The Santa Barbara International Film Festival kicked off last week and wraps up this Saturday in Santa Barbara. The festival showcases both feature length films as well as shorts and honors actors, directors and even below-the-line professional with awards and tributes. Among the actors and filmmakers honored at this year’s festival were “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho, who won the festival’s “Outstanding Director of the Year” award, Lupita Nyong’o who won the festival’s Montecito Award for great contributions to film, and Brad Pitt who was given the festival’s highest honor, the Maltin Modern Master Award.

To find out more about the films to watch for coming out of SBIFF, we called up KPCC FilmWeek critic Peter Rainer who has been watching films and attending panels in Santa Barbara at the festival this past week.

EVENT INFO: SBIFF takes place from January 15th-25th with most screenings at the Riviera Theatre in downtown Santa Barbara. You can find out more information, including where to buy tickets, by clicking here.

Guest:

Peter Rainer, film critic for KPCC and the Christian Science Monitor who is at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival