Phyllis de Picciotto, who founded the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, has died. She was 88.
Daughter Lionie de Picciotto said her mother died April 14 but did not provide other details.
After spending her early childhood in Chicago, de Picciotto and her family moved to L.A. She graduated from Fairfax High School and attended Northwestern and later UCLA.
After befriending Robert Laemmle, whose family owned the Laemmle Theaters chain, she found work with the arthouse exhibitor. Once she started forming connections with filmmakers, critics and others in the specialty film world, de Picciotto persuaded the Laemmles to back her plan to show a series of films over multiple weeks with guest speaker Q&As afterward.
The shingle formed as a result of that initiative, Phyllis de Picciotto Presents, became a known commodity on the arthouse circuit. Distributors and other specialty exhibitors hired her company to help promote films and de Picciotto worked at and attended film festivals around the world.
The seeds for Santa Barbara’s fest were planted during those years working in the L.A. specialty business. After moving up the coast from L.A. in the 1980s, de Picciotto set about realizing her vision of creating a world-class film festival. Local business and civic leaders saw the potential, with tourism a key benefit, and they signed on to the plan. The first edition of the festival was held in 1986. Held each February, it soon became a key stop on the Oscar circuit.
“Although there were clashes with ‘experts’ over her vision, Phyllis never wavered,” recalled her husband, Stan Roden. “She watched every film submitted for consideration; no detail was too small. SBIFF shifted from a 3-day to the current 11-day format a few years after it started.”
Phyllis de Piccioto is survived by Roden; daughters Leonie de Picciotto and Natalie de Picciotto; stepsons Grant Roden and BJ Roden; sister Linda Goldsman; and grandchildren Sarah Rose, Jack Rose, Isabella Hardy, Jet Hardy, Lucas Roden, Griffin Roden, and Giselle Roden.
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