The San Francisco Film Society Gets Animated From November 13 - 16

SFFS will present a four-day showcase at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinemas of the latest trends, voices, styles and practices in international animation with filmmakers in attendance. Tickets are on sale now, but hurry, some great shows are selling out fast. Highlights include:

OPENING NIGHT • November 13

Sita Sings the Blues  • Nina Paley (USA 2008)
Betty Boop meets bhangra in Nina Paley’s celebrated first feature-length film, a beautifully animated visual feast of East meets West that has delighted audiences around the world. U.S. distribution has not been secured, so this is a rare chance to see a remarkable artistic achievement.

Friday, November 14

The Best of Annecy 2008
The Best of Annecy 2008 presents a selection of the best shorts to have appeared this year at Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the most important festival for animation in Europe.

Locomotion
The short films in this program bring a fascinating and fascinated eye to the mechanics of movement.

Play It by Eye
This popular show reprises the San Francisco International Animation Festival’s survey of the best recently completed animated music videos

Saturday, November 15

Play: The Art of the Animated Film Title
Film title experts Design Films offer an entertaining showcase of animation and motion design in the modern era. Clips from more than 20 film title sequences will be shown.

Encyclopedia Pictura
This shorts program features wildly creative music videos and animated, live action and hybrid pieces created by the enigmatic Bay Area collective known as Encyclopedia Pictura.

Control Freaks
Are we masters of our own destinies? The short films in this program dance around the question, and ultimately evade it.

Waltz with Bashir
Ari Folman’s animated Waltz with Bashir (pictured above) is a direct and uncompromising look at the effects of war, and one of the most inventive and powerful films of the year.

Idiots and Angels • Director Bill Plympton expected to attend.
Indie animation king Bill Plympton’s newest feature is a dark and humorous allegory about morally bankrupt men.

Meet the Maker: Practice and Craft with Gene Deitch
10:00 am Ninth Street Independent Film Center Screening Room, 145 Ninth Street
Maverick animator Gene Deitch discusses his 50-plus years in animation.
$10 member, $15 general public.

Sunday, November 16
Gene Deitch: A Retrospective of Films for Children
Gene Deitch in person.
This child-friendly program of work by maverick animator Gene Deitch includes adaptations of stories by Maurice Sendak, an Oscar-winning classic, and some of Deitch’s own favorites and surprises.

All shows are at the Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema (except Meet the Maker with Gene Deitch), and many have repeat showings through the weekend. More information can be found at the SFIFF website.