle to uplift Oakland as the creative hub it is and bring employment and economic vitality to the area through arts and culture. One of their key partners in this work is the Center for Cultural Power. The Center for Cultural Power is a cultural strategy nonprofit that activates and mobilizes BIPOC artists to envision a world in which cultural, economic and political power are distributed equally, and where all human beings can live in harmony with nature.
Frameline
Frameline’s mission is to change the world through the power of queer cinema. As a media arts nonprofit, Frameline’s integrated programs connect filmmakers and audiences in San Francisco and around the globe. Frameline provides critical funding for emerging LGBTQ+ filmmakers, reaches hundreds of thousands with a collection of over 250 films distributed worldwide, inspires thousands of students in schools across the nation with free films and curricula through Youth in Motion, and creates an international stage for the world’s best LGBTQ+ film through the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival and additional year-round screenings and cinematic events. For more information on Frameline, visit www.frameline.org
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE Local 16)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, and Canada (I.A.T.S.E) Local 16 provides stage craft and technical support to a wide variety of entertainment and event industries ranging from Motion Pictures, Commercial Production, Theatrical Events, Industrial Trade Shows, Live Concert Events, and many other venues from San Francisco to San Mateo to Napa and Sonoma Counties. We provide skilled, trained technicians in a multitude of disciplines including Lighting, Carpentry, Audio Engineering, Props, Makeup, Camera Operators, Video Engineering, Audio Visual Technicians, etc. For more information, visit www.local16.org/
ITVS
Independent Television Services (ITVS) is the largest co-producer of independent documentaries in the United States. For more than 30 years the San Francisco non-profit has funded and partnered with documentary filmmakers to produce and distribute untold stories. ITVS incubates and co-produces these award-winning titles and premieres them on our Emmy® Award-winning PBS series, INDEPENDENT LENS. ITVS titles appear on PBS, WORLD, NETA, and can be streamed on various digital platforms including the PBS app. ITVS is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Acton Family Giving, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Wyncote Foundation. For more information, visit itvs.org
Jessie Cheng Charitable Foundation
Launched by Honolulu resident Jessie Cheng, the mission of this family foundation is to support education in underserved communities as well as programs that advance arts and culture.
Jewish Film Institute
The Jewish Film Institute (JFI) is a San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit organization that champions bold films and filmmakers that expand and evolve the Jewish story for audiences everywhere. Presenter of the annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), the longest-running and most celebrated festival of its kind in the world, JFI is a year-round organization delivering screenings and events to more than 40,000 film lovers annually. SFJFF is an Academy Award®-qualifying film festival known for its provocative, independent programming that has helped to launch the careers of emerging filmmakers and highlighted previously untold stories from Jewish communities around the world. JFI’s free, online programs serve thousands of viewers, educators, and researchers worldwide each year. In addition to its public programs, JFI’s Filmmaker Services supports the careers of filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond, from incubation through exhibition, through its grants, residencies, and other creative development opportunities. For more information, visit www.jfi.org .
QWOCMAP
Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP) fuels creativity and leadership for LBTQIA+ BIPOC filmmakers, sparks new films, galvanizes collective action, forges solidarity, and strengthens movements. Founded in 2000, QWOCMAP is a nonprofit organization that funds, creates, exhibits, and distributes films that authentically reflect the lives of queer women of color both cisgender & transgender, and nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and transgender people of color of any orientation. Over 465 films have been created through our award-winning Filmmaker Training Program, the largest catalog of films by LBTQIA+ BIPOC filmmakers in the world. QWOCMAP presents the annual San Francisco Queer Women of Color Film Festival, and provides critical funding for LBTQIA+ BIPOC filmmakers. Our vision nurtures filmmaker-activists as leaders of social justice movements that incorporate the power of art as cultural resistance and cultural resilience, cultural reclamation and cultural renewal. For more information, visit QWOCMAP.org.
SAG-AFTRA
SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, influencers and other entertainment and media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. A proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, SAG-AFTRA has national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide representing members working together to secure the strongest protections for entertainment and media artists in the 21st century and beyond. Visit sagaftra.org online or find us on social (Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter).
SF IndieFest
SFFILM
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM inspires and connects audiences, students and teachers, and filmmakers through film exhibitions, youth education, and artist development programs. Annual public film programs presented by SFFILM include the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) which is the longest-running film festival in the Americas, Doc Stories documentary series, special events with the best and brightest in contemporary film, and family programming. SFFILM Education serves more than 15,000 students and educators with learning opportunities designed to cultivate media literacy, global citizenship, and a lifelong love of movies. SFFILM Makers supports the careers of independent filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond with grants, residencies, and other creative development services. For more information visit www.sffilm.org
Teamsters Local 2785
Teamsters Local 2785 plays a crucial role in the film industry in San Francisco, coordinating the movement of equipment, star wagons, star cars, utility trucks, passenger vans, scouting, and locations. Our dedication to ensuring that production companies and studios have a positive experience in San Francisco reflects the importance of the Teamsters licenses and certifications in the filmmaking business.
Teamsters Local 350
Teamsters Local 665
Teamsters Local 665 is an affiliated union of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Motion Picture and Theatrical Trades Division. Local 665’s members in this division are onset transportation drivers of industry equipment including Camera Car, Production Van, Horse Truck, Crane, Tram, Stunt/Blind vehicles. The skilled and trained men and women in this craft are employed In feature film, series and television commercial production.
For more information, please visit: https://www.teamsters665.org/
Teamsters Local 856