The Santa Monica Film Festival is an annual film festival

Film festival

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...

 held in Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

History

After a brief break the Santa Monica Film Festival was re-established in 2007 by a Santa Monica based non-profit. The Santa Monica Film Festival is now scheduled for August annually.

The independent film festival ran from 1996 to 2002. Its unique format ran throughout the year screening films every third Thursday as part of their Santa Monica Film Festival Series (X Series) at the Aero Theater and Santa Monica's Laemmles Monica 4-Plex Theater. Under-the-Stars Summer Series included The Bergamot Station film exhibitions were classics such as "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso" were projected in its original format and the Santa Monica Pier series.

Events consisted of independent domestic and international feature and short films of all genres. The Moxie! Awards were an annual accolade for the very best of those films voted on by the attending audience. Festival director and founder Albert (Birdie) de Quay states, "where festivals across the world thrive only once a year for 8 days or so, SMFF allowed a year-round platform to better serve the needs of indie filmmakers in the US and abroad.

Past participants include Spike jonze, Gore Verbinski and Jason Reitman. Past Award honorees include Ray Bradburry.

Awards

The Santa Monica Film Festival (SMFF) held its annual accolades, Moxie! Awards, at Santa Monica's Bergamot Station

Bergamot Station

Bergamot Station is a facility housing many art galleries in Santa Monica, California, USA.-History:The name "Bergamot Station" dates back to 1875 when it was a stop and car storage area on the steam powered Los Angeles and Independence Railroad from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles - as well...

, MiraMar Hotel and the Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Pier

The Santa Monica Pier is a large double-jointed pier located at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California and is a prominent, 100-year-old landmark.-Pacific Park:...

. Typically the event showcased 90 films from all around the world during a four-day festival at various locations. Films, music, panels and nightly parties were held throughout the event.

Honorees of the festival have been Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...

, Joe Mantegna

Joe Mantegna

Joseph Anthony "Joe" Mantegna, Jr. is an American actor, producer, writer,director, and voice actor. He is best known for his roles in box office hits such as Three Amigos , The Godfather Part III , Forget Paris , and Up Close & Personal...

, Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...

, Ray Manzarek

Ray Manzarek

Raymond Daniel Manzarek, Jr., better known as Ray Manzarek , is an American musician, singer, producer, film director, writer, co-founder and keyboardist of The Doors from 1965 to 1973, Nite City from 1977–1978 and Manzarek-Krieger since 2001.Manzarek is listed #4 on Digital Dreamdoor's "100...

and many more. http://directorsnet.com/feltham/index.html