Read more from our preview of SBIFF 2026 here.
Over the years, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) has kicked off its grand event in gala-style blowout converging on the historic Arlington Theatre, replete with klieg lights beaming, red carpet, and requisite regalia. Whatever the film showcased on that night, and however it is received, crowds show up for the notable festive occasion of it all. The conventional wisdom is that the vast pageantry of cinema from the world — with 200-plus films — will generate its own centrifugal buzz. But you gotta start somewhere.
The SBIFF opener list over its past 40 years has included last year’s light literate comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, which went onto a theatrical run, Sarah’s Key (with Kristin Scott Thomas) in 2011, and a slight but enjoyable Woody Allen film, Melinda and Melinda, in 2005, (before Woody Allen became alleged sex offender non grata).