Founded by filmmaker Bruce Baillie in 1961, San Francisco Cinematheque is the Bay Area’s premier venue for avant-garde/experimental, underground and personally expressive film, video and performance work. In its dedication to exhibiting works of aesthetically radical cinema from all historical eras and geo-political locales, Cinematheque cultivates the international field of artist-made cinema, inspiring aesthetic dialog and critical discourse and encouraging appreciation across the broader cultural landscape.
Inaugurated in 2010, CROSSROADS is San Francisco Cinematheque’s annual film festival, dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary avant-garde film, video and performance work. Artists featured in previous years have included Malic Amalya, Ephraim Asili, Stephanie Barber, Stephen Broomer, Peter Burr, Heehyun Choi, Paul Clipson, Charlotte Clermont, Colectivo Los ingrávidos, Nathaniel Dorsky, Ayana Dozier, Carl Elsaesser, Erin Espelie, Kevin Jerome Everson, Federica Foglia, Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Blanca Garcia, Janie Geiser, Friedl vom Gröller, Karissa Hahn, Christopher Harris, Jerome Hiler, Mike Hoolboom, Sky Hopinka, Alexandre Larose, Karl Lemieux, Saul Levine, Jeanne Liotta, Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu, Simon Liu, Jodie Mack, J.M. Martínez, Lindsay McIntyre, Angelo Madsen Minax, Cristiana Miranda, Jeremy Moss, Zack Parrinilla, Alee Peoples, Adam Piron, Charlotte Pryce, Morgan Quaintance, Michael Robinson, Sylvia Schedelbauer, Daïchi Saïto, Rajee Samarasinghe, Tulapop Saenjaroen, Scott Stark, Jonathan Schwartz, Cauleen Smith, Rhea Storr, Deborah Stratman, TT Takemoto, Makino Takashi, Paige Taul, Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Richard Tuohy, Micah Weber, Erin Weisgerber, Matt Whitman and Antoinette Zwirchmayr.
Since 2022, CROSSROADS has been presented annually at the San Francisco venue known as Gray Area.
The Crossroads Film Festival[…], continues to showcase an eclectic array of international, boundary-pushing cinema from both established and emerging filmmakers.
— Hannah Bonner: Crossroads 2024. Screen Slate Bay Area.
CROSSROADS […] is not only a marvelous and wide-ranging film and video festival; under the stewardship of Artistic Director Steve Polta, it has evolved into a vital one for those of us hoping to keep abreast of new directions in the field. It’s also a realm of improbable discovery and surprise. … It’s a beautiful thing to get your face blown off, aesthetically speaking…
— Michael Sicinski: A Blistering Light at Crossroads Film Festival. Fandor, Keyframe Daily
CROSSROADS has quickly become an essential festival for contemporary moving-image art […]. CROSSROADS seeks to productively befuddle our conception of what moving-image art can be rather than reaffirm ingrained perceptions of whatever it is we call artist’s cinema, experimental film, or media arts.
— James Hansen: Pleasure in Dissonance—CROSSROADS 2015. The Brooklyn Rail
…the most expansive showcase for experimental media in the United States…
— Alex Fields: Crossroads Film Festival 2025: We Become Traces in History. In Review Online
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