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Most Talked About Movies At The San Francisco International Film Festival

Steve Jobs: Man In The Machine (credit: CNN Films)

Highlights during the San Francisco International Film Festival, one of the country's longest-running film festivals, are always Opening Night, Centerpiece and Closing Night, plus superstar honorees and a healthy smattering of premieres and directorial debuts. The 2015 lineup represents 44 countries screening 65 narrative features and 35 documentaries.

"Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine"
Castro Theatre
429 Castro St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
www.sffs.org
Date: April 23, 2015 at 7 p.m.

A top choice for opening night at SFIFF is the talked-about documentary from Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side"), "Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine." Following its world premiere at SXSW in Austin in March, audiences are back for yet another look at the master of innovation. Variety reports that Gibney is expected to attend the screening, as well as several colleagues of the late Apple visionary and leader. Note, this is not the biopic due to be released by Universal in October. This close-up of Steve Jobs is termed "deeply unflattering" in Variety's review. Opening Night Party is from 9 p.m. at Madame Tussauds, 145 Jefferson St., Fisherman's Wharf.

"The Devil's Backbone"
Castro Theatre
429 Castro St.
San Francisco, CA 94118
www.sffs.org
Date: April 25, 2015 at 8 p.m.

Under the festival's heading of Awards & Special Events, sci-fi and fantasy legendary director Guillermo del Toro personally hosts an Evening at the Castro. The director of the brilliant "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006) will accept the Irving M. Levin Directing Award and talk about his career, show some clips, divulge a bit about future projects and screen his 2001 thriller, "The Devil's Backbone."

The Devil's Backbone - Trailer by YouTube Movies on YouTube
"Time Out of Mind"
Castro Theatre
429 Castro St.
San Francisco, CA 94118
www.sffs.org
Date: April 26, 2015 at 6:30 p.m.

Awards & Special Events brings actor Richard Gere to the stage of the Castro Theatre to accept the Peter J. Owens Award from the Festival. Before screening his latest — called a "finely nuanced, tour-de-force" performance — film, "Time Out of Mind," Gere will share career insights with the audience. A prolific body of work that began with Terrence Malick's 1978 drama, "Days of Heaven," Gere joins past honorees such as Cary Grant, Paul Newman and George Clooney.

Time out of Mind- FirstGlance Film Fest Trailer by FirstGlance Film Festivals on YouTube

Jesse Eisenberg & Jason Segel (credit: A24 Films)

"The End of the Tour"
Sundance Kabuki Cinemas
1881 Post St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
www.sffs.org
Date: May 2, 2015 at 6:45 p.m.

James Ponsoldt's portrait of David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), novelist and essayist, stars Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg as the festival's Centerpiece title. Ponsoldt and Segel are expected to attend. Wallace's 1996 novel, "Infinite Jest," shot him to literary fame; audiences observe a five-day passive/aggressive relationship develop with would-be biographer David Lipsky of "Rolling Stone" who accompanies Wallace on his book tour. Wallace's last unfinished novel published in 2011, "The Pale King," was a posthumous finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Wallace was a Bay Area resident and professor at Pomona College.

Peter Sarsgaard in "Experimenter" (credit: Magnolia Pictures)

"Experimenter"
Castro Theatre
429 Castro St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
www.sffs.org
Date: May 7, 2015 at 7 p.m.

Screenwriter Michael Almereyda also directs this biographical drama starring Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder. Premiered at Sundance in 2014, the film explores the disturbing, groundbreaking 1961 "obedience experiments" conducted at Yale University by social psychologist Stanley Milgram. In these, Milgram organized 800 teacher-role subjects made to believe they were administering painful electric shocks to learners in order to observe human behavior around authority. Closing Night Party is at 9 p.m. at Mezzanine, 444 Jessie St., SoMa.

Laurie Jo Miller Farr loves walkable cities. A tourism industry professional and transplanted New Yorker by way of half-a-lifetime in London, she's writing about the best of the bay and beyond for Yahoo, USA Today, eHow, and on Examiner.com.
 

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