The Santa Clarita International Film Festival has progressively gotten better each year since its inception in 2021, according to Lisa deSouza, founder and executive director of SCIFF.  The fourth annual festival took place Dec. 12-15 in Old Town Newhall, with film screenings, Q&A sessions, pitch panels where students could pitch projects to industry professionals, book readings with celebrity readers, live music, standup comedy, parties and more at the Laemmle Theater and other nearby locations.   “The feedback I’m getting from a lot of people was that it was a really great show,” deSouza said during a telephone interview following the four-day event. “I’m going to take a shameless pat on the back right now because it’s no small feat in a time when the industry is struggling badly. To know that we’re still plodding forward, and people are saying, ‘Hey, it was a great show and super informational,’ says something.”  This year, SCIFF added a women’s program and a diversity, equity and inclusion program, which featured screenings of films by or about women and minorities. The festival also added the annual SCIFF Generational Influencer Award. Santa Clarita resident Rikki Rockett, drummer of the rock band Poison, received the first-of-its-kind recognition, which was sponsored by The Metal Hall of Fame.   Pat Gesualdo, president and CEO of the Metal Hall of Fame, said in a news release that he was excited to co-present the award to Rocket. Gesualdo also expressed his enthusiasm for the growing film, music and cultural activities scene in Santa Clarita, thanks to SCIFF.   DeSouza was particularly thrilled with the dialogue festival guests were able to have with industry professionals and artists during the event.  Rikki Rockett, right, shares the spotlight with his daughter, Lucy Sky Rockett, after receiving the SCIFF 2024 Generational Influencer Award during the Santa Clarita International Film Festival on December 14 in Old Town Newhall. Photo courtesy of SCIFF “We had great panels — a finance panel, an agents and management panel,” she said. “We had a music panel. We had Timothy Eaton, who basically discovered and built En Vogue.”  She said she spoke with others in the industry about the future of the festival and the possibility of evolving such opportunities into mentorship programs for those looking to break into the entertainment business. DeSouza’s hopes are that SCIFF continues to grow to be more than just a festival. She sees it as a mini convention.  She talked about larger conversations she’d like to have with local schools like California Institute of the Arts and College of the Canyons, to connect local students with Hollywood.  “We saw a lot of handshakes and a lot of business cards being passed around,” she said. “It’s about exchanging ideas and going to great events.”  If SCIFF can build these kinds of networking opportunities each year, deSouza said, then the event will continue to get better going forward.   For more information about the festival, go to SCIFF.org.  The post Lights, camera, SCIFF in year 4 appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.