Among the factors making the 2018 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) feel even more special than usual is the fact that it might have been the festival that wasn’t. Just as the festival machinery was getting into full gear in early January, the mudslides changed local life as we’d known it. Contemplations of canceling the festival, as had happened with heaps of other cultural events in town in January, were resolved at the urging of many, including voices inside the head of intrepid and innately sociable festival director Roger Durling. As he told the opening-night crowd last Wednesday, he realized that the festival was an ideal rallying point for a community in need of … community.
Given SBIFF’s status, that absence would have created a major chasm in Santa Barbara’s cultural life. Instead, SBIFF has once again lit up our city in the manner to which we’ve grown accustomed, propitiously timed during the lead-up to the Academy Awards.
Audience head count has been down somewhat, no doubt impacted by the long closure of Highway 101 and the hesitation of L.A. visitors to plan or make the trek, but the show has gone on, in bold style. “Breakfast club” screenings each morning have been well attended, as have the free afternoon screenings at the Lobero. The late-night slot has gone dark in the past couple of years, unfortunately, but then again, that allows for a bit more sleep for the film-going diehards lurking and lurching among us.