Jaden Thompson Tonya Mantooth, CEO and artistic director of the San Diego International Film Festival, is keenly aware that film is a uniquely immersive medium with the power to connect people — even strangers.
And that power will be evident at SDIFF’s 22nd edition, which will run in person Oct.18-22, with screenings at various venues in the San Diego area.
The event will also feature panels, Q and A’s, filmmaker happy hours and more special programming. The fest will open with Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” (pictured above), a comedy-drama starring Paul Giamatti, Domonic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as an unlikely trio bonding at a New England prep school over winter break. “Alexander Payne really peels back the layers of the characters,” Mantooth says. “As each one unfolds, he does it in such a way that you laugh – it touches your heart, it makes you cry.
But what you see is just real people. He doesn’t ever put the characters in a box with a nice little bow. They’re all complex.
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