Start of fall film festival season

Short film "Starry, Starry Night" plays on Friday, September 14th at 6:30 p.m. at Deerfield Ranch Winery's Al Fresco Under the Stars and on Saturday, September 22nd at 3 p.m. at Glaser Center

Practically everybody loves movies, and they’re everywhere. You can see them on home screens, laptops and even cellphones, and new ones open at theaters every week.

And yet serious cinema buffs still can’t get enough. They want more films, and different films from all over the world. That’s why the year’s calendar is peppered with film festivals.

So far this year, film fans already have been treated to the Sonoma International Film Festival in April, the Mendocino Film Festival in June and the ongoing Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival series.

Still to come are next week’s Healdsburg International Short Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival and the opening of the Sonoma County Jewish Film Festival series in October and the Napa Valley Film Festival in November.

But if you missed some, and can’t wait for the others, don’t fret. The 26th annual Santa Rosa International Film Festival gets under way Wednesday, Sept. 12,  and runs at five venues through Sept. 23, with 120 films from 32 countries.

The festival also features a string of special events, including parties, live performances and seminars.

“Our whole concept is expanded cinema, the notion that film is more than watching a movie,” said Stephen Ashton, who with his wife Justine, founded the annual event, originally known as the Wine Country Film Festival.

“Film is a bridge to understanding other cultures,” Stephen Ashton said. “We try to bring people right into the living room of another culture with food, music, art and of course, with film.”