Maybe the future of Sonoma County cinema is short.
Over one late-September weekend, two local festivals will put short-form filmmaking on the big screen.
One is an established international event in Healdsburg, the other a newcomer in Cotati, and taken together, they suggest that the county’s film culture may be expanding beyond the occasional feature shoot and into something more grassroots: a place where emerging filmmakers can test their voices and audiences can discover them before the algorithms do.
The fifth annual Healdsburg International Short Film Festival runs Friday through Sunday, Sept. 25–27, at the Raven Performing Arts Theater. From 398 submissions, organizers selected 57 films representing 17 countries for eight screening blocks, with filmmakers, jurors, Q&As, parties and a closing-night awards ceremony folded into the weekend.
This year also brings the debut of Cine Latine, a program of work by Latine filmmakers including some Spanish-language films (presented with subtitles), and Words First, a short-script competition. Other programs focus on documentaries, students and perspectives of women behind the camera.
“For us, it’s all about connection, filmmakers at every stage sharing their work with our community, all packed into one unforgettable weekend,” festival co-founder Pamela Demorest said. “It’s why our celebrity judges keep coming back.”
The lineup reaches from Ireland and Iran to Petaluma. Bay Area filmmaker Sean Restivo’s documentary, Owl Hill, explores barn owls and the preservationists who protect them. Be Right Out marks the return of festival alumnus and Santa Rosa Junior College film-school graduate Colin Miller, whose comedy follows a nervous young man’s first date as it swerves into chaos.
This festival also hosts Oscar-nominated screenwriter and returning juror Billy Ray at 11am, Saturday, Sept. 26, for a signing of his young-adult novel, Burn the Water, presented with Copperfield’s Books. Ray’s credits include Captain Phillips, The Comey Rule and The Hunger Games.
Meanwhile, on the middle day of Healdsburg’s run, the inaugural Cotati Shorts Film Festival bows at 1pm, Saturday, Sept. 26. Produced by On Axis Productions, the program begins with indoor screenings in the Cotati Room at City Hall and concludes with a free outdoor showcase at 8pm on a 25-foot screen at the Cotati Hub.
The fest’s slate spans documentary, narrative, animation and horror/suspense, mixing films from around the world with work written and produced in Sonoma County. It also marks a homecoming for Tom and Maura Kearney, who have returned to their Sonoma County roots after 23 years in Hollywood. A Petaluma High School graduate, Tom Kearney worked as an actor, writer, director and producer and later founded the Hermosa Beach Film Festival. His latest film, Brothers Inc., earned Best Comedy honors in Toronto and Santa Monica.
“These films come from a different place; there are no studios telling these people what to do,” Maura Kearney said. “These films are made with the blood, sweat and yes credit cards of some of the most creative people on the planet.”
That line gets at the format’s appeal. Short films are not merely abbreviated features. They are cinema’s laboratories—places to experiment, fail beautifully and occasionally discover a filmmaker just as a private obsession becomes a public language.
Two festivals do not yet make Sonoma County the Sundance West, but for one weekend, audiences can look past Hollywood’s endless sequels and see what might come next.
