Love movies? This SLO County film festival is celebrating 3 years of romance
For the past three years, there’s been a Central Coast trifecta of film festival entertainment, spanning geographically from Santa Barbara to Cambria.
The small coastal village of Cambria has hosted its own film festival since 2018, and the annual event has been growing by leaps and bounds.
It’s bookended by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which celebrated its 35th anniversary in January, and the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, now in its 26th year, which will be held March 17 through 21.
The Cambria Film Festival fills the calendar gap between the other two, running Feb. 6 through 9.
With the North Coast festival’s focus on romance, romantic comedies and the complexity of love, it’s a perfect lead-in to Valentine’s Day.
Movies screening at Cambria Film Festival
Centered on the theme “Love Is in the Air,” the Cambria Film Festival is smaller and younger than its peers, but it has great ambitions.
The 2020 festival will feature a diverse set of 80 short and feature-length films, winnowed down from about 3,000 entries. The entries selected to be shown are from 20 different countries.
Organizers expect more than 20 filmmakers and actors will attend the three-day event, holding court and answering questions in venues throughout Cambria and the surrounding area.
Most of those special guests will be there on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 8 and 9. A few are expected to be on the North Coast throughout the festival, including filmmakers Dale Griffith Stamos (“The Dinner Guest”), Dave Berenato (“The Curse”), Yoram Ever-Hadani (“Moon Drops”), and Sy Rosen (“Little Victories”).
Rosen said in an email interview that he’s “very excited” to be part of the Cambria Film Festival.
“I’ve written and produced TV shows for about the past 35 years,” he said, with credits including “Taxi,” “M*A*S*H,” “The Wonder Years,” “Northern Exposure” and “Frasier.”
Recently, the 70-year-old said, he’s begun writing and producing short films about the joys and horrors of getting older.”
“Little Victories,” a short film screening Feb. 7 and 8 at the festival, is a bittersweet comedy based on what happened between Rosen and his mother “when I was worried about her mental health but really should have been worried about myself.”
The 9-minute movie stars Matt Walsh of “Veep” fame as well as Lila Garrett and Sy Richardson.
Some of the festival’s other offerings carry intriguing titles, such as “Batsh*t Bride,” “The Incredible Shrinking Wknd,” “Swipe at First Sigh” and “Corkscrewed.”
Filmmaker Ben Kasulke is making his directorial debut with the drama “Banana Split,” screening Feb. 7 and 8. It follows two teenage girls who develop a friendship over the summer — marred by the fact that one of them is dating the other’s ex.
In an email interview, Kasulke described “Banana Split” as a universal coming-of-age story set within the intertwined love lives of teenagers in the 21st century” with “a very complicated, funny, articulate and specifically female world view.”
“I hope everyone can see some of themselves in April and Clara’s story,” he said. “Through them, we can see that deep friendships can become equally more essential and complicated as we grow up. Relationships in the internet age can be a messy thing, and instant virtual access to everyone’s life can make the terrain of overlapping sex, love and friendship even more difficult to navigate.”
“Speaking of love, I’ve been married to my wife Wanda for 45 years,” Rosen said. “We have found that the secrets of staying together, besides loving each other, are always having someone to blame and a hatred of packing.”
Festival opening and closing events
Opening night of the festival is Thursday, Feb. 6, at the 150-seat Veterans Memorial Building, 1000 Main St. in Cambria.
The event, which starts at 6:30 p.m., features live music by Jim Hanft and Samantha Yonack from Los Angeles. It also includes a showing of a documentary about the singer-songwriters, “After So Many Days,” plus a reception with wine and canapes, and a question-and-answer session with the dynamic duo.
Hanft and Yonack said via email that they met at a comedy show and began making music together a week later. With their background in editing and theater, and a commitment to storytelling and performing, they then “crossed over into filmmaking during the Anywhere Everywhere Tour,” they said.
The couple played one show every day for a year, filming as they went. Ultimately, with the help of their childhood best friends, filmmakers Natalia Anderson and Kyle Weber, Hanft and Yonack turned their clips about their perspective-shifting journey into their first feature-length documentary.
The festival’s closing ceremony will be held Sunday, Feb. 9, at the Hearst Ranch Winery tasting room at 442 Slo San Simeon Road in San Simeon.
That event, which kicks off at 6:30 p.m., includes an award ceremony and wine, appetizers, coffee and dessert, as well as the festival farewell. It’s dedicated to the memory of the late Cambria arts maven Nancy Green.
Judges for the festival were the award-winning broadcaster and actor Andrew Amador, Cuesta College film instructor Elaine Fournier and author Robert Tieman of Cambria, whose varied career includes stints as art-auction catalogue manager at the Getty Museum and Research Institute and manager of the Walt Disney Archives.
Between the festival’s opening and closing galas are a variety of spotlight film events at the Veterans Memorial Building, including the local filmmaker showcase of seven short films curated by young Cambria filmmakers Kyle and Carlos Plummer. That takes place 11 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 8, at the vets hall.
Among other special event are screenings of the documentaries “Monogamish” and “Romantic Comedy” on Feb. 7, a “Mamma Mia!” sing-a-long on Feb. 8.
Free SLO County events
This year’s festival also includes several free screenings, according to organizer Dennis Frahmann, “each designed to support a local cause, including the North Coast Ocean Rescue Team, the Discovery Center at San Simeon (NOAA/State Parks/Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary) and arts programs at Coast Union High School.”
North Coast schools have turned out an impressive variety of filmmakers in recent years. And, thanks to active programs teaching videomaking and other industry skills, more are coming up through the ranks, according to the schools’ teachers and administrators.
Among the festival’s free offerings are screenings of “WALL•E,” “Albatross,” “Part of Water,” and “Astray.” All will be shown at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Cambria.
Other Cambria Film Festival venues for films and events include the Cambria Center for the Arts Theater, 1350 Main St.; J. Buckley Theater, 824 Main St. in Cambria; Cambria Public Library, 1043 Main St., and Moonstone Cellars, 812 Cornwall St. in Cambria.
Given the limited seating, pass holders and individual advance ticket holders get priority seating up to 15 minutes before screening time.
VIP festival passes and every-day film passes have sold out, but remaining options include $35 day passes for Friday or Saturday, and single-film tickets, which can be purchased in advance online or at the venue 15 minutes before the screening.
For more information, go to www.cambriafilmfestival.com.
