SBIFF is a sufficiently large, diverse and broadly-intentioned festival that it serves many needs and tastes. Many crave the Hollywood celebrity factor and the English language programming. Some flock to social justice documentaries, and some seek out anything with a surfing theme. Some gorge on cinema of all stripes, taking advantage of this once-a-year cavalcade of film in our town, while others heed the plan of maybe catching one or two films during the fest.
And some of us enjoy many aspects of the festival, but mostly appreciate the international component of the program. Which is why the introduction of the new “International Directors Panel” this year — held at the Arlington on Sunday afternoon — is a great idea whose time has come, and should stay.
Festival head Durling, himself an avid fan of the international component of cinema and of this fest, presided over the all-star panel onstage, which included Oscar noms Colm Bairead (The Quiet Girl), Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), Lukas Dhont (Close), Santiago Mitre (Argentina, 1985) and veteran Polish director behind the miraculous Bresson-influenced Donkey’s eye view EO , Jerzy Skolimowski. Durling pointed out that Skolimowski was a co-writer on the classic early Roman Polanski film Knife in the Water.