In the final rub and wrap-up, SBIFF 2026 was all about the McHurley.
Yes, as we’ve come to expect, townies and tourists were lavishly regaled with the usual profusion of Oscar-baited celebrities and a wondrously global pantheon of films over the festival’s 10-and-a-half-day spread. But the lingering highlight was the grand opening of the renovated — and rethought — five-screen McHurley Film Center (courtesy of a village of patrons and, principally, Nora McNeely Hurley and Michael Hurley).
Not only was the Film Center the hub of festival screenings, with tributes at the Arlington and other events at the Riviera, but the McHurley also represents a symbolic and actual upward move in this festival's expanding life force. To boot, the venue becomes a year-round asset to Santa Barbara's cultural landscape and helps cement SBIFF's integral role in S.B.
