At the SFIFF’s super-special ritzy glamorous hoi-palloi Brad-Bird-Meet-And-Greet last week, Brad was surrounded by such a large gaggle of pleased society-types, you could’ve been forgiven for not realizing he was there at all. In fact, only a small number of the attendees seemed aware of him at all as they sipped wines, nibbled appetizers (the shrimp, it seemed, were popular), and enjoyed the dimly lit, and therefore swank, atmosphere of North Beach’s Bubble Lounge. Following his fantastic "A Bunch of Things I Think About Movies" speech, the sophisticated after-party was attended by filmmakers, donors, and other festival luminaries; and as eternally fascinating as Brad is, his immediate enmeshing in a persistent throng ensured that our attention was diverted to the far more fascinating guests.

At first, we assumed that the quiet young fellow waiting to meet Brad was a college student, but after we struck up a conversation it turned out that, no, he’s an exceptionally tall high school freshman. And an exceptionally accomplished one. Max Strebel’s short, "Congratulations!" plays as part of the SFIFF’s "Youth Voices and Visions" screening (at the Kabuki, April 30 at 3:45 and May 5 at 1:00), a collection of short films by artists too young to vote but too talented to ignore. This is Max’s second film in the festival; another of his works appeared in the Youth Visions program two years ago, when he was thirteen. Thirteen! When we were thirteen, our greatest accomplishment was an unfinished anthology of Star Trek fan-fiction.