Sonoma International Film Festival
The Sonoma International Film Festival is an American film festival that began in 1997. It takes place each April in the Sonoma Valley of California and is hosted by the Sonoma International Film Society, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. The festival contributes to the support of the Student Film Department at Sonoma Valley High School and includes in its program a showcase of student films.
Film presentations are held at a variety of venues including the historic Sebastiani Theater on the Sonoma town plaza. All venues are within walking distance of the plaza.
Film categories include world cinema, feature-length narratives, documentaries, shorts and a student film program.
Prior to 2009 the festival was known as the Sonoma Valley Film Festival. That year's festival presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to actor Bruce Willis. Other Lifetime Achievement Awards have been presented to John Lasseter, Michael Keaton, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover and Saul Zaentz.
The 2010 festival, held April 15–18 that year, presented Lauren Hutton its Spotlight Award. This year included the LunaFest, a festival within a festival of films made by women and presented by LUNA bar. The 2011 festival, held April 6–10, 2011, also included LunaFest. In 2012, the festival ran April 11–15, 2012, and showed 123 films from 30 countries in eight locations. Actor Christopher Lloyd received the festival's Award of Excellence. The 16th Annual Festival took place April 10–14, 2013.
The 2015 festival featured the U.S. debut of A Little Chaos, the first feature film directed by Alan Rickman.
The 2018 festival will take place from March 21 to the 25th.
