Grennan adds that by the time SVFF Streaming takes place, April 14-18, 2021, he wondered if viewers might have digital streaming fatigue from the larger festivals such as Sundance and SXSW, among others, which have all made massive efforts to keep the festival experience enjoyable and important online. “The tiger still needs to be fed,” he says. “People are still using Hulu and Disney+, but for SVFF, it’s not necessarily a business model for a boutique film festival, but it’s purely for exposure, continuity, keeping our staff together, and expanding SVFF to other places. Candice and I are working with what we got and make it better.”
A 16-film festival slate includes documentaries, narratives, and shorts with Q & As has been carefully curated through a submission process by the SVFF programming team, Ana Souza and Bennett Krishock, who have been extremely diligent in their choices and procedure. However, it’s not just an impressive film line-up, but it will also include SVFF’s signature Coffee Talks and an Awards Bash.
Atmosphere during the 2019 Sun Valley Film Festival Screenwriter’s Lab presented by Variety, held at the Tito’s Loft in Sun Valley, ID
“…it’s purely for exposure, continuity, keeping our staff together, and expanding SVFF to other places.”
“What keeps our connection to community and festival-goers is not that it matters who the people are at a free event. It’s the work and impression these interesting people have on our lives,” says Grennan. “We have three Coffee Talks with Ethan Hawke, Gal Gadot, and Shaka King. Ethan has been around for three decades. He has a large scope of work, including his most recent project, The Good Lord Bird. Gal Gadot is another, and she is huge. Not just Wonder Woman, but her new National Geographic show IMPACT is another side of her enormous scope of work, which will have a few episodes on SVFF Streaming. Gal and Ethan are our 2021 Vision Award recipients. And our third Coffee Talk, Shaka King, is an incredible person to have part of SVFF because he is about to make some groundbreaking history with his studio directorial debut of Judas and the Black Messiah, which will also be available on SVFF Streaming. He receives the SVFF 2021 Pioneer Award.”
The amount of support provided by National Geographic has been an incredible experience for SVFF, and plans are already in the works for 2022. “They are the glue to the Festival and nothing short,” says Grennan. “The ‘Wild to Inspire’ program, which will return for 2022, is one of the live festival’s most amazing offerings. It is their heavy lifting they do for a cinematographer to go to Africa to work with people like accomplished cinematographer Bob Poole, another festival supporter since its inception, and others, which is amazing.”
