The San Diego International Film Festival is an independent film festival held annually in San Diego. The festival's top honorary award is the Gregory Peck Award for Cinematic Excellence that has been presented at the festival by the family of Gregory Peck since 2014. The festival also presents the Chris Brinker Award to first time directors. Those and other honorary and competitive awards presented by and at the festival are here organized by year and by award.
Oct 18-22, 2023 [1]
Audience Choice Awards:
Oct 19-23, 2022 [2]
Audience Choice Awards:
Oct 14-24, 2021 [3]
Audience Choice Awards:
Oct 15-18, 2020 [4]
Audience Choice Awards:
Audience Choice Awards:
Oct 10-14, 2018 [7] | Jury Awards:
Audience Choice Awards:
Oct 4-8, 2017 [8] |Jury Awards:
Audience Choice Awards:
Sept 28-Oct 2, 2016 [9] |Jury Awards:
Audience Choice Awards:
Sep 30-Oct 4, 2015 [10] |Jury Awards:
Audience Choice:
Sep 24-28, 2014 [11] [12] | Jury Awards:
Audience Choice:
Oct 2-6, 2013 [13] | Jury Awards:
Audience Choice:
Audience Choice:
Audience Choice:
Audience Choice:
Sept. 27 – Oct. 1, 2006 [21] [22]
Audience Choice:
Sept 21-25, 2005 [23]
Audience Choice:
Sept 29 - Oct 4, 2004 [24]
SDiFF2024
October 17, 2024 [26]
SDiFF2023
No awards banquet was held in 2021 due to the 2023 SAG/AFTRA strike.
Oct 20, 2022 [27] [28] [29] | The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla
Confirmed Festival Guests: Jung Ryeo-won, [30] District Attorney Summer Stephan [31]
Oct 14-24, 2021
No awards banquet was held in 2021 due to COVID-19 protocols about social distancing.
No awards banquet was held in 2020 due to COVID-19 protocols about social distancing.
Oct 18, 2019 [32] [33] [34] | Pendry Hotel San Diego
Host: Scott Mantz
Confirmed Festival Guests: Stephen Gyllenhaal, [37] Cindy Marten. [38]
Oct 11, 2018 [39] [40] [41] | Pendry Hotel San Diego
Host: Scott Mantz
Confirmed Festival Guests: Hal Linden, [42] Nat Wolff, [43] Jassa Ahluwalia [44]
Oct 5, 2017 [45] | Pendry Hotel San Diego
Host: Jeffrey Lyons Co-hosts: Ben Lyons, Scott Mantz
Confirmed Festival Guests: Rian Johnson, [46] Nick Eversman (presenter)
Sept 29th, 2016 [47] [48] | Museum of Contemporary Art
Host: Jeffrey Lyons Co-hosts: Ben Lyons, Scott Mantz
Confirmed Festival Guests: Warren Beatty, [49] Kevin Pollak, [50] Josie Totah (as JJ Totah), [51] Sean Patrick Flanery, [52] Kweku Mandela [53]
Oct 1, 2015 [54] - Museum of Contemporary Art
Host: Jeffrey Lyons
Confirmed Festival Guest: Mika Haka, [55] Leslee Udwin, Roger Ross Williams, Dawn Porter [56]
Sept 25, 2014 | Museum of Contemporary Art [57] [58] [59]
Confirmed Festival Guests: [61] Tom Berenger, Josh Duhamel, Dennis Haysbert, Stelio Savante
Oct 3, 2013 | Museum of Contemporary Art [62] [63]
Confirmed Festival Guests: Michael B. Jordan, [64] Troy Duffy [65]
Sept 27, 2012 | Museum of Contemporary Art [66]
Confirmed Guests: Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, [69] Diane Ladd, [70] Anne Heche, Pennie Lane, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Martin McDonagh, [71] Mark Christopher Lawrence [72]
Sep 28-Oct 2 [73]
Confirmed Guests: Will Reiser, Tom Sizemore, Lee Hirsch
Sept 20, 2010 [74]
Confirmed Guests: Jenna Fischer, Kim Coates, Leland Orser, Davis Guggenheim, Jason Ritter and Elliott Gould.
Confirmed Guests: [75] William Shatner, Richard Dreyfuss, James Van Der Beek, James Cromwell
Confirmed Guests: Melissa Joan Hart, Bryan Greenberg, Ben Younger.
Achievement in Acting Award: [78] James Woods
Confirmed Festival Guests: [79] Kevin Smith, Jeff Anderson, Rod Lurie, Tatum O’Neal, Cliff Robertson, Joey Lauren Adams and Scott Baio
for Best Native American Film
For best first time director.
The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October.
The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) is a film festival held annually in Calgary, Alberta, in late September and early October.
The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an annual independent film festival held each March in San Jose, California and Redwood City, California. The international festival combines the cinematic arts with Silicon Valley’s innovation. It is produced by Cinequest, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that is also responsible for Picture The Possibilities and the distribution label Cinequest Mavericks Studio LLC. Cinequest awards the annual Maverick Spirit Awards. In addition to over 130 world or U.S. premieres from over 30 countries, the festival hosts writer's events including screenwriting competitions, a shorts program, technology and artistic forums and workshops, student programs, and a silent film accompanied on the theatre organ. Founded in 1990 as the Cinequest Film Festival, the festival was rebranded in 2017 as the Cinequest Film & VR Festival and expanded beyond downtown San Jose to Redwood City. It took its present name in 2019.
The Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF) is an annual nonprofit international festival dedicated to the exhibition of underground and avant-garde cinema, video, and performance.The festival offers an opportunity for independent artists who are frequently overlooked by other conventional, market-driven film festivals to showcase and be recognized for their work though jury and audience awards. In addition to screenings, the festival also hosts events to build community amoungst the audience. Founded in 1993, the festival is widely regarded as the longest running festival of its kind.
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. The festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 feature films and 150 short films from more than 70 countries are screened at the festival each year.
The San Diego International Jewish Film Festival (SDIJFF) is an annual film festival held in San Diego, California. Established in 1990, the festival is managed by the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center in La Jolla. The festival usually consists of around fifty narrative, documentary, and short films, often with post-film audience discussions with the filmmakers. The festival also includes special events such as receptions and religious observances such as havdalah. Awards include the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary and Feature; and Audience Choice for Best Short by an Emerging Filmmaker in the "Joyce Forum" program.
The St. Louis International Film Festival is an annual film festival in St. Louis, Missouri, which has been running since 1992. The coordinating organization changed its name to "Cinema St. Louis" in 2003. The festival screens approximately 300 films over a period of 10 days during November.
The San Antonio Film Festival (SAFILM) was founded in 1994 by Adam Rocha as a video festival. It was later renamed the San Antonio Underground Film Festival and then finally the San Antonio Film Festival. It is now the biggest film festival in South Texas.
The Abu Dhabi Film Festival, formerly the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), was an international film festival held in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 2007 to 2015.
The GI Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on military and veteran experiences, held in San Diego, California. Films featured in the festival reveal the struggles, triumphs, and experiences of service members and veterans.
Stephane Gauger was a Vietnamese-born American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer.
The Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Dallas, Texas. The 2025 edition will be held April 25-May 1, 2025.
The Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) is an annual film festival founded in 1999 and held on Cape Cod in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The festival presents American and international narrative features, documentaries and short films for five days in June of each year.
The San Diego International Film Festival is an independent film festival in San Diego, California, produced by the nonprofit San Diego Film Foundation. The main event has traditionally been held annually in autumn at venues in the Gaslamp Quarter, La Jolla, and Balboa Park.
The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) is an annual nonprofit film festival dedicated to promoting and increasing multicultural awareness and showcases world cinema and independent films in their original language with English subtitles. Independent film producers, directors and actors within the US and abroad are invited to participate in engaging panel discussions and Q&A sessions after the screenings. Each year the festival greets more than 2,000 movie aficionados and shows about fifty films from all over the world with an impressive lineup of premieres. The Arlington International Film Festival also includes a year-round events such as poster contest competitions, pre-festival screenings and art exhibitions with local artists and performances by musicians, singers and dancers.
Film Festival'Kitzbuehel is an Austrian international film festival focusing on emerging filmmakers that takes place in Kitzbuehel/Tyrol in the last week of August each year. The Film Festival Kitzbuehel offers filmmakers from all over the world the opportunity for their works to be shown, discussed and promoted. The festival comprises competitive sections for national and international fiction and documentary feature films as well as short films and a group of out-of-competition sections, including the Spotlights, In Persona, Heimat, Mountain Sport Shorts and a Retrospective. A particular emphasis is put on films from the EU and, starting in 2017, Film Festival Kitzbuehel has entered partnerships with Transilvania International Film Festival, Sofia International Film Festival, and Bolzano Filmfestival
California's Forgotten Children is an American feature documentary directed by Melody C. Miller. Winning Best Documentary at the 2018 Soho International Film Festival, the film follows a diverse group of resilient survivors who have overcome commercial sexual exploitation of children and are changing the world by ensuring no child is left behind. The film features stories from Time 100 Most Influential People Withelma "T" Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, attorney Carissa Phelps, academic scholar Minh Dang, activist Leah Albright-Byrd, therapist Nikolaos Al-Khadra, and educator Rachel Thomas, M. Ed.
Sue Vicory is an American writer, producer and filmmaker known for producing films and documentaries in Kansas City and San Diego.