On Monday night, the parking lot of the Gateway Pavilion at Fort Mason was packed with black SUVs. Inside, a crowd had gathered for SFFILM’s 2025 Awards Night, a fundraiser for the nonprofit that has hosted the San Francisco International Film Festival since 1957. Green glowing balls lined the building’s entrance; purple light emanated from inside, where the city’s elite, for $10,000 for a table for eight, sipped cocktails and ate hors d’oeuvres in proximity to celebrities like Benicio del Toro, Kristen Stewart, and Delroy Lindo.
Of course, Mayor Daniel Lurie was in attendance, too. Lurie’s press team said the mayor would show up for 15 minutes, without any explanation as to why. While the mayor has demonstrated support for the arts, it seemed just as likely that he was dropping in for a photo op with the honorees and their presenters who sauntered down the red carpet.
Del Toro was there to collect the Maria Manetti Shrem Award for Acting. Regina Hall, del Toro’s co-star in One Battle After Another, presented him with the award. Manetti Shrem, a wealthy philanthropist and arts patron, was there as well. Scott Cooper, Odessa Young, Wunmi Mosaku, Imogen Poots, and Richard Gere were also on hand. Gere was dressed in an overcoat and scarf and blew in to offer a brief, indifferent carpet appearance.
I watched as del Toro made his way down the press line, noting how he smiled naturally, and patiently, while answering reporters’ questions with humor. I caught a piece of one of his responses, a description of Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, the preternaturally mellow character he played in One Battle. “He is a resourceful man that people turn to, whether it’s for sanctuary, or resources or, you know, hope, or even freedom,” del Toro said, his familiar dark-ringed eyes on his interviewer. That same day, he’d been nominated for a Golden Globe for best supporting actor for the role.
After his handler declared the final question, del Toro stopped to take one more from me. I asked about another earlier answer he’d given mentioning City Lights in North Beach. I was curious if he had been.
“No, I just drove by,” del Toro told me. “I saw that it was still standing there, and I said, ‘Yeah!’”
Had he spent much time in the city? “It was a long time ago, I did a movie here called Fearless, back in ‘92. I was here for a little while.”
“I love the city,” he continued. “I always remember What’s Up Doc? for some reason, because I saw it as a kid and just, you know, the movie takes place here, and the cars and the hills, you know, there’s a beauty to it. It’s like the East Coast in the West Coast,” del Toro said. “It’s something like Boston in California.”
In person as on screen, del Toro seems guided by an internal rhythm that doesn’t necessarily match, and is often at direct odds with, his external circumstances. In One Battle, Sensei’s calm was an antidote to the chaos swirling around him. In real life, del Toro seems thoughtful even on a red carpet, at a fundraiser. He was also taller than he comes off on screen.
I thought about the del Toro effect as I continued looking for Lurie. A spokeswoman for SFFILM assured me the mayor was there but wouldn’t be posing for photographs or doing press. If true, I was impressed. On most days, the mayor runs from one location to another, as if he’s trying to be seen in as many places as possible. On Friday, he was at seven different events from at 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
At Lurie’s stops, he often rehashes the same talking points. As I was leaving SFFILM, the mayor’s press team emailed his schedule for the next day: Lurie will be at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference. I could imagine what he’d say, based on his appearance at another AI conference less than a month ago. The mayor seems to be running the hare’s race; I thought he could benefit from the Sensei’s “ocean waves.”
Before del Toro’s handler finally pulled him away, and whisked him behind a black curtain cordoned off from the press, I managed to ask him if he’d met the mayor. Del Toro said he hadn’t, but the night was just beginning.
