Greetings from the 26th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival! This year, lynda.com is a presenting sponsor of this world class event, which gives us unprecedented access to the festival so we can share this wonderful experience with our members and employees.
Bruce and Lynda at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, opening night.
Lynda and Bruce answering questions on the red carpet.
Opening night of the festival featured the US premiere of the wonderful film Sarah's Key. The director, Gilles Paquet-Brenner, spoke before the film about his struggles to get the movie made, and how he persevered and brought it to life.
I’m struck by this year’s festival theme, ‘Dream a Little Bigger’, probably because it’s so much of what we encourage our own members to do. We aim to give our members the opportunity to help realize their dreams, no matter how small or how grand.
As we did last year, our crews will be covering the four major discussion panels taking place at the festival. These panels have historically included all the major players who will be in contention during awards season. Here are last year’s if you’d like to take a look at them again:
It Starts with the Script – Writer’s Panel
Creative Forces: Women in the Business – Women’s Panel
Movers and Shakers – Producer’s Panel
Directors on Directing – Director’s Panel
Finally, I’m particularly proud that two of our Creative Inspirations documentaries, Doyald Young, Logotype Designer and Richard Koci Hernandez, Multimedia Journalist, were accepted into the festival from 800 documentary entries. There will be three screenings of each film and we’ll be there with cameras to capture the Q&A session with members of our documentary production team.
We’ll be bringing you more coverage from the festival throughout the event. We hope you’ll join us and share the magic.
