A Spirited Debate Over the Best Movies Filmed in SF

Bay Curious

KQED

Places & Travel, History, Society & Culture

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

San Francisco is an iconic looking city, so it's a little surprising that more movies aren't shot here. There are a lot of reasons for that -- cost being a main one -- but there are some very cool movies both set and filmed here. Olivia discusses some of the best ones with San Francisco Chronicle writer Peter Hartlaub and resident KQED movie obsessive, Carly Severn. Additional Resources: The Best San Francisco Movies to Stream This Holiday Season Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Carly Severn and Peter Hartlaub. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From KQED.
0:03.4	Hey everyone, I'm Olivia Allen Price, and this is Bay Curious. Let's go.
0:08.3	My name is Ben Kaiser, and believe it or not, I live in Atlanta, Georgia.
0:12.6	Ben visited San Francisco for the first time four years ago.
0:16.5	And as soon as he got here, he felt a connection.
0:21.6	It's sort of seemed like I had been there before or that I belonged there.
0:26.2	And I just absolutely fell in love with it.
0:29.3	And I've been back in four years, probably nine or ten times.
0:34.6	That's a lot of flights between Atlanta and SFO.
0:38.3	Now, when Ben can't be here, he's found a way to visit without leaving his living room.
0:43.3	Because I don't live in San Francisco, I want to be connected to it as much as I possibly
0:49.3	can.
0:50.3	One of the ways is watching movies shot there. Anything that can transport him here, even if only for a few hours. Ben's seen a lot already, but he wants more. So he came to be curious. I asked, what were some of the movies set in San Francisco that were actually shot in San Francisco, and which ones are your favorites or your recommendations?
1:14.6	Now, we don't often delve into subjective matters here on the show,
1:19.6	but hey, it's the holidays, cozy season is here,
1:23.6	and we thought maybe we could all use some solid movie recommendations.
1:28.3	Today's episode will sound a little bit different from what you usually hear on Bay Curious.
1:33.0	We've got a panel of local cultural experts here to convince Ben and you
1:38.4	how you should spend some time devouring the Bay Area in all its cinematic glory.
1:44.3	This episode first aired in 2020 and has been lightly revised for you today.
1:49.6	So throw some popcorn in the microwave, cozy up on your couch, and press play.
2:04.8	Support for Bay Curious comes from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company,
	...

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