The 69th SFFILM Festival is days away, April 24 – May 4, featuring over one hundred films from more than forty countries. Please visit the SFFILM Festival website for more information about the exciting program, how to purchase tickets, and a calendar of special events and presentations.
In the meantime, here’s a second preview of the Festival, highlighting three films and six shorts: Renoir, How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps, Filipiñana, and shorts Corpus Christi, The Veil, Vultures, A Year of Marriage, Cardboard and First Winter.
1.) RENOIR
(Japan/France/Singapore/Philippines/Indonesia/Qatar/USA, 2025. 118 min.)
In Renoir, director Chie Hiyakawa (Plan 75) takes us deep into the emotional hardships of a Japanese family in late-’80s suburban Tokyo. Yui Suzuki is incredible as 11-year old Fuki, whose perspective we follow as she navigates coming to terms with a terminally ill father, an overwhelmed mother, and her own imagination, which often blurs the line between fantasy and reality. At times beautiful, and other times haunting and tense, Renoir is a patient meditation on grief as seen through the eyes of an adolescent.
Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Sat., Apr 25th, 11:30 am PT @ BAMPFA
– Sun., May 3rd, 6:00 pm PT @ Marina Theatre
2.) HOW TO CLEAN A HOUSE IN 10 EASY STEPS
(USA/Columbia/Mexico, 2026. 80 min.)
Fantasy plays an even larger part in Carolina Gonzalez Valencia’s hybrid documentary.. Focusing on the generational Colombian immigrants who make up her own family, Valencia turns to fiction in order to unearth deeper pains and struggles that her mother, Beatriz, experienced upon becoming a domestic house cleaner in the United States. Full of humor, harsh memories, and the reparation of old wounds, Valencia’s autobiographical doc is, ultimately, a tribute to immigrant labor that forms the backbone of American communities.
Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Fri., May 1st, 6:00 pm PT @ Premier Theater at One Letterman
3.) FILIPIÑANA
(Singapore/UK/Philippines/France/Netherlands, 2025. 100 min.)
Set on a sun-blushed golf resort in Manila, Filipiñana follows a newly hired ball girl, Isabel, as she unearths the strange, hierarchical mysteries hidden behind the resort’s pristine exterior. Making his feature debut, director Rafael Manuel practices extreme patience with his scenes, letting them quietly drag on and on, insisting that the visuals sink into the audience’s subconscious with shifting meanings. Like Stepford Wives meets White Lotus, Manuel’s subtly moving film is a prescient commentary on financial inequality and social status, marked with a striking visual palette.
Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Fri., May 1st, 7:00 pm PT @ BAMPFA
– Sun., May 3rd, 8:00 pm PT @ Premier Theater at One Letterman
4.) SHORTS BLOCK 4: SHADES OF MENACE
Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Wed., Apr 29th, 6:00 pm PT @ Marina Theatre
CORPUS CHRISTI
(Spain, 12 min.)
Combining embroidery and digital animation, Corpus Christi is a visually impressive short about mental illness and experienced trauma. Drawing from personal experience, Spanish illustrator Bea Lema adapts her own award-winning graphic novel about a woman who struggles with mental illness as she navigates a community driven by religion and traditional familial roles.
THE VEIL
(Brazil, 20 min.)
The Veil is a fun horror short about a demonic possession that invades the family running a performative religious cult. Well-photographed with unnerving framing and backdropped with an eerie musical score, The Veil is a concise, enjoyable thrill.
VULTURES
(France/South Africa, 15 min.)
The feelings of desperation, confusion, and anxiety permeate through this short about the immediate moments following a car crash. We experience the events from the perspective of a tow-truck driver in need of business as he deals with a brash competitor while handling injured parties and paramedics. Vultures thrives on its non-stop chaos.
A YEAR OF MARRIAGE
(Mexico, 19 min.)
A Year of Marriage is a well-crafted comedic horror about a young couple who must care for a dangerous creature for a year to secure the promise and longevity of their marriage. The film is brutal, and its metaphorical themes are obvious, but that doesn’t take away from the solid direction and editing, effectively revealing and concealing narrative elements in equal measure.
5.) SHORTS BLOCK 5: FAMILY FILMS
Screenings (click here for tickets):
– Sat., Apr 25th, 11:00 am PT @ Marina Theatre
CARDBOARD
(UK, 8 min.)
Cardboard is a cute, funny, life-affirming short about a single dad and his two piglets moving to a rundown trailer park. The animation team crafts beautiful Pixar-level fantastical sequences representing the piglets’ adventurous imagination. Cardboard will make you smile.
FIRST WINTER
(USA, 5 min.)
Sweet and sentimental, First Winter is a short about a young kid’s dreams of returning to a warm home now that he’s stuck in a classroom on a harsh winter day. The story is a tribute to immigrants and anyone finding solace in a new home while still honoring (and remembering) where they’ve come from.
