Writer-director Boots Riley is the center of attention on the red carpet before a 69th San Francisco International Film Festival screening of “I Love Boosters” at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
Tommy Lau/SFFilm
From left: actors Poppy Liu, LaKeith Stanfield, Eiza González and director Boots Riley stand in front of the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland before a screening of their film “I Love Boosters” at on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
Tommy Lau/SFFilm
Fans of “I Love Boosters” pose before a screening of the film at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, as part of the 69th San Francisco International Film Festival.
Tommy Lau/SFFilm
This time, Boots Riley is not sorry to bother you.
Eight years after his debut film screened in his hometown, he returned to Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre on Tuesday, Aug. 28, as a fully formed filmmaker. Riley presented the West Coast premiere of his latest movie, “I Love Boosters,” not once but twice to sold-out crowds during the 69th San Francisco International Film Festival’s centerpiece event.
69th San Francisco International Film Festival: Through Monday, May 4. $16-$19 for general admission programs; premium priced programs vary. At various venues in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. For a full schedule, tickets and more information, go to www.sffilm.org
“I’ve seen so many films here since I was a kid. I think ‘Superman II,’ was the first,“ Riley recalled, adding that his first project “‘Sorry to Bother You’ did so well for (the Grand Lake) they gave me a lifetime pass, so I just go see all my movies here.”
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Since that formative childhood, Riley, the son of a civil rights attorney, has channeled his political activism as a rapper and leader of the hip-hop group The Coup. One of its signature songs was “I Love Boosters” (2006), which pays tribute to booster gangs who find cracks in a system of economic consumerism designed to exploit class division.
Now it’s a rollicking, colorful and breathlessly fast-moving absurdist comedy starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Acki, Taylour Paige, Demi Moore, LaKeith Stanfield, Eiza González and Poppy Liu.
From left, Naomie Ackie, Keke Palmer, Poppy Liu and Taylour Paige in Boots Riley’s “I Love Boosters,”
Neon/TNS
Stanfield’s appearance was his first visit to Oakland since starring in “Sorry to Bother You.” Since then, he was nominated for an Academy Award (best supporting actor for 2021’s “Judas and the Black Messiah”), got sober, married and became a father.
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“It just feels beautiful,” Stanfield told the Chronicle the next morning at the 1 Hotel in San Francisco, joined by Riley who admitted he only had “maybe three hours of sleep” after being the last one standing at SFFilm’s party at Crybaby, an Oakland nightclub. “To smell the air and feel the energy here, it feels the same as I remember.”
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Inside the theater Tuesday night, the two joined González and Liu for a Q&A after the first screening and a pre-show discussion before the second. During the Q&A, Stanfield told the funniest story of the night onstage.
From left: actors Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, director Boots Riley and SFFilm Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks onstage at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland after a screening of “I Love Boosters” at on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
Tommy Lau/SFFilm
Without spoiling it, his character in “I Love Boosters” is involved in an outrageous erotic scene. Stanfield revealed that when he read that scene in the script, he knew would need to get permission from his wife, model Kasmere Trice.
“I was terrified when I read it, because I was like, ‘I have to do what now?’” Stanfield recalled as the crowd roared with laughter. “It was very beautifully descriptive.”
The actor then convinced Riley to cast his wife in the scene, and the filmmaker agreed.
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Other highlights included Liu, a regular on the HBO Max sitcom “Hacks,” performing the splits onstage after González dared her to do it. (She happily did it on the red carpet, too.)
Poppy Liu does the splits as LaKeith Stanfield helps out on the red carpet before a screening of their film “I Love Boosters” at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
Tommy Lau/SFFilm
Of course, the main attraction was the film, which the audience reacted with ecstatic enthusiasm.
Riley was thrilled, but had one last ask, for both crowds.
Distributor Neon will release “I Love Boosters” in about 2,500 theaters across North America on May 22. Unlike “Sorry to Bother You,” which got a slow rollout and built its success through word of mouth, the pressure is on.
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“We gotta do amazing that first weekend,” Riley said. “If you liked this movie, post about it. Keep posting. Tell your friends. And come back with more people on opening weekend.”
But first, SFFilm has added a third screening of “I Love Boosters” at the festival at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 3, at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco at 3200 California St. Go to sffilm.org for tickets.