Our History

The first two festivals, in 1998 and 1999, were produced with sponsorship from Sonoma's Sister Cities Program and were held in the early fall. Film industry luminaries, and Bay Area residents, Danny Glover, Francis Ford Coppola and John Lasseter were among the first to attend and support SIFF’s mission to bring new independent world cinema to Sonoma.

This year marked the debut of food and wine-tastings at all screening venues. The program doubled in scope to a total of 50 films, and included industry panels, as well as the inception of the Media Arts Program at Sonoma Valley High School to provide students the opportunity to learn about and create films. The festival showcase included a screening of FINDER'S FEE and honored three of the films creators: Robert Forster, Lifetime Achievement; Matthew Lillard, Breakthrough Actor; and Jeff Probst, Breakthrough Director.

The festival program grew to over 70 films, including 20 student shorts and 10 animated shorts, which were screened within our well-received special shorts programs. Women in film was a significant theme, and the festival honored Blythe Danner with a special Achievement Award, as well as three actresses spanning three generations at the Imagery Honors Tribute Evening--Jena Malone, Deborah Unger and Fionnula Flanagan.

This edition featured actor/activist Danny Glover who was presented with SIFF’s first ever Humanitarian Tribute in conjunction with screening the powerful FAVELA RISING, courtesy of ThinkFilm. Patricia Heaton, Tony Shaloub, Brooke Adams, Kimberly Williams, Ernie Hudson, Melissa Joan Hart, Melissa Leo, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom all attended the festival supporting filmmaking and festival film projects. Entertainment Weekly and Mercedes-Benz joined as Premier Sponsors, and entertainers, The Toledo Show (the subject of Zalman King's documentary DANCE WITH THE DEVIL) brought the house down for 300 enthralled guests at the Festival Gala.

SIFF expanded to six screening venues: Sebastiani Theatre, Hollywood at the Veteran’s Building, Vine at the Veteran’s Building, House of Docs at the Sonoma Valley Woman’s Club; Ravenswood Lounge at Sonoma Community Center, and the Ramekins Screening Room at Ramekins Culinary School, Events & Inn. Our festival tributee was Michael Keaton and included a special screening of BEETLEJUICE.

The SIFF Backlot Tent, located in Sonoma Plaza, was introduced and served as the hub for the SIFF Box Office, festivalgoers, filmmakers and sponsors.  Noted actor Lauren Hutton was presented an Achievement Award by renowned actor/comedian, and festival friend, Robin Williams. Hutton, along with David Duchonvy, attended the festival in support of their film THE JONESES, which closed the festival.

SIFF focused on Latino films and festival goers with a new program, Vamos al Cine. Also that year director John Waters performed his one-man show to a standing room only crowd. The Opening Night Film was Luc Besson's LADY, the epic story of Aung Suu Kyi who was eventually elected to Parliament in Myanmar. Christopher Lloyd, whose outstanding performances in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, BACK TO THE FUTURE, and the TV show Taxi, received SIFF's Award Of Excellence after the screening of his film LAST CALL.

SIFF again welcomed actor Demián Bichir, this time with actor Jude Law, for our Opening Night Film DOM HEMINGWAY. Historically based character film BELLE was featured as the Closing Night Film. Another festival highlight was the screening of BORN IN CHICAGO followed by a live concert with some of the film’s featured musicians including Nick Gravenitas, Barry Goldberg, Harvey Mandel, Rick Reed and Gary Malleber, among others.

We honored two of Hollywood’s most influential and contributing filmmakers. Robert Kamen, scriptwriter and Sonoma winegrower, whose box office hits include KARATE KID, THE 5TH ELEMENT, TRANSPORTER and TAKEN; and Meg Ryan, actress/director, who brought her film ITHACA and whose acting credits include SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY and YOU’VE GOT MAIL, among others. Our 19th festival opened with LOUDER THAN BOMBS (Norway | France | Denmark) and closed with THE SENSE OF WONDER (France). The SIFF Backlot Tent, featuring a VIP Lounge, daily Happy Hours and main stage entertainment nightly, and the Le Tigre Tent, a daytime screening venue and nighttime vaudeville and burlesque stage, electrified the expanded SIFF Village. Five days, 106 films, 200 filmmakers from 16 countries, 5,000 festival attendees, and a showcase of Sonoma’s best wines, spirits and cuisine.

This year, we dedicated our festival to Sonoma Firefighters and First Responders as we sought to rebuild our Sonoma and North Bay communities from the devastating wildfires of October 2017. The exclusive SIFF | Devour! Chefs & Shorts special culinary event, produced by Michael Howell and Lia Rinaldo in partnership with SIFF, made its debut. This instant hit brought together five renowned chefs, inspired by short food-focused films, who each prepared a course accompanied by a topflight wine and their assigned short film. Another new event introduced during our 21st festival was the SIFF Plaza Stroll, which gave our passholders access to seven select Sonoma restaurants, and tasting rooms for drink and food specials created especially for them.

SIFF2020 was shaping up to be our best fest yet, but with less than three weeks before it was to begin, the pandemic hit. Slated were more than 120 films from over 30 countries, appearances by acclaimed directors Lasse Hallstrom and Agusti Villaronga, and actors Karen Allen, Kate Bosworth, Christanne de Bruijn, Louis Gossett Jr, Robert Kennedy Jr, Lena Olin, Edward James Olmos, David Strathairn, and D.B. Sweeney. Two new events—the SIFF | Screen & Cuisine Lunch event featuring FANTASTIC FUNGI and our SIFF Sip Trips, featuring complimentary tastings and transportation to select festival wine sponsors, were also created to delight festivalgoers. The festival was set to end with the US Premiere of SUZI Q and a live concert from 70s rock icon Suzi Quatro and the Runaways’ Cherie Currie. And in light of the unprecedented global situation, and in the spirit that is #sonomawoodstrong, we quickly pivoted and launched SIFF 2.0, our first virtual online film festival, which featured 100+ films from 20 countries, and reached an international audience which consumed the equivalent of 4,000 hours of media in just four days.

2022 SIFF celebrates its milestone 25th festival with tributes to legends Jacqueline Bisset and Chef Jacques Pépin, and new events including Joanne Weir's Plates & Places Lunch. Filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom brought the world premiere of her film FAIR PLAY to Sonoma and was in attendance, along with husband, California Governor Gavin Newsom.