The 31st annual Sedona International Film Festival will run from Saturday, Feb. 22, through Sunday, March 2, offering more than 150 films at SIFF’s Alice Gill-Sheldon and Mary D. Fisher Theatres, Harkins Theatres and the Sedona Performing Arts Center. “I’m most excited for all the films that are in the lineup this year, because we’ve got some incredible films that are going to blow people away,” SIFF Executive Director Patrick Schweiss said, adding that the festival was recently named one of the “25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” by Movie Maker Magazine. “We have an incredibly big opening day with both Bob Mackie and Vicki Lawrence in the house. What a star-studded opening weekend.”

Mackie will be on hand for a Saturday, Feb. 22, screening of the documentary “Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion” at SPAC, which will be followed by a question-and- answer session before Mackie introduces Lawrence, with whom he worked as the costume designer for “The Carol Burnett Show.”

The production company “was given access to the full Mackie archive, which has been meticulously kept and curated with many rare and unseen artifacts, including the outfits that didn’t make the cut,” a SIFF press release stated. Lawrence will perform “Vicki Lawrence and Mama: A Two- Woman Show,” drawing upon both autobiographical standup and the character of Thelma “Mama” Harper that she developed on “The Carol Burnett Show,” at SPAC later in the evening. Lawrence’s performance will be ticketed separately from the rest of the festival. 

“It’s just been really fun to push Mama into the new century and let her have fun with all the [insanity] that’s going on,” Lawrence said.

Other filmmakers and actors taking part in the festival’s question- and-answer sessions will include:

 ▪ Actor Eric Roberts, featured in “Spit It Out” and “Death Pays Flora a Visit,” which plays Sunday, Feb. 23, at 1 p.m. at Harkins as part of the Shorts Program 1 lineup.

▪ Director Susanne Rostack will appear at SPAC on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. for her documentary “Following Harry,” covering the final years of singer and civil rights campaigner Harry Belafonte, and will be joined by Belafonte’s daughter, Shari Belafonte, whose interview will appear in the Wednesday, Feb. 19, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.

▪ Finn Taylor, the director and writer of “Avenue of the Giants,” will appear at SPAC on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. with producer Noah Lang, when the film’s star, Stephen Lang, will be awarded the festival’s Best Actor Award, which will be accepted by his son Noah, for his performance as a Holocaust survivor diagnosed with a terminal illness, who forms a friendship with a lonely teenager.

▪ Actor Jeremy Piven will screen his narrative “The Performance” on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A and Piven’s receipt of SIFF’s Career Achievement Award. Piven’s character “is an American Jew and gifted tap dancer,” the SIFF synopsis states. “While on tour in Europe, Harold, his old flame Carol and the rest of his troupe are scouted by Damian Fugler, a German attache. Not Knowing the blond-haired May is a Jew, Fugler offers them a huge sum to perform one show in Berlin. Once in Germany, the troupe discovers that the show is an exclusive performance for Hitler himself … Harold is faced with a choice: Either keep his Jewishness a secret for the sake of his dreams or, ironically, own up to who he really is in order to escape.”

▪ Actors Jim Caviezel, Cary Elwes and Everett Osborne and director Martin Guigui will arrive at SPAC on Friday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. for a screening of “Sweetwater,” in which Piven also played a role, dramatizing the career of Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, the first black player to sign with the NBA after his time with the Harlem Globetrotters.

▪ Randal Kleiser, director of the 1978 film adaptation of the musical “Grease” will return on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 1 p.m. at SPAC for “An Afternoon with Diane Baker.” to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for her career in television and film and her work to preserve film. “Baker is co-producing a six-part series with her partner, commercial/documentary filmmaker, Dennis Powers on the History of Illustration for American television,” a SIFF press release stated.

▪ The free “Filmmaker Conversations” Workshop Series will be back at Yavapai College’s Sedona Center from Tuesday, Feb. 25, through Saturday, March 1, with workshops at 10 a.m. and at 1 p.m. The workshops cover film production, casting and music. A schedule is available on the SIFF website.

“Be ready to experience something wonderful here. Be patient with the traffic and take our shuttles,” Schweiss said. “We have shuttles that will keep some people off of the road and into our theatres.”

Moviegoers can look out for signs for free shuttles in the parking lots at the three screening locations and the Bashas’ shopping center, which serves as the overflow lot. The shuttles will run from 9 a.m. until an hour after the final screening of the day.

The festival will conclude on Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m. at SPAC with a free concert by the progressive bluegrass band The Storytellers, who previously performed during the spring 2024 Red Dirt Concert series.

SIFF Platinum and Gold passholders and ticket passholders can select their films on the website now. Individual tickets for screenings and events will go on sale on Monday, Feb. 17. To view the full schedule and to purchase tickets, visit SedonaFilmFestival.com or call (928) 282-1177