 awards festival news directors of the year sbiff 2019 directors of the year award in santa barbara to alfonso cuaron yorgos lanthimos spike lee adam mckay and pawel pawlikowski the 34 th annual santa barbara international film festival sbiff welcomed this year s five academy award nominees for best director  alfonso cuaron  roma  yorgos lanthimos  the favourite  spike lee  blackkklansman  adam mckay  vice and  pawel pawlikowski  cold war each participated in a oneonone interview with the hollywood reporter s awards columnist scott feinberg followed by a group discussion and a special presentation for the 2019 outstanding directors of the year award this lineup in front of you is without a doubt a freaking amazing lineup of risk taking push envelope take no prisoners group of artists roger durling executive director of sbiff told the audience when he took the stage at the arlington theatre at the end of the program to present the five nominees with the 2019 outstanding directors of the year award you five make a case for cinema as art he continued although i wish there were women included amongst you i cherish and celebrate that all of you together is the best fuck you trump artistic line up you have a greek director you have a polish director you have a mexican director you have a black director and you have a director that is willing to make a biting political satire we need your voices more than ever we don t need a freaking wall durling s sentiments including his comment about the wall were received enthusiastically by the audience during the group discussion that preceded the awards presentation all five directors were effusive with their praise of not only each other s films but also the films of other peers that had not received the same level of attention when asked by feinberg to identify a worthy undertheradar film from the past year mckay pawlikowski and lanthimos all selected films directed by women mckay recommended debra granik s leave no trace he told feinberg i love movies that get into a subculture and a world you don t know about i just thought that there was a rawness and an openness to that movie that just blew me away pawlikowski and lanthimos both recommended alice rohrwacher s happy as lazzaro noted pawlikowski she has a poetry all of her own and it s a lovely story it s neither realist or fantasy lanthimos also recommended lucretia martel s zama which he described as a period film which is completely surreal at the same time in addition to the outstanding directors of the year award program and presentation sbiff s daytime programming offered festivalgoers a number of events and screenings featuring some of this year s most celebrated filmmakers and performers the morning included a screening of the biggest little farm by emmy award winning documentary director and writer  john chester  which follows his and his wife molly s journey as they trade city life to start their own farm on a stretch of depleted soil outside los angeles the documentary chronicles their efforts for more than eight years in this sweeping epic of twists and turns related to the creation of apricot lane farms in a q a moderated by durling john shared with the audience where it was that he drew inspiration from it came down to a quote by wendell berry he said it all turns on affection and it just means that it can all change when we love something when questioned about the filmmaking process particularly about the eight years of filming and having gathered more than 90 terabytes of footage john answered as a filmmaker i believe it s about content you just have to get what you can get in the moment and a lot of it was on the fly nature is a juxtaposition of good and bad and i think the film represents that in the early afternoon the festival hosted a special screening of spider man into the spiderverse as part of the educational initiative mike s field trip to the movie s  named for renowned nature cinematographer mike degruy mike s field trip to the movies uses filmmaking to stimulate creative confident and culturally aware thinkers the program is offered to 4000 4th 5th and 6th grade students from throughout santa barbara county and sbiff provides free transportation to students from title i schools sponsors include the montecito bank trust patagonia union bank bentson foundation and volentine family foundation the screening of spider man into the spiderverse was followed by a q a with two of the film s directors  bob persichetti  and  peter ramsey  and one of the biggest questions that came up during the discussion was whether or not fans could expect a sequel both directors hinted at the possibility telling the crowd we think so the festival also hosted a special screening of roma which was followed by a q a with cuaron and actress  yalitza aparicio  aparicio earned an academy award nomination for her work in the film making her the first indigenous mexican actress nominee cuaron explained his unusual approach to making the film to the crowd admitting that having less control gave him more creative freedom i needed to push my boundaries and do something i didn t know how to do he said i had to give up control and that was exciting at the end of the q a aparicio was presented with the festival s virtuosos award for her groundbreaking performance she thanked sbiff telling the crowd cinema has the power to break barriers and inspire love courage and hope i m honored to be here  