The 28th Sarasota Film Festival

The Sarasota Film Festival kicks off Friday, April 10 and runs through April 19, and this year's edition is one of the bigger ones in recent memory: 47 features, 39 shorts, four world premieres, 17 Florida premieres, and a guest list that includes Gene Simmons of KISS.

How a small Florida festival became a Hollywood magnet

The Sarasota Film Festival started in 1998 as a modest indie showcase. Twenty-eight years later, it's quietly become one of the most respected film festivals in the Southeast — and the honoree list reads like a casting director's dream board: Sophia Loren, Christopher Plummer, Geena Davis, Jacqueline Bisset, Stanley Tucci, Diane Lane, Jane Seymour, Greg Kinnear, Blythe Danner, Cloris Leachman, Mariel Hemingway, Steve Guttenberg, Frank Langella. Most of them came down here, hung out, and took questions from packed houses at the Sarasota Opera House or Burns Court Cinema.

A festival of this caliber in a city the size of Sarasota is mostly a function of two things: a community that genuinely shows up for arts (those theaters sell out), and a programming team that's been quietly punching above its weight for nearly three decades.

Opening night: Deep Water

The festival kicks off Friday, April 10 at New College's Sainer Pavilion Courtyard with the world premiere of Deep Water — a shark survival thriller starring Aaron Eckhart and Sir Ben Kingsley, directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger) and produced by Gene Simmons. Both Harlin and Simmons are scheduled to attend, with a Q&A and an opening night reception following the screening. Thematically appropriate that a shark movie premieres in a town where Mote Marine has spent decades studying the real ones.

What's actually in the lineup

Beyond opening night, the slate covers the full festival range: indie narratives, international docs, themed shorts packages, and "In Conversation With" sessions where the audience gets to grill filmmakers and actors directly. Four films are world premiering here. Seventeen are Florida premieres. The shorts blocks are usually a sleeper highlight — you can knock out a dozen filmmakers in 90 minutes and almost always find something you'd never have picked on your own.

Most screenings happen at the Regal Hollywood 20 downtown, the Sarasota Opera House, and Burns Court Cinema, all within walking distance of each other. Single tickets run $12-15; all-access passes are still available if you want to commit.

The parties are half the point

The Sarasota Film Festival has always understood that a festival is more than the films. The Filmmakers Tribute Dinner is the main black-tie event, but the unofficial highlight every year is the Opening Night Reception (right after Deep Water on Friday) and the smaller filmmaker mixers scattered throughout the week. Past festivals have featured surprise performances from Aerosmith and The B-52's, so don't write off the after-hours.

Your move

Full schedule, tickets, and pass info at sarasotafilmfestival.com. If you only do one thing: grab a single ticket to the Deep Water premiere on Friday and stick around for the reception. If you want the full experience, the all-access pass is the move. Either way, this is one of those Sarasota things that's much better than the city has any right to expect — go support it.