Top 10 Things You Missed at SBIFF 2021

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival wraps tomorrow with a tribute to Oscar-nominee Amanda Seyfried (Mank). It was a whirlwind virtual event with many high profile Oscar contenders participating in various panels throughout the event. In case you missed some of the bigger moments, we’ve gathered the top 10 moments you should watch right now.

• Where else can you hear Bill Murray (Maltin Modern Master Award recipient) say that he’s never seen the only Wes Anderson film that he’s not in. Check it out! 

“I kept getting these notes from my agent, who kept sending me cassettes of his first film, ‘Bottle Rocket. I probably have the largest collection of ‘Bottle Rocket’ of any man on the planet, and I still haven’t seen the movie. I just never got around to watching it.”

• Who needs a red carpet? Zendaya had an epic virtual fashion moment while accepting her Virtuosos Award. Elle has the coverage. 
• Carey Mulligan, Cinema Vanguard Award honoree, gushes about working with Leonardo DiCaprio & Tobey Maguire: “Their [Leo and Tobey] are obviously very close; they’re really good mates. So I was daunted about not being allowed into the “club” and it was the opposite — they couldn’t have been more lovely.” Mulligan continues about DiCaprio, “Every time the camera is off of him and it’s on someone else he is as committed and as brilliant as he is when the camera is on him and that just gives you so much as an actor to play with.It raises your game… It was a complete dream come true working with him.” Check it out!
• Sacha Baron Cohen, SBIFF’s honoree for Performer of the Year, predicts Maria Bakalova’s Oscar nomination saying, “She is a phenomenon, she’s a one-off. She’s incredibly courageous, she’s in real situations, sometimes dangerous situations. She is very very funny, hilarious. She’s an incredible improvisor and fundamentally she’s a deeply emotional actor.” Baron continued, “Just as he goes to see Rudy Gulliani I said if you nail this scene you’re getting nominated for an Oscar.” Check it out!
• During the Producers PanelChristina Oh on watching Minari with her parents: “It was a very memorable screening, it was the first time we screened it for a big audience, all of our parents were there; Steven’s, Isaac’s – we were all super nervous because the majority of them hadn’t seen it yet. This was a film that, I don’t want to say we made it for them, but it was a huge part of why we wanted to do it and it was a huge part of our story and also examining the lives of our parents is always a daunting thing. I have this memory of hoping that I wouldn’t be sat next to my parents and of course I get to my seat and I’m right next to my mom the whole movie and just like freaking out the whole time.” Check it out!
• Chloé Zhao shares why she’s not ready to make a movie about her own story during the Outstanding Directors tribute: “It’s scary to dig into your own past. I would have to think about teenage angst. It’s going to take another few years, I think I have to mature more to not be afraid to look at myself.” Check it out!
• American Riviera Award honoree Delroy Lindo on working with Chadwick Boseman without the knowledge of his illness: “We did not [know what he was going through]. In retrospect it adds another layer of I don’t  know what. To the extent that it was an extraordinary experience, it adds another component to the special-ness of the experience of making this work….I thought it [his work in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom] was terrific. I remember seeing that play and I am all for having his [August Wilson] work committed to film. I thought they did a wonderful job.” Check it out!
• During the Writers Panel, Aaron Sorkin talks about his method of Directing Chicago 7: “All you’re really doing is a dramatized Wikipedia Page. Sorkin continued, I need to give credit to Paul Greengrass. At one point Paul Greengrass was thinking about directing the movie, Spielberg had decided he should produce the movie and that there was a more appropriate director for it. I was sent over to London to meet with Paul Greengrass, and we had dinner. At the dinner there were some producers and executives and at one point in the dinner Paul just wanted to talk to me alone, so he asked me to go out to the sidewalk with him at which point he said, ‘tell me the story’ and I’m glad he did. That can be very helpful when you’re writing something. If you tried telling someone your story out loud, you’ll sort of, see where ‘I have to go through this part, that’s not solid yet’ and you’ll also see where ‘obviously this part means a lot to me.’” Check it out!
• One Night in Miami’s Leslie Odom, Jr. reveals the film that inspired him during the Variety Artisans Award: “My parents thought it was really important to take us to see Spike Lee movies on the weekends that they came out…I do remember Malcolm X being a high watermark for Spike as a filmmaker at that time. I think because I had a context for the filmmaker too, I knew a little of Spike, I knew a little of Denzel, so just to see them achieve new heights had a profound impact on me and I don’t think I’ve ever shaken that.”
• Riz Ahmed and Kingsley Ben-Adir share the same dream acting partner — Anthony Hopkins (!) — and Andra Day hopes to work with Regina King. Watch the stars of the Virtuosos Award talk about the legendary actors and actresses they’d love to act with here!

Also, during the Directors Panel, Chloé Zhao, Lee Isaac Chung, David Fincher, and Thomas Vinterberg participate in a popcorn round of questions centering on “Must Watch Film” this season. Take a look here! Plus, what’s the one question they never want to be asked again, and what’s the first thing they will do post-pandemic?

MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

• Over the past 35 years, SBIFF has become one of the leading film festivals in the world and funds raised through the festival directly support SBIFF’s yearly free programs that serve over 14,000 people.
• More information, festival passes and tickets are available at www.sbiff.org
• Some breakout films this year include Ben Platt’s Broken Diamonds, opening night’s Invisible Valley about Coachella Valley, and The Revolution Generation (narrated by and starring Michelle Rodriguez).