Highlights from the 14th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival April 26-29, 2019. Presented by the St. Petersburg Clearwater Film Commission.
The Sunscreen Film Festival has grown from its first festival in a local art gallery with 600 attendees in 2006. Now it is an internationally recognized event with an annual attendance of over 10,000 in St. Petersburg, FL and Los Angeles, CA. In 2013 the festival expanded to Los Angeles and now holds the Florida version in the spring and the Los Angeles version in the fall each year.
Sunscreen was voted one of the “25 Coolest Film Fests” in the country by MovieMaker Magazine in 2009 and was voted the Best Tampa Bay Area Film Festival in 2012 by Tampa Bay Magazine. Sunscreen was one of only 23 Film Fests in the country to be awarded a Film Festival Grant by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2013.
Filmmakers consistently rave about Sunscreen’s hospitality and atmosphere. Filmmakers from around the world attend the fest travelling from Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia.
The Sunscreen Film Festival is an annual film festival hosted by the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Film Society Inc., a Florida not-for-profit corporation. Our primary goal is to encourage the creation, production, and exhibition of independent film in Florida through our educational programs and public screenings, thereby increasing awareness and support of local filmmaking as a cultural and economic asset. We hope to continue to consistently entertain and challenge audiences and create memorable moments for filmmakers, special guests, judges, and the film-loving public.
In its early days, in May 2006, the festival was held at Studio@620 in St. Petersburg, Fla., screening 35 short and feature films over two days and hosting two world premiers. At that event, we had standing-room-only attendance to more than 600 film lovers and filmmakers, some traveling from as far as New York City and Los Angeles.
Due to overwhelming popularity, the festival expanded in 2007 and 2008 to include the Vinoy Renaissance Resort and Golf Club. This new venue allowed us to grow exponentially, collectively featuring more than 100 short and feature films on multiple screens and expanding our celebrity guests to include actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston.
In 2009, the venue moved to the Muvico Baywalk 20, where our celebrity roster grew to include actors Patrick Wilson, Michael Rooker, Bill Cobbs, and Jeffrey Donovan. More than 70 short and feature films were screened, including the Southeastern premiere of “Passengers,” starring Anne Hathaway and Patrick Wilson. That year, MovieMaker magazine voted Sunscreen one of the “25 Coolest Film Fests” in the country.
In 2013-2014, Sunscreen was one of only 23 film fests nationwide to be sponsored and acknowledged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
