Bruce Goldstein will receive the Mel Novikoff Award at the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23–May 7). Named for the pioneering San Francisco art and repertory film exhibitor Mel Novikoff (1922–87), the award acknowledges an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public’s knowledge and appreciation of world cinema. The Novikoff Award will be presented at An Afternoon with Bruce Goldstein on Sunday, May 3 at 5:00 pm at the Castro Theatre preceding an onstage interview with Goldstein by Anita Monga. Included in the program, a 20-minute reel of Rialto Pictures trailers will screen, as well as a 35mm print of Nights of Cabiria (Italy/France 1957), one of many films to benefit from Goldstein’s dedication to restoring and revitalizing classic films.

One of Federico Fellini’s early films, Nights of Cabiria is distinctly rooted in the Neorealist movement, following a nimble prostitute, Cabiria (Giulietta Masina), as she searches for love but encounters frequent heartbreak. Mistreated and taken advantage of by almost everybody she encounters, Cabiria eventually meets a man who promises her a respectable future and falls head over heels in love with him. What follows is a series of humiliating episodes, in which the defiantly positive Cabiria is hurt, but never broken.

Film Forum director Karen Cooper hired Bruce Goldstein to program the theater’s second screen in 1987; Goldstein soon turned it into the city’s pre-eminent repertory cinema. In the past 22 years, he has programmed over 300 film series and retrospectives and unveiled over 700 new 35mm prints. Under Goldstein’s direction, Film Forum’s repertory division has been the showcase for most of the major restorations of the past two decades, including The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Touch of Evil, Metropolis, Rear Window, Rules of the Game and many others. In 1997, Goldstein founded Rialto Pictures (a year later joined by partner Adrienne Halpern), a distributor specializing in classic restorations, responsible for such high-profile reissues as Godard’s Contempt and Band of Outsiders, Nights of Cabiria, Jules Dassin’s Rififi, Alberto Lattuada’s Mafioso and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows, which was named Best Foreign Film of 2006 by the New York Film Critics Circle.  Most recently Rialto has restored Godard's Made in USA (U.S. premiere), Costa-Gavras' Z and Jean-Pierre Melville's Léon Morin, Priest, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Goldstein is also editor-in-chief of Film Forum’s quarterly repertory calendar, which is awaited eagerly by film buffs around the country.

Director of Programming Linda Blackaby points out, “We knew we had the right guy for this year’s award when Bruce started recalling having dinner with Mel Novikoff in 1983 when he was in San Francisco for the première of his film, Hollywood Out-takes, which had a subsequent successful run at the Castro. As Jim Hoberman says, Bruce is a ‘programmer’s programmer’; he is a great showman, an exemplary exhibitor and a true cinephile. We are especially thrilled to screen Nights of Cabiria at the Castro, as Novikoff committee member Phil Kaufman recalls it was a film Mel loved.”

Previous recipients of the Mel Novikoff Award are Jim Hoberman (2008), Kevin Brownlow (2007), Anita Monga (2005), Paolo Cherchi Usai (2004), Manny Farber (2003), David Francis (2002), Cahiers du Cinéma (2001), San Francisco Cinematheque (2001), Donald Krim (2000), David Shepard (2000), Enno Patalas (1999), Adrienne Mancia (1998), Judy Stone (1997), Film Arts Foundation (1997), David Robinson (1996), Institut Lumière (1995), Naum Kleiman (1994), Andrew Sarris (1993), Jonas Mekas (1992), Pauline Kael (1991), Donald Richie (1990), USSR Filmmakers Association (1989) and Dan Talbot (1988). The Mel Novikoff Award Committee members are Francis J. Rigney (chairman), Linda Blackaby (ex officio), Helena R. Foster, George Gund III, Maurice Kanbar, Philip Kaufman, Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer, Anita Monga, Janis Plotkin and Peter Scarlet.


San Francisco Film Society
The San Francisco Film Society is a nonprofit arts and education organization dedicated to celebrating the world of film and media in four core areas: Internationalism and Cross-Cultural Exchange; Educating and Inspiring Bay Area Youth; Showcasing Bay Area Film Culture; and Exploring New Media.

SFFS shows the best of world cinema year-round on its SFFS Screen at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas and presents the San Francisco International Animation Festival, New Italian Cinema and French Cinema Now annually in the fall. In all, the Film Society presents more than 300 days of programming each year, reaching a total audience of more than 100,000 people. Its acclaimed youth education program introduces international cinema and media literacy to more than 7,000 teachers and students annually.

The Film Society publishes a daily online magazine, SF360.org, with broad-ranging news and features on Bay Area film culture and provides crucial support to the Bay Area filmmaking community through SFFS filmmaker services including grants & residencies, fiscal sponsorship, production assistance and development, networking and conference events, and professional-level filmmaker classes and workshops.

52nd San Francisco International Film Festival
The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 23–May 7, 2009 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre and Landmark’s Clay Theatre in San Francisco; and the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in the country’s most beautiful city, featuring 25 juried awards, 200 films and live events with upwards of 100 participating filmmakers and diverse audiences of 75,000+ people.

For tickets and information, go to www.sffs.org or call 925-866-9559.

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