SFFILM: Mel Novikoff Award + Rashomon

Mel Novikoff Award
The 2025 Mel Novikoff Award celebrates the Roxie Theater — Local gem, cultural landmark, and steadfast champion of independent cinema, the Roxie Theater has been igniting San Francisco’s film scene for over a century.

Waiting out pouring rain in the shelter of Kyoto’s Rashomon Gate, a woodcutter and a priest relate the story of a samurai’s murder in Akira Kurosawa’s classic drama. But as they swap anecdotes, it’s apparent that this is no straightforward chronicle. The woodcutter claims to have witnessed the crime and tells one version of events. But there are three other perspectives: that of the bandit charged with the killing, that of the samurai’s bride, and then there is the samurai’s ghost speaking through a medium. No two recollections lineup, leaving a mystery intact at the heart of the tale. Rashomon’s influence looms large over succeeding generations of filmmakers, the title itself entering the lexicon as shorthand that describes a certain type of film. Seventy-five years after winning Venice’s Golden Lion and jolting cinema, the film’s ravishing black-and-white images and arresting storytelling remain as powerful as ever.

Join us in celebration of the Roxie Theater! Filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes will moderate a conversation about the Roxie’s past, present, and future, with Executive Director Lex Sloan and Director of Programming Isabel Fondevila. A screening of Akira Kurosawa‘s multivalent Rashomon, celebrating its 75th anniversary, will follow.