Santa Barbara International Film Festival Adds Two Extra Days to 40th Anniversary Fest in 2025

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has set its 2025 dates, and there will be two extra days in celebration of the 40th anniversary.

Going on for 12 days instead of the usual 10, the festival will take place from February 4 – 15, 2025 in Santa Barbara. The additional days will feature more exciting programming, including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes. These will be held throughout the city, including at the historic Arlington Theatre.

Santa Barbara International Film Festival Adds Days to 40th Annual Event

“As we embark on our 40^th year, we are proud of what we’ve accomplished and exhilarated for what is ahead of us.  We will be announcing a few surprises in the next few months. Onward and upwards,” says Roger Durling, SBIFF’s executive director.

Earlier this year, the 39th edition of SBIFF celebrated an array of top award contenders such as Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy.

The two stars of Oppenheimer, which won the Oscar for Best Picture earlier this year, both discussed working on the Christopher Nolan epic about the invention of the atomic bomb.

“A visionary filmmaker can see things that other people can’t see,” Downey said at SBIFF, adding that Oppenheimer was “very exacting, very rewarding — and I think it’s probably the best movie I’ve ever been a part of.”

In a separate speech at the festival, Murphy said he copied the real J. Robert Oppenheimer right down to his nicotine-stained fingers. When festival director Robert Durling pointed out the tiny detial, Murphy was delighted to talk about it.

“I’m so glad you noticed that!” Murphy said at SBIFF. “Our amazing makeup artist Luisa Abel — we did that every single day and I would get really into the detail. But then I was like, ‘No one’s ever gonna see this.’ I’m so glad you saw that!”

Another notable honoree at this year’s festival was Maestro director Bradley Cooper, who starred in the Netflix Oscar-nominated film as the late composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.

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In his Q&A with Deadline‘s Pete Hammond at the festival in February, Cooper often turned to the hiccups in his career. Like the time Robert De Niro took a moment to give him a compliment while telling him he wouldn’t be getting a role in the 2009 film Everybody’s Fine.

“I wasn’t going to get the role, but I didn’t know at the time. But he called to meet with me, and I went to meet him and he’s just like, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ You know, you’re not gonna get the role, but, I see it. I see it,” Cooper recalled De Niro telling him.

It was that “I see it” that kept him going.

Other notable people that were at SBIFF earlier this year include Oscar winners Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Billie Eilish, Finneas, Ludwig Göransson, Emma Thomas, Cord Jefferson, Arthur Harari, Jennifer Lame, Holly Waddington and other actors like Ryan Gosling, Mark Ruffalo, Annette Bening, Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, America Ferrera, Lily Gladstone, Greta Lee, Charles Melton, and Andrew Scott.

The 2024 festival featured a program of over 20 films from more than 48 countries, drawing filmmakers, half of which were women, from as far away as Turkey, India, Israel, and Sierra Leone. Tickets to the 2025 festival will go on sale in August at 25% off. The festival lineup and schedule will be announced in January.

SBIFF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts and educational organization dedicated to discovering and showcasing the best in independent and international cinema. The festival is also committed to enriching the community through free educational programs and events.

In 2016, SBIFF acquired the historic Riviera Theatre. After a capital campaign and renovation, the theatre is now SBIFF’s new state-of-the-art, year-round home, showing new international and independent films every day. And in 2019, SBIFF opened its own Education Center in downtown Santa Barbara on State Street to serve as a home for its many educational programs and a place for creativity and learning. 

Main Image: SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 16: (L-R) Queen Victoria Ortega, Claudia Sanchez and Levin Fetzer speak at the screening of ‘Transmexico’ durning the 39th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 16, 2024 in Santa Barbara, California. (Photo by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images for SBIFF)