San Diego International Film Festival 2025 Leans Into Prestige, Partnerships and Global Stories

The San Diego International Film Festival returns Oct. 15–19, 2025, leaning into industry relevance and a bolstered international program as it stakes an increasingly prominent place on the awards-season fringe. Now in its 24th year, the festival has positioned itself as a strategic October stop for studio premieres and independent work — a pedigree underscored by the festival’s history of screening films that have gone on to collect 36 Academy Awards and 167 nominations.

This year’s edition arrives with high-profile moves designed to amplify its national profile. Most notable: VARIETY has joined as the official media partner for the festival’s Night of the Stars Tribute and will present the Gregory Peck Award of Excellence in Cinema — one of the festival’s marquee honors. The announcement signals a notable alignment between a leading trade outlet and a regional festival that has steadily elevated its industry cachet.

Tonya Mantooth, CEO and artistic director of the San Diego Film Foundation, framed the 2025 footprint as both a celebration of the city’s cultural infrastructure and an expansion of the festival’s reach. “Sharing stories is at the heart of everything we do at the festival,” Mantooth said in a statement, noting excitement about a new partnership with the House of Pacific Relations in Balboa Park and the prestige VARIETY brings to the Night of the Stars.

New venues and programming tweaks further sharpen SDiFF’s identity this year. Opening Night will move to THE LOT in La Jolla — a luxury cinema-and-dining destination — while the festival’s Party With a Purpose will take over the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. Screenings and studio premieres return to The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center and AMC UTC 14, giving the festival a mix of red-carpet formality and neighborhood-level energy.

Night of the Stars has long been a focal point for the festival’s outreach to established talent. Past Gregory Peck Award honorees include Laurence Fishburne, Annette Bening and Geena Davis — names that reflect the event’s tendency to honor both box-office-tested and critically venerated careers. The tribute, held at The Conrad in La Jolla, will again gather industry leaders, filmmakers and film lovers on Oct. 16.

SDiFF is also leaning into international storytelling. The festival has formalized a partnership with the House of Pacific Relations (HPR) — the Balboa Park consortium of cultural cottages that this year celebrates its 90th anniversary — to deepen the festival’s Foreign Film track and engage San Diego’s diverse cultural communities. The collaboration is presented as reciprocal: HPR brings a visible, local platform for global perspectives, while SDiFF brings curated international cinema and conversation.

Programming beyond premieres and tributes will include an industry-leaning slate of studio premieres, independent features, documentaries, shorts and panels at AMC UTC 14 (Oct. 16–19), plus Culinary Cinema on Oct. 19 — a food-and-film program hosted by local culinary personality Shawn Styles that pairs screenings with chef-driven bites and pairings.

The festival’s fundraising and education angle remains front-and-center. Party With a Purpose functions as a “fun-raiser” for SDiFF’s FOCUS on Impact Education Program, which delivers curated films and classroom-ready curriculum to high school and community college students in the county — an institutional commitment the foundation casts as central to its mission of “creating empathy in a complex world.”

Practical details for industry and ticket buyers: VIP and pass packages — which guarantee access to signature events like Opening Night and the Night of the Stars — are available now, with individual event tickets slated to go on sale on Sept. 5 on a space-available basis. The festival recommends purchasing passes and reserving tickets by Sept. 4 to lock in spots for sell-out events. Ticket tiers range from individual screening prices up to a VIP Pass (listed at $575), with a 10-ticket bundle priced as an economy option at $175.

As regional festivals jockey for positioning ahead of awards season, SDiFF’s 2025 playbook is clear: pair industry-facing premieres and red-carpet moments with community-rooted programming and an expanded international reach. With VARIETY’s involvement and a footprint that blends La Jolla formality with Solana Beach nightlife and Balboa Park cultural programming, the festival is aiming to be both a place for deal-making and a forum for global stories — a hybrid that could make the Oct. 15–19 run an important stop for filmmakers and studios looking to generate late-year awards traction.

For more information and to buy passes, visit the San Diego International Film Festival website.