Countdown to SFF 2013
It's a new year and SFF is on the move. We are less than three short months away from this year's festival, which runs April 5th to 14th! Last time around we had WWE Superstar Wrestlers on the red carpet and the Flying Wallenda Family performing live. The sky's the limit to what you might see this year.
Memberships, sponsor and volunteer opportunities are all available now!
Our box office this year will again be at the fantastic Regal Hollywood 20 in downtown Sarasota.
Watch this Space:
Return of the Moonlight Movies! February 1st, 7:00 PM, at the Tatum Ridge Elementary School.
The SFF participates in the Giving Challenge from March 5th to 6th. This is a great opportunity to support film and the wonderful events the SFF brings to the community.
Watch our website and Facebook for further details on these and many other exciting
Upcoming March Milestones:
March 13th: Line-up Announced
March 14th: Box Office Opens for Sponsors and Members
March 15th: Box Office Opens for General Public
Recent Happenings:
Director Tom Hall and Programmer Magida Diouri are off to Utah for the Sundance Film Festival this week where they will screen a wide array of exciting prospects for SFF 2013.
Film submissions closed last Friday. Thank you to the filmmakers for a record number of submissions.
The Sarasota Film Festival Year Round!
The attendance of Rory Kennedy (director of last year’s acclaimed documentary Ethel) at the SFF has made her a friend of the festival. This friendship has continued through the attendance of President and Chairman of the Sarasota Film Festival Mark Famiglio on December 3rd at a charity gala for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in Manhattan. The event was held at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan with approximately seven hundred guests in attendance.
“My friendship with the Kennedy clan was renewed during her visit to Sarasota in support of Ethel and continued when I met up with several of her family on the island of Nantucket this past summer,” Mark tells us. Here’s a scoop: Rumor has it that Rory has a new documentary about the U.S. exodus from Vietnam that is near completion.
Kerry Kennedy, one of RFK's daughters, said, "The point of this dinner is to support the work of the RFK Center, and that carries on Robert F. Kennedy's unfinished work on social justice in the United States and around the world." The RFK Center champions international human rights and social justice causes and educates 500,000 students worldwide annually, according to Kerry Kennedy, who hoped to raise $2 million for the charity Monday night. Also on hand was Taylor Swift, who was honored for her charity work as the youngest recipient of the Ripple of Hope Award.
Vincent A. Mai, Chairman of AEA Investors, and currently the chairman of the Africa Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations, was also honored for his many important contributions to the worldwide fight for human rights. (He has also served as the chairman of the Africa Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch.)
Mark was seated at the head table with Rory and Kerry Kennedy and a veritable who’s who of film, television and music stars. In attendance were Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria Thomas, Taylor Swift, Lorraine Braco (sporting recently dyed pink hair),Alfre Woodard, Antonio Banderas and his wife Melanie Griffith. Glee's Dianna Agron sat to his left and Taylor Swiftand her mother faced him across the table. Mr. Baldwin is a major supporter of Hamptons International Film Festivalwhere Tom Hall and former co-programmer Holly Herrick are alums.
Mark reports that he spoke with Taylor and her mother aboutSarasota, music and film, circus and dance, and our amazing theaters and beaches. So what is this beautiful and poised singing sensation like in real life? “Taylor was eyeing the dinner rolls, picking at little pieces, obviously hungry but exercising the restraint that gave her such a beautiful trim stature.”
Mark asked her if she was going to grace the crowd with a performance. After she quipped about her successive boyfriends she surprised everyone with an acoustic set for desert. After an evening of conversation and music the group retreated to a private area of the hotel continue the reverie.
Click on the image to view a video from the event.
All in all a sensational event for an intensely worthy cause and an opportunity to perhaps entice even more entertainment industry movers and shakers to SFF!
