The team sits down with Claudia Puig, Director of Programming for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The SBIFF, in its 37th year, is happening in person from March 2—12th in Santa Barbara, CA.
Claudia Puig is a nationally recognized film journalist. Currently, she is Director of Programming for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and also President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Claudia has been a film critic on National Public Radio’s “Film Week,” on KPCC-FM, since 2005. She was the lead critic at USA Today for 15 years, and host of the USA Today video series The Screening Room. She also reviewed books during her tenure at USA Today. Before that Claudia was a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times for 11 years covering city government, courts and the entertainment industry. While at the LA Times she was part of a team of journalists that won the Pulitzer for spot news reporting of the 1992 Los Angeles uprising.
In 2020 she was Senior Programmer for the AFI Film Festival, prior to which she was Program Director for the Mendocino Film Festival and FilmFest 919 in Chapel Hill, N.C. as well as consulting program director for the Napa Valley Film Festival. In 2016, Claudia was a speechwriter and diversity consultant for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She has been a featured guest on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, KCRW, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Spectrum News, Al-Jazeera and Mitch Albom’s syndicated show. Claudia is also a frequent moderator for film-related panels and Q&As, and has a consulting business specializing in film analysis and cultural diversity issues.
Join Fandor at Santa Barbara Film Festival this year! The word is that popsockets and some free streaming subscriptions may be available.
Now streaming on Fandor.com is “13 Nights of Elvira“.
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