San Diego Film Festival

Complete. Fucking. Joke.
They’ve managed to complicate and confuse every aspect of the festival.
What an embarrassment.
Never again.

Attended the 2013 event. Enjoyed the SD première of 12 YEARS A SLAVE, and the Q&A afterwards.
However, the rest of the festival was a logistical disaster, revealing how inept and amateur an operation it is. No sound, no picture, or both. Confused volunteers with arbitrary rules that make no sense — forming people in lines, no you need to be in this line, no, that line, oh you don’t need to be in a line at all, you can go right in. Utterly clueless people running the whole operation, with the top people seemingly in it just for show — typical San Diego phoniness.
I paid a ton of money to attend, paid for the patron-​level ticket. I tore it up and walked out. Never looking back, never going back.
It’s a festival run by losers and wannabes.

I’m ranking this 2.5 to 3.5 stars for the moment. I will certainly be back to give SDFF a chance to earn another star or 2. This was my first experience attending this particular film festival and will see how next year’s festival goes. I attended all 5 days with a Festival Pass.
I know that some of what I’m about to mention might be more a Gaslamp 15 problem but most are issues I had with SDFF itself (not to mention that Gaslamp 15 was chosen by SDFF I’m sure there is some responsibility to be had either way).
1. Microphones hardly ever worked during intros, Q&A’s, etc. Sometimes the audience wants to hear what’s being said by festival people and filmmakers.
2. According to one of the founders of the festival, the festival jurors consist of just 3 people… one of them being the particular founder I got this info from. I don’t know, just seems to make me care even less about who actually «won» the prizes.
3. Further technical difficulties, this time with on-​screen graphics, transitions, etc. The audience really should not be seeing DVD menu graphics and the like. That’s just amateurish. And on at least one occasion, they had to stop and restart a film because the first DVD wasn’t working right and kept freezing for what seemed to be at least a quarter of the film. The apparently all DVD format (correct me if I’m wrong, it was all just DVD, right?) is another issue that I don’t feel like getting into right now. Among other things, these sorts of issues takes you out of the mood of watching films in my opinion.
4. Got hot inside on a couple of days. No AC? If there was, it wasn’t working very well at all.
5. Maybe I missed it but the film parties that I went to (which I think was all of them) had no catering whatsoever… unless you include a couple of the parties that had complimentary Stella Artois (for a limited time) and one party featuring sample desserts. Most other festivals that I’ve been to at least have some finger foods. P. S.- Doesn’t count if you have to pay for the food. Some of the events were at restaurants/​bars but you had to pay for food as if you were going there any other day of the week for the most part. Oh, they had a ton of free bottled water which was awesome.
6. Not a big deal but the escalators weren’t working (but there is an elevator that works). Not sure if they ever work or if it was just during the festival.
7. Some of the staff seemed very disinterested in what was going on. One example was during the awards ceremony/​party when I missed the announcement of who won «best picture» (you know the biggest prize they gave out) and so I asked at least 4 or 5 different team members (in various areas of the venue) who had won… absolutely no one knew! Most of the volunteer squad was helpful, though, and I can understand that some folks just got worn down. Whatever the reason, hopefully they can keep their team happy and interested with what they’re doing.
There were a couple other points that I wanted to include but I can’t seem to remember them at the moment. That being said, there are some pretty cool things about this festival (decent/​good programming, most of the staff was helpful, I actually enjoy the vintage look of the venue, the surrounding Gaslamp area, etc.) but there is a lot of room to grow. The problem with that thought, though, is that this is a festival going on it’s 11^th year (in 2012). Many of the issues are things that should’ve been worked out by now. They certainly managed to snag a number of big sponsors including GQ Magazine, smartwater, Stella Artois, Limelight, Microsoft, Paul Mitchell, Patron and others so I’m sure they can step things up.
Best wishes to the SD Film Festival and SD Film Foundation, independent film everywhere. I really do look forward to visiting SDFF in the future… I just hope to see some improvements that show the community that SD really cares about screening quality films in the best possible setting.

Got invited to an evening screening of film shorts as a pre-​festival event.
For non-​members, tickets were priced at $ 12 (not too bad). This also included a reception with appetizers and beer (yay!).
The screening itself ran for 2 hours and included past academy favorites. Good selection of shorts ranging from funny to disturbing to what-​was-​that? Love the cliffhanger choices. :)

Poorly organized. There are a lot of «workers» around but no-​one really doing anything.
They have one line for everyone but then let people into the theatre according to which category pass/​ticket they have purchased. It would make more sense to have at least 2 lines.
We could hear everything the event workers were saying to each other on a hand held radio from the projection room during the movies-​VERY ANNOYING!!!
There is very little time between movies so I quickly exited one theater and got into line for the next movie I wanted to see only to find out that they changed it to a different theatre. The lines are not clearly marked as to which movie the line is for, I overheard other people asking what movie the line was for several times.
Their website says «top 10 film festival» not sure how that is possible. Top ten in California?

How much is that doggy, in. the. window. WOOF WOOF.
The one with. the. waaaa ga lee tail.
How much is that doggy, in. the. window. WOOF WOOF.
I do hope that dog is for sale!!!
If the San Diego Film Festival was that expensive $ 1,200 dollar dog in the window.
I’d sure as hell buy it! No questions asked!
The San Diego Film Festival ROCKS like none other.
Seeing as how this was only my second year going, and its been going on for years. I honestly feel like I’ve been given the short stick in life. I wish someone, ANYONE had told me about the San Diego Film Festival sooner.
Being a film lover & always talking films with my Cinema degree holding fiancé, I can honesty say I appreciate quality films. And that is just what the San Diego Film Festival offers. Quality, fun, entertaining and captivating films. Not only does the Film Fest offer the festival once a year, they also offer something called «Film on Tap» which is a series of uniquely showcased films offered during summer time. Usually this event is held at the wonderful W Hotel downtown. Each Film On Tap event in the series is based on a different theme (music, surfing, comedy, etc) and features a screening of four to five short films. Only a $ 10 donation & well worth it. Ticket includes a wonderful array of short films AND a drinky drink. what more could you ask for? oh Popcorn? Yes, they have that too!
Pretty much. the Film Festival is my CHRSITMAS… yes.
I said it, my very own Christmas.
And I’d just like to add that I met none other than DREAM BOAT HOTTIE James William Van Der Beek this past year at the 2009 fest & he was simply delightful!

This is a review of last year’s San Diego Film Festival.
Saw a great independent film called the Lucky Ones.
Hung out with some cool people then went to a 944 after party.
I highly recommend the festival.

While I’m totally into the selection of films played here, this film festival is atrociously organized. We were misdirected (within the theater it’s held in!) by three different SDFF staff people after buying tickets online, and their lack of organization about their own freaking schedule caused us to almost miss one of the screenings we had paid to get into.
When we went to complain about our experience to an organizer, he clearly didn’t care how his staff treated us. (Asking only «Well, are you a filmmaker?» and when we said no, then he just shrugged and walked away.) There are so many good film festivals around SD and LA, not sure I’ll ever take the time and money to check this one out again. I guess the only way to have a good experience here is if Ruggy hands out kitty treats to you. (No love for me, Ruggy?)

At my first Unilocal event, I met up some of Unilocal Literati. Started off meeting my buddy Richie C and heading up to the Gaslamp. We caught up with Rugged Ruggy and his undersized polo, Eddie P who was rocking the vote, Edwin R, Stephanie, Julie and Mace in line. We waited there FOREVER but they were cool people and it was cool to meet them.
As others have recounted, there was a press setup frenzy in the lobby which kept us outside for a LONG time. Once we were finally processed in, we grabbed some free SmartWater, a bag of overbuttered popcorn, and grabbed our seats. Edwin’s +1 was late so we fended off potential chair stealers until he finally made it. We had made an agreement that if an «8» came by, we’d give up his seat in a heartbeat. Alas, no eights.
We caught a screening of «The Lucky Ones» by Director and Co-​writer Neil Burger. It was a very funny and deep story about 3 soldiers home on medical leave that end up stranded at the airport in NY and decide to drive across country to go home. It was a very funny movie, though it had it’s serious moments and was truly worth the wait. The director (who’s last film was ‘The Illusionist’ with Ed Norton, Jessica Biel and Paul Giamatti) was a cool cat and fielded a number of questions from the audience.
We tripped over to Horton Plaza as a pack of Unilocalers and hit up the 944 shindig that was going on. Lots of cameras, sponsors, food, and drink. Tommy Bahama, GQ, SmartWater, Diesel, 944 and others were on hand giving out the schwag. They included cologne, perfume, lingerie, mags, and coupons. There was an overhyped DJ, models and the ‘San Diego Bono’ flowing his mojo on unknowing girls.
I’ll take the relative tranquility over Cannes or Sundance any day. The people I met weren’t fake and full of themselves. They were genuinely fun people and I couldn’t be happier I went.
After that? Well let’s just say you should have been there…

I have been to the screenings for the San Diego Film Festival in the past, but I have never been to opening night. It was a great event! We had to wait a bit outside, but Ruggy provided his nuts for us all to share while we waited. Some turned them down, but Mace and I relished the delicious nuts. Once we were released into the screening in true VIP style, we worked the red carpet while the cameras rolled. The paparazzi was in the house with strobing flashes going off everywhere. The movie was great. I highly recommend it. It was nice to go to opening night too because many of the stars came out along with the director. It’s great to actually hear from the person who made the movie.
After the screening we all headed over to Horton Plaza for the post-​party. 944 magazine put on a great party along with other sponsors such as GQ, Smartwater, Tommy Bahama rum, Diesel and a few others. Once again cameras were flashing as we made our way down yet another red carpet. There was a yummy cheese, bread and fruit table. There were also platters of chocolate covered strawberries and little meringue cookies being passed around by very nice servers. Rugs hooked us up with free drink tickets, so we had free booze flowing all night long. There was an attractive crowd that seemed to be having fun as a few people were dancing to what the DJ was spinning. Overall, great night! Thanks for the hook-​up Ruggy. Now go see the movie!