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A Bustling Spring Leads Into a Lively Summer at the California Film Institute!
It’s that time of year when the CFI offices take a breather between wrapping up our spring DocLands Documentary Film Festival and gearing up for the Mill Valley Film Festival in October, while maintaining a busy schedule of events at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center and CFI Education programs. Since […]
Kicking off a New Year at CFI
We’re off to a great start in 2019 with record box office at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, popular special events, and a whole roster of Academy Award® nominees playing on our screens. So far this year, we’ve showcased a bevy of Oscar® contenders in our For Your Consideration series, as well as […]
A Bustling Spring Leads Into a Lively Summer at the California Film Institute!
It’s that time of year when the CFI offices take a breather between wrapping up our spring DocLands Documentary Film Festival and gearing up for the Mill Valley Film Festival in October, while maintaining a busy schedule of events at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center and CFI Education programs. Since […]
Kicking off a New Year at CFI
We’re off to a great start in 2019 with record box office at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, popular special events, and a whole roster of Academy Award® nominees playing on our screens. So far this year, we’ve showcased a bevy of Oscar® contenders in our For Your Consideration series, as well as […]






Since early spring, we’ve presented a successful 2019 Awards Night, celebrated our the Smith Rafael Film Center’s 20th birthday, hosted benefits for those affected by the fires in Butte County and the Marin Humane Society, welcomed filmmakers for several in person Q&As, increased our offerings of music-themed events and concert films, as well as classical music, dance and opera presentations, and produced our third fantastic DocLands, which continues to grow in attendance and reputation as an active, involved and fully supportive community event anchored by the exhibition of world-class documentary films and the engaged participation of filmmakers and audiences.
CFI Education has ramped up inspiring and relevant community offerings for Bay Area students, families and audiences of all ages, tackling a wide range of subjects such as teen wellness, food waste, restorative justice, rural health care, bullying, foster care, military negligence, and child poverty. CFI Education produced a week-long My Place, My Story filmmaking workshop, wherein Bay Area students produced a short film based on their own lives, then premiered those films to friends, family and CFI supporters. CFI Education also presented the three-day intensive Environmental Youth Forum in conjunction with DocLands and is actively increasing its educational outreach to students and the community with the addition of Shakira Refos, Education Outreach Manager, to the Education Team.
Looking forward, there’s much more on the horizon, including more special event programming, filmmakers in person, series and retrospectives in the third quarter at the Smith Rafael Film Center, CFI Education’s Summerfilm filmmaking summer camp for teens in July, and, of course, planning, programming and producing the Mill Valley Film Festival, October 3 – 13, 2019. Stay tuned for many more outstanding programs and events from the California Film Institute!
We’re off to a great start in 2019 with record box office at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, popular special events, and a whole roster of Academy Award® nominees playing on our screens. So far this year, we’ve showcased a bevy of Oscar® contenders in our For Your Consideration series, as well as a special Oscar Spotlight: Documentaries series. In addition to these programs, we’ve opened the acclaimed Cold War and held over the immensely popular Shoplifters, Free Solo and Can You Ever Forgive Me? from 2018. Special events have included a screening of the film The World Before Your Feet with film subject Matt Green in attendance, Dreaming of a Vetter World, presented in partnership with Good Earth Natural Food stores, featuring a post-screening Q&A with director Bonnie Hawthorne, film subject David Vetter and Good Earth CFO Mark Squire, and a screening of the locally shot and produced Harvest Season, featuring Latin-American winemakers Gustavo Brambila and Vanessa Robledo, both based in Napa Valley and Sonoma, who attended the screening along with filmmakers Bernardo Ruiz and Lauren Capps, and poured their wines for over 250 attendees. Recently restored and remixed Paul McCartney and Wings concert film The Bruce McMouse Show delighted audiences, and we remounted a screening of the Alfred Molina-starring play Red, presented live on screen from the London production. CFI Members were treated to a very special screening of the highly-acclaimed Oscar® Foreign language film contender Never Look Away with director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck in attendance!
CFI Education has also kicked off the year with a bang, including two school screenings, a Community Screening and a Filmmakers Go To School screening of the film Liyana, a documentary/animated film about an original African tale created by orphaned children in Swaziland, presented by co-director Aaron Kopp. Students and community audiences alike packed all three screenings at the Rafael!
Paladino in attendance on Sunday, February 3; Joni 75: a Birthday Celebration (we’ve added a third screening on Feb. 12); Around India with a Movie Camera on Sunday, February 10; a benefit screening of The Camp Fire, a documentary about the recent devastating fires in Butte County, presented in partnership with Community Heroes and followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Nancy Hamilton and subject Stephan Murray in conversation with journalist Paul Liberatore – proceeds from which will go to residents affected by the fires; a Valentine’s Day screening of the Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger 1945 romantic masterpiece I Know Where I’m Going! screening February 14 and 17; The Royal Opera presents The Queen of Spades, live on screen on February 17; the Rafael honors two greats, Nicholas Roeg and David Bowie with two screenings of The Man Who Fell to Earth on February 21 and 28, and we close out the month with Hollywood’s biggest night, the 91st Academy Awards® presented via live telecast on all three screens at the Rafael for Awards Night on Sunday, February 24!
Finally, submissions are still open for our third DocLands Documentary Film Festival, presented May 2 – 5. Submissions will be accepted through February 18 – so send in your compelling short or feature length documentary today! Info: http://www.doclands.com/submission-info/