The San Diego International Film Festival (originally just "The San Diego Film Festival") and its non-profit foundation were founded in 2001 by event planner Robin Laatz and her filmmaker husband Karl Kozak. .|alt=|left In its first decade, films premiering at the festival included
Roger Dodger, The Blair Witch Project, Fahrenheit 9/11, An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman, Napoleon Dynamite, Primer, The Machinist, and
Born Into Brothels. The festival has been designated "Best Party Fest" and "Best Beach Fest" by the "Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide". It has also been criticized along the same lines for being "more intent on throwing parties than putting quality films on the screen."
New Leadership/Native Direction In 2012, leadership passed to husband and wife producers Dale Strack and Tonya Mantooth. According to Strack, they were modeling it after Napa Valley Film Festival, with a "longer term goal" of rivaling
Sundance or
TriBeCa. Tribes represented on the AIA board include
Sac and Fox,
Luiseño,
Kumeyaay,
Seminole,
Lipan/Mescalero Apache, and the
Barona Band of Mission Indians. Notable members of the board include character actor
Saginaw Grant (
The Lone Ranger,
Breaking Bad),
Randolph Mantooth (
Emergency!,
Sons of Anarchy, brother of Tonya Mantooth) and Erica Pinto, the Chairwoman of
Jamul Indian Village.
2012-2019 Notable films premiering at the festival during this time include
Silver Linings Playbook, 12 Years a Slave, He Named Me Malala, Goosebumps, The Imitation Game, Wild, Lion, Tiger, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Call Me By Your Name, Marshall, The Favourite, Widows, Boy Erased, Jojo Rabbit, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Marriage Story, The Irishman, and
Parasite. In 2013, New York area film critic
Jeffrey Lyons was added as festival host and made honorary jury chairman. He acted as host or as co-host along with his with son
Ben Lyons or with
Access Hollywood film critic
Scott Mantz, up until 2018, when Mantz hosted solo. The festival added "International" to its name in 2016, having previously been known only as the San Diego Film Festival. In 2016, the festival established a
Film Insider Series for VIP members to watch featured official selections and festival winners, premieres and special advanced screenings throughout the year. In September 2019, the festival began hosting free screenings of popular movies on
Mission Beach. In 2019, the festival expanded to six days and hosted a second opening night film (
The Irishman) at the La Jolla Village.
2020-present Notable films premiering at the festival during this time include
Nomadland, The French Dispatch, Spencer, The Power of the Dog, The Lost Daughter, The Banshees of Inisherin, and
The Inspection. In 2020, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was reduced to four days and presented 114 films both virtually and on
drive-thru screens. In 2021, limited in-person screenings resumed at new venues including the
Museum of Photographic Arts and
The San Diego Museum of Art in
Balboa Park, as well as the Catamaran Resort in
Mission Bay. A special screening was held on the deck on a historic
aircraft carrier at the
USS Midway Museum. In 2022, after organizers at the
Women's Museum of California's had ended their Women's Film Festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they joined forces with the San Diego Festival to present a women's series of films. In 2023, the film festival's opening night was held at Westfield UTC AMC on October 8. For the festival's 22nd year, they will have a showing of the Oscar winning film,
The Holdovers. The festival was on October 18–22, at Balboa Park's Museum of Photographic Arts. During those 5 days there were showings of 91 films of the 3,200 films that were submitted. The theme of the festival was "Celebrating the power of film", meaning films will be outlining the importance of film and its impact on our society and community. In 2025, due to the closure of theaters downtown and other factors, all festival events re-centered in La Jolla. As of 2026, the San Diego International Film Festival is a qualifying festival for the
Canadian Screen Awards. == Awards ==