SFFILM Curtain Raiser: Our Watchlist for SFFILM
The 69th San Francisco International Film Festival, opening April 24th, 2026, makes the annual festival one of the longest-running in North America. SSFILM, the non-profit organization that coordinates the festival, celebrates independent voices in the film industry through Artist Development programs like FilmHouse Residency, which provides support for filmmakers in the San Francisco Bay-area and gives them access to office space, mentorship opportunities and artistic guidance. They have a youth education program which teaches kids about the film industry through hands-on workshops, screenings and courses that can help those interested in pursuing a filmmaking career one day. The annual festival features a wide range of films from around the world. Here’s a preview of the ones we’re looking forward to at this year’s edition of the SSFILM Festival.
The Invite
Olivia Wilde’s hotly-anticipated follow up to 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling. Wilde stars alongside Seth Rogen as a San Fransisco couple who meet another (Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz) for a dinner party where they’re meant to be getting to know each other. What ensues is a night of boundary crossing and exploration of intimacy and taboo. Make of that what you will.
Hot Water
When her teenage son is expelled from school, an anxious mother must transport him halfway across the country for him to live with his estranged father. This dramedy is written, directed – and scored – by Ramzi Bashour and is his directorial debut. It premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and this writer enjoyed it immensely. It’s a poignant and heart-felt ode to parents and the sacrifices they make to ensure their children have the best opportunities they can.
Silent Friend
Spanning three eras, this triptych by Ildiko Enyedi tells the story of a ginkgo tree through loosely connected stories set in Marburg, Germany. Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux lead the cast as two researchers who wish to understand the minds of plants It’s through them and their research that we unlock the memories of this tree and the secrets of how and what it has experienced.
Sender
Two of TV’s best actresses, Britt Lower (Severance) and Rhea Seahorn (Better Call Saul, Pluribus) star in this horror film which recontextualizes online shopping. Lower stars as a young woman who begins receiving unnervingly personal items every time she gets a delivery from an online order. In order to figure out who is doing this and why, she begins down a terrifying and paranoia-filled rabbit hole.
Blue Heron
Making her feature-lenght debut, Sophy Romvari, tells a semi-autobiographical story about her life growing up as a Hungarian immigrant on Vancouver Island. The film is told from the perspective of eight-year old Sasha, who witnesses her older brother’s increasingly dangerous behavioral issues while adapting to their new environment.
Rose of Nevada
Callum Turner and George McKay star in this creepy sci-fi drama from Enys Men director Mark Jenkin. Turner and McKay play two men who join the crew of the titular ship which returns to a remote Cornish fishing village after having disappeared thirty years earlier. The two are in search of a better life, but instead find themselves displaced in time, memory and the unknowable sea.
Cronos
Guillermo Del Toro originally premiered this vampire movie at the 1994 edition of the festival. The film follows an antique dealer’s transformation in a vampire when he discovers an ancient scarab-like device called Cronos, which grants him youth and eternal life, but causes him to crave any kind of blood. Human is best, of course. Showing in the Films from the Vault spotlight category.
Salvation
In an unnamed Turkish community, two tribes are embroiled in conflict over land and the right to harvest it. Mesut, a man who believes he is having prophetic dreams, begins a power grab by claiming to be the new sheikh. His rise inflames vengeful rhetoric amongst the tribe. This drama, directed by Emin Alper, won the Silver Bear award at the 2026 Berlinale.
A Sad and Beautiful World
Director Cyril Aris explores one couple’s romantic hardships through the lens of thirty years of Lebanese history. Since childhood, Nino and Yasmina have had a magnetic connection through passion, love, and hope. When Nino’s parents die in a car accident, Yasmina is facing the separation of hers. Their mutual understand of each other’s sorrow creates an almost unbreakable bond between them. But all that changes when Yasmina is forced to move away with her mother. Celestial events seem to reunite them years later, as they fall in love. The star-crossed lovers have to decide whether they want to start a family and try to find happiness against the backdrop of the tragedies ravaging Lebanon.