10 Must-See World Cinema Films

By Geneva Anderson                                                              (April 24, 2026)

The 69th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM 69) returns to the Bay Area Friday, April 24, and runs 11 days through Monday, May 4, featuring 79 sharply-curated film programs from 40 countries screening in seven Bay Area theaters.   The world cinema line-up of 32 narratives and 11 docs is phenomenal, with original stories that crystalize into masterful portraits of individuals and place. Continue reading

Messages for the Future

The United Nations Association Film Festival returns to the Bay Area with another urgent, globally expansive lineup. Running from October 16–26, the 28th edition of UNAFF brings 60 documentary films to venues across Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Stanford University. More than just a film festival, UNAFF is a civic forum—a space for dialogue, reflection, and action.

Continue reading

Bobi Wine-The People’s President—From Pop Star to Politician

By C.J. Hirschfield

(November 2, 2023)

At a recent San Francisco gathering Bobi Wine (Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu) said he would like you to know that the United States gives $1 billion a year to support Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni’s 30+ year ruthless and dictatorial rule.

Ugandan opposition leader, former member of parliament, activist, and national megastar musician Wine would very much like for you to “stop paying for our oppression.”

Continue reading

Creature Discomforts: Life in Lockdown

By Gary Meyer

Do you remember a short film called Creature Comforts?
Stop motion clay animated zoo animals were given voice by a series of non-actors in series of “man on the street” type interviews where they talk about the advantages and disadvantages of living in a zoo. In 1991 the film won an Academy Award for director Nick Park and Aardman Animations.

925_x_521_5.png

They are back.

Continue reading

Healing The World One Film at a Time: Black Films Matter

Screen Shot 2020-07-17 at 8.27.03 PM

By Gary Meyer

Celebrate African American cinema and the African cultural Diaspora through a diverse collection of films – from emerging and established filmmakers. The San Francisco Black Film Festival presents movies reinforcing positive images and dispelling negative stereotypes while providing cinema artists from the bay area in particular and around the world in general, a forum for their work to be viewed and discussed.

For more than 20 years audiences have gathered to experience these movies but this year the festival has been reinvented as “Virtually, It’s Possible” uploading new movies twice a day through August 2, 2020 on the San Francisco Black Film Festival website.

Continue reading

AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL WRAPS ITS TOUR IN BERKELEY AND ST. LOUIS

by Frako Loden

Screen Shot 2019-03-20 at 11.21.58 PM.pngThe African Film Festival National Traveling Series stops at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive this spring for its 25th year, acquiring some other film-festival notables on its way. True to its mission to present the best of recent films from Africa and the African diaspora, this year’s edition features dramas and documentaries from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger, Tunisia, Europe, the UK and the US.

Screen Shot 2019-03-20 at 11.24.08 PM.png

Continue reading