39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival

The 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, is the 2024 edition of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which took place from February 7 to February 17, 2024, at Santa Barbara, California, United States.

In November and December, honorary awards were announced which are: Outstanding Performer of the Year Award for Bradley Cooper; Kirk Douglas Award For Excellence In Film for Ryan Gosling and Virtuosos Award for Lily Gladstone, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Greta Lee, Charles Melton, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, America Ferrera, and Andrew Scott.

The festival opened with the documentary Madu by Matthew Ogens and Joel Kachi Benson, story of a 12-year-old Nigerian boy Anthony Madu who moves to England to study ballet at a prestigious dance school. This year the festival inaugurated a new award 'Arlington Award', named for the historic venue where all the fest’s annual tributes timed to Oscar season take place. The award honors "an artist who is greatly admired and who has demonstrated an incomparable commitment to film and its craft". Annette Bening is the first recipient of the award.

The festival closed on February 17, with Chosen Family by Heather Graham, story of a yoga teacher Ann who is trying to find inner peace despite having problems in life. In total the festival showcased 45 world premieres and 77 US premieres altogether from 48 countries, with approximately 100 thousand attendees during the week slatted with screenings of over 200+ films. The winners were announced at a ceremony in Santa Barbara.

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• Audience Choice Award: TransMexico by Claudia Sanchez

• Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema: Edge of Everything by Sophia Sabella and Pablo Feldman

• Jeffrey C. Barbakow Award – Best International Feature Film: Andragogy by Wregas Bhanuteja

• Best Documentary Award: Diving Into the Darkness by Nays Baghai

• Nueva Vision Award for Spain/Latin America Cinema: The Blue Star (La estrella azul) by Javier Macipe

• Best Nordic Film Award: Before It Ends (Når Befrielsen Kommer) by Anders Walter

• Social Justice Award for Documentary Film: The Last Daughter by Brenda Matthews and Nathaniel Schmidt

• The ASC Award for Cinematography: The Movie Teller by Lone Scherfig

• ADL Stand Up Award: The Last Daughter by Brenda Matthews and Nathaniel Schmidt

• Best Documentary Short Film Award: A Man’s Man by Myles Desenberg

• Bruce Corwin Award – Best Live-Action Short Film Area Boy by Iggy London

• Bruce Corwin Award – Best Animated Short Film On the 8th Day (Au 8ème Jour) by Agathe Sénéchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavie Carin and Théo Duhautois

• Kirk Douglas Award For Excellence In Film: Ryan Gosling

• Maltin Modern Master Award: Robert Downey Jr.

• Montecito Award: Jeffrey Wright

• Outstanding Performer(s) of the Year Award: Bradley Cooper for Maestro

• The American Riviera Award: Mark Ruffalo

• Cinema Vanguard Award: Paul Giamatti

• Arlington Award: Annette Bening

• Outstanding Directors of the Year:

  • Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
  • Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

• Virtuosos Award:

  • Danielle Brooks – The Color Purple
  • Colman Domingo – Rustin and The Color Purple
  • America Ferrera – Barbie
  • Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
  • Greta Lee – Past Lives
  • Charles Melton – May December
  • Da'Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
  • Andrew Scott – All of Us Strangers

• Variety Artisans Award:

  • Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell – Songwriter – Barbie
  • Stephane Ceretti – VFX – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
  • Ludwig Göransson – Composer – Oppenheimer
  • Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer – Production Designer – Barbie
  • Kazu Hiro – Hairstyling/Makeup – Maestro
  • Jennifer Lame – Editor – Oppenheimer
  • Rodrigo Prieto – Cinematography – Killers of the Flower Moon
  • Michael Semanick – Re-recording Mixer – Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
  • Holly Waddington – Costume Designer – Poor Things

• Official website