56th San Francisco International Film Festival

The San Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest continually running cinema festival in the Americas, unreeling for 15 days each spring. This year’s edition (25 April-9 May) featured nearly 100 films — features, shorts and documentaries — at three venues in the historic California city on the west coast of the United States — where Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and other screen classics (The Maltese Falcon and D.O.A. included) were filmed — and one in nearby Berkeley, Calif. The festival — run by the San Francisco Film Society — gave out 14 juried awards and $70,000 in cash. Upwards of 100 filmmakers and 70,000 patrons were in attendance. Live events included a State of Cinema address by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh; a screening of the silent 1924 German expressionist film Waxworks (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett), directed by Leo Birinsky and Paul Leni, with live musical accompaniment; a master class with director William Friedkin; and conversations with actor Harrison Ford and directors Richard Linklater and Philip Kaufman. (Vincent Albert Musetto)

San Francisco International Film Festival: www.festival.sffs.org