[photo credit: Pasadena International Film Festival]
Someone brought a camera.
That film — “Going for Home,” directed by Academy Award winner Eric Simonson — is part of a cluster of five works about the Eaton Fire and California wildfires competing this week at the Pasadena International Film Festival. On Thursday night, the festival closes its 13th annual edition with an awards ceremony in Old Pasadena: red carpet at 6 p.m., ceremony at 8, at Der Wolf RestoBar on North Fair Oaks Avenue. The event is black-tie optional, 1920s attire welcome, 21 and over. Among the films that may receive recognition is one about a Little League team playing through the wreckage of its own neighborhood.
Simonson spent nine months following the Central Altadena Little League through its season after the fire. “Going for Home” is a feature-length documentary. Its producer, Sue Cremin, explained the impulse simply in an interview with KEYT. “The Eaton Fire was not getting a lot of attention in general,” she said. “It was being overshadowed.”
A second Altadena film in the festival’s wildfire cluster, the short documentary “Altadena: The Heart. The Art and the Soul,” takes a different approach. Director Eric A. Dyson, working from a grant through Ashes to Films — a nonprofit founded in 2025 specifically to support fire-affected artists — tried to preserve on film what the community looked like before the disaster. That film screened on opening night, April 9, in Block 2. “Going for Home” screens Wednesday, April 15, at 5:50 p.m. in Block 31 — the night before the gala.
Neither film was commissioned by PIFF. Both were submitted competitively, as all entries in the festival are.
Festival co-founder Marco Neves, who will emcee Thursday’s ceremony, spoke to the Pasadena Weekly about why PIFF exists at all. “We live in a world where everything is becoming more and more isolated,” he said. “We’re trying to fight back against that and create a little community of our own so that we can, if possible, even bypass the gatekeepers of Hollywood.”
The festival, according to its own press release, presents more than 160 films from over 12 countries across its eight-day run at Laemmle NoHo 7 in North Hollywood. Celebrity films in the lineup include work starring Cameron Monaghan, Elizabeth Mitchell, Dee Wallace, Daniel Franzese, and Michael Beach — all expected to attend, per the festival. PIFF was founded in 2012 by Jessica Hardin and Marco Neves, described in the festival’s press release as “industry veterans and Pasadena residents.” Hardin serves as festival director; Neves as creative director.
If You Go: The PIFF Gala and Award Ceremony is Thursday, April 16, at Der Wolf RestoBar, 72 N. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena. Red carpet begins at 6 p.m.; the awards ceremony follows at 8 p.m. Gala passes are $59 and are not sold at the door; purchase in advance at pasadenafilmfestival.org. The event is 21 and over. Contact the festival at info@pasadenafilmfestival.org or 310.498.7204.
A young player in the film, Alex Thome, explains what the baseball season meant to him after the fire came through. “When I’m playing baseball,” he says, “I don’t really think about the fires that much. I just wanna play baseball.”
PASADENA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026 GREAT GATSBY GALA & AWARD CEREMONY Date & Time: Thursday, April 16, 2026, 7:00 PM Red Carpet / 8:00 PM Award Ceremony| Venue: Der Wolf RestoBar, 72 N. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena, CA 91103 | Phone Number: 626-219-6054 | Website: https://www.pasadenafilmfestival.org/passes
