Jessie Fairbanks Talks About Starting Planning for the SFFILM Awards Night Months in Advance
By Noma Faingold (December 1, 2025)
Hollywood’s award season, culminating with the 98th Academy Awards next March, has begun. SFFILM’s 2025 Awards Night (in its 68th year) on December 8 is an early stop and proven momentum builder during the circuit. Director of Programming at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Jessie Fairbanks, starts her preparation to secure the four recipients in June by reaching out to studios and the teams behind the talent.
Photo by Noma Faingold
“We have great relationships with every single studio and rights holder. A lot of the award campaigns know about us,” Fairbanks said. “San Francisco is well placed because there is such a large film community here. There is a very long, rich history of cinematic distinction in the Bay Area.”
At last year’s gala fundraiser, the non-profit organization honored four artists, including actress Demi Moore (“The Substance”) and director Denis Villeneuve (the “Dune” franchise). “It is about celebrating four distinct individuals, who are at the height of their craft,” Fairbanks said. “It’s storytellers who bring a story to life through performing, directing, screenwriting or someone who has multiple roles.”
This year, the awardees are:
- Scott Cooper (“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere”), the Irving M. Levin Award for Film Direction.
- Benicio Del Toro (“One Battle After Another”), the Maria Manetti Shrem Award for Acting.
- Actress Wunmi Mosaku (“Sinners”), the George Gund III Award for Virtuosity.
- Actress Kristen Stewart (who directed “The Chronology of Water”), the Nion McEvoy & Leslie Berriman Award for Storytelling.
This year’s Awards Night is the fifth for Fairbanks, who lives in San Francisco’s Sunset District. As Director of Programming, her primary focus is to curate the San Francisco International Film Festival, held in April and Doc Stories, a mini-festival in early November. “I love this event. It gives me a chance to use other muscles than what I do with my team for the festivals,” she said. “Awards Night takes an incredible amount of preparation and a lot of coordination. What is a challenge is that we’re chasing some of the biggest names in the industry.”
Past recipients include actors Harrison Ford, Oscar Isaac, Margot Robbie, Adam Driver, Nicolas Cage, Annette Bening, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Glenn Close. Directors honored include Spike Lee, Chloe Zhao, Akira Kurosawa, Greta Gerwig, and Bay Area residents Francis Ford Coppola and Ryan Coogler.
Fairbanks works closely with SFFILM’s Executive Director Anne Lai for months to select the Awards Night lineup. Fairbanks joked that she spends more time with Lai than her husband during award season. She sets up Zoom meetings in June with key reps of talent that SFFILM may want to pursue. In July and August, Fairbanks and Lai screen films, often long before their release. “We like to identify the recipients before there’s any press, before anything can affect our judgement,” she said. “We are looking to celebrate individuals based on merit, on our own curatorial knowledge and acumen. We consider ourselves to be tastemakers and influencers.”
Last year, when Fairbanks saw “The Substance,” she immediately let Lai know that they should give Moore the acting award, even though the independent body horror film wouldn’t necessarily be an obvious choice. “Her performance was absolutely incredible,” she said. “The bravery for her to attack such a meta topic of someone who has been in the limelight in Hollywood for so long, where she is constantly assessed for her beauty, her youth and her vigor.”
Fairbanks was taken by Moore’s decades of persistence in the business, which is notorious for forgetting, if not discarding, leading actresses as they grow older. “She threw herself into this role,” she said. “We wanted to honor somebody who is very well known but never really got her due.”
Moore’s poignant acceptance speech was the foundation of the memorable speech she gave when she won the Golden Globe later in the award season. “She talked about how she no longer belonged in the industry, that maybe her time was over. The film gave her an opportunity to dig into a very meaty role,” Fairbanks said. “She didn’t know what was going to happen, but she gave it her all. Now she feels like there is a place for her and she can find a different pathway to new roles. It was a rebirth for her.”
In 2023, when Fairbanks saw “American Fiction” in August, before its release, she decided that Cord Jefferson, a relatively unknown screenwriter (making his film directorial debut), should be awarded the George Gund III Award for Virtuosity, which salutes an artist’s breakthrough.
“I thought that this is one of the best scripts I think we’re going to see of the year,” Fairbanks said. “We were the first to put an award in front of him. We didn’t know what would happen. But we were so thrilled to have him,” she said.
What happened a couple of months later, at the Oscars, was Jefferson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (based on the novel, “Erasure,” by Percival Everett).
At SFFILM Awards Night, Jefferson’s speech was humble, weaving longtime SFFILM supporter and champion of the arts, the late George Gund, into his address, drawing parallels of his journey in finding someone who green lit his project, after several rejections. “He did some research on Gund. It was a great speech because Cord is a great writer,” Fairbanks said.
“George was, it seems, a man whose money made him feel strong, a man who realized he could change people’s lives, who realized that in order to actually bring in marginalized filmmakers from the fringes, you have to take risks. I’m so fortunate I was able to find the people who helped me make this movie—people with the spirit of George. Making this film changed my life, and I am honored to receive this award in George’s name.” – Jefferson Cord. Photo courtesy of SFFILM; by Drew Altizer Photography.
The format of SFFILM Awards Night begins with a press line and portrait studio, followed by a reception attended by the awardees. It gives local Academy voters an opportunity to meet the individuals being honored. San Francisco is considered an important stop during award season because of its rich filmmaking history in the Bay Area and the fact that the region has the third largest contingent of Academy voters in the world.
Next are dinner and the awards ceremony. There is also a paddle raise to fund the organization’s year-round mission of artist development, education and promoting film through presenting festivals and community events.
Fairbanks and Lai put a lot of thought into selecting the award presenters. Oakland-based stage and screen actor/director Delroy Lindo, graduate of San Francisco State University and the American Conservatory Theater, will introduce “Sinners” co-star Mosaku to the room.
Omar Benson Miller, Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton and Yao on the set of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” Photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Regina Hall, who co-starred with Del Toro in “One Battle After Another,” will bestow his award.
Benicio Del Toro still from “One Battle After Another.” Photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
“Presenters are so important because we want the awardees to be given an award by a collaborator, preferably with their film that they are being celebrated for,” Fairbanks said. “We want it to be from someone who knows them well, who cares about them deeply and who can speak eloquently about their craft.”
This year’s event is expected to attract up to 400 guests. Groups in the industry and corporate partners buy tables for $10,000 and $5,000 for a half-table. Board members also contribute to the fundraising efforts All ticket tiers have sold out to this popular event.
The demand for tickets is there to stage a larger event, but SFFILM has chosen to keep it somewhat intimate. “It is important that everybody in the room feels like they are in a front-row seat,” Fairbanks said. “It’s important that people feel invigorated with the joy and the infectious spirit of how we can be transported through cinema.”
SFFILM’s 60th Awards Night will be held on December 8, at The Gateway Pavilion, Pier 2, Fort Mason, at 6 p.m. (cocktail reception), 7 p.m. (dinner and awards program). More information here.
Part of the celebration is a double feature on Sunday, December 7 of the new films directed by two of the recipients, Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water and Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. See them in the theater many filmmakers consider the best presentation in the world, the George Lucas built Premier Theater at One Letterman in the Presidio. Both directors will be in attendance for post-screening Q&As.
Open to the public. Go here for more info and tickets.
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Noma Faingold is a writer and photographer who lives in Noe Valley. A native San Franciscan who grew up in the Sunset District, Faingold is a frequent contributor to the Richmond Review, Sunset Beacon, and Mission Local newspapers, among others. She is obsessed with pop culture and the arts, especially film, theater and fashion. Noma has written about artists Tamara de Łempicka, Isaac Julien, and Wayne Thiebaud, numerous independent filmmakers, and singer/songwriters Janis Joplin, Diane Warren and Linda Smith for EatDrinkFilms.
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