Highlights of The 58th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23 - May 7)

Festival Runs April 23 - May 7

The San Francisco Film Society today announced the complete schedule of films and events that will make up the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival, running April 23 - May 7 at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre and the Clay Theatre in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.

Download the Festival program here.

Browse the full public program info at festival.sffs.org.

Find press releases, high-resolution film stills and awardee images, logos, program guides and more at sffs.org/pressdownloads.

SFIFF 2015 by the Numbers:

181 Films
65 Narrative Features
35 Documentary Features
2 New Vision Features
79 Shorts
46 Countries Represented
33 Languages
2 World Premieres
5 North American Premieres
5 US Premieres
59 Women Directors

Highlights from today's press conference included these announcements:

A new Collaborations Program, in which we will be enhancing a number of screenings from films across various sections with very special added content, leveraging the intellectual and cultural wealth of the Bay Area to explore more deeply the issues in those films. Read the full press release.

Douglas Trumbull, the VFX icon who pioneered the effects in '2001: A Space Odyssey' and a dozen or so more of the most important science fiction films of all time, will be giving this year's State of Cinema Address. Read the full press release.

The lineup for the Festival's popular Live & Onstage program is as strong as ever. Innovative live music and film presentations include electro-pop duo Cibo Matto performing newly commissioned scores with a program of short films, and the legendary Kronos Quartet performing with a new work by master experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison. Read the full press release.

There's a strong showing of films that were supported by San Francisco Film Society Filmmaker360 program the SFIFF58 lineup. There are official selections supported by every Film Society support initiative, from the flagship SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant, to the Documentary Film Fund, to FilmHouse Residencies and more. Titles include Jennifer Phang's Advantageous, Jason Zeldes' Romeo Is Bleeding, Jenni Olson's The Royal Road, Kris Swanberg's Unexpected, Leah Wolchok's Very Semi-Serious and Bill and Turner Ross' Western. Read the full press release.

As a way of welcoming to Alamo Drafthouse to San Francisco -- the company opening a new cinema complex this summer -- SFIFF has given over its Dark Wave late-night fan-favorite genre section to Tim League to guest curate and co-host. Read the full press release.

The Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award, which each year honors the achievement of a filmmaker whose main body of work is outside the realm of narrative feature filmmaking, is going this year to master documentarian Kim Longinotto, who will come to the Festival to present her new film Dreamcatcher. Read the full press release.

The Mel Novikoff Award, given to a behind-the-scenes figure making significant contributions to the world of cinema, will go to the amazing film sleuth Lenny Borger. Borger is the force behind the re-subtitling of many of French cinema's classics, and a master archival explorer who has located film elements that have saved several "lost' silents. Read the full press release.

Browse the complete list of SFIFF58 press releases here, including the previously-announced Opening Night, Centerpiece and Closing Night programs, the tribute to Irving M. Levin Directing Award recipient Guillermo del Toro, the Peter J. Owens Award tribute to Richard Gere, and more.

The deadline for media accreditation for the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival is Friday April 10. To learn more about media accreditation and for instructions on how to apply, contact Press Office Coordinator Luis Mamayson at lmamayson@sffs.org.