Opening Night Gala: Your Sister's Sister
Thursday May 17, McCaw Hall
Start the Festival off right by attending the Opening Night Gala on May 17. This kick-off event is always a fabulous time, complete with a screening of Your Sister's Sister, followed by hors d’oeuvres, desserts, and complimentary cocktails.
Opening Night Red Carpet Experience
May 17, MaCaw Hall
Please join us in celebrating Opening Night in Style! We'll be dressing to the nines, walking the red carpet, toasting at a pre-screening party, enjoying our reserved seats during the film, and dancing the night away at the after-party. Purchase your tickets now, this event will sell out!
An Evening with Sissy Spacek
June 7, SIFF Cinema Uptown
This special tribute event will include the presentation of the Seattle International Film Festival Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting, an onstage interview with film clips from her career and the opportunity for answering questions from the audience followed by a screening of Terrence Malick’s broodingly beautiful Badlands.
An Evening with William Friedkin
The director of the number one horror movie of all time
June 9, Egyptian Theatre
Director William Friedkin arrives at SIFF this year with the west coast premiere of his new, provocative black comedy, Killer Joe, where he will be presented with the Seattle International Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The evening will include an onstage interview and film clips from his career preceding the film with a Q&A session following the film screening.
The Do-Deca-Pentathlon
May 8, SIFF Cinema Uptown | May 22, Pacific Place
Sibling rivalry approaches near-Olympic levels in this hilarious, and sometimes insane, comedy about two ultra-competitive brothers who secretly resurrect a childhood contest of 25 athletic events.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
May 18 & 19, Pacific Place
This intimate portrait of one of China’s most compelling public figures follows the activist-artist and social media revolutionary through his creative process, as well as his increasingly contentious run-ins with Chinese authorities.
American Addict
May 18, Harvard Exit | May 19, SIFF Cinema Uptown
This riveting examination of the corporatization of America’s drug dependency and its impact on capitalism and public health is a forthright indictment of the pharmacological industry and the culture that fuels it.
Valley of Saints
May 18 & 19, Harvard Exit | June 3, Kirkland Performance Center
Boatman Gulzar plans to leave his impoverished Kashmir Valley village until he meets a young woman who’s researching the local lake. Musa Syeed’s luminous intertwining of personal and environmental conflicts won Sundance’s World Cinema Audience Award.
The Mexican Suitcase
May 18 & 19, SIFF Cinema Uptown | June 3, Pacific Place
More than 4,500 negatives taken by photographers Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour during the Spanish Civil War were found in a Mexico City closet, and their discovery illuminates the present as much as the past.
Wetlands
May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown | May 19 & 22, Harvard Exit
A family struggling together to save their ecologically imperiled dairy farm must also deal with mourning, forgiveness, and sexual identity through the prism of a rocky mother-son relationship.
High Ground
May 19 & 20, SIFF Cinema Uptown | May 25, Everett Performing Arts Center
Five-time Everest summiter and adventure filmmaker Michael Brown follows a team of veterans returning from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq who find mental and emotional solace in the Himalayan peaks.
Tey
May 18 & 19, SIFF Cinema Uptown | May 21, Pacific Place
Although Satche is strong and healthy, he must accept that today is the last day of his life in this extraordinarily poetic portrait of a man’s final day with the people and places of his life.
LUV
May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown | May 19, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center
A shy, 11-year-old boy is captivated by the sudden appearance of his charming ex-con uncle, Vincent (Common), but discovers, over the course of a single day, that growing up involves some harsh lessons.
The Sex of the Angels
May 18, Egyptian Theatre | May 20, SIFF Cinema Uptown | June 5, Kirkland Performance Center
Bruno loves Carla, but when he meets handsome dancer Rai, serious bisexual sparks fly. A new generation navigates sexual fluidity and open relationships in this steamy love triangle.
My Sucky Teen Romance
May 18, Pacific Place | May 20, SIFF Cinema Uptown
When Kate falls for Paul, a recently turned vampire who lustily and inadvertently bites her, she and her friends must race to stake the original vampire before she is undead forever.
Madrid, 1987
May 20, Pacific Place | May 22, SIFF Cinema Uptown | May 30, Harvard Exit
A world-weary professor and a beautiful young journalism student find themselves accidentally locked, naked, inside a bathroom—awkward!—passing the time with discussions on life, literature, politics, and love.
Eden
May 19, Egyptian Theatre | May 21, SIFF Cinema Uptown | June 29, Everett Performing Arts Center
The 5,000 Days Project: Two Brothers
May 19 & 21, SIFF Cinema Uptown | May 21, Everett Performing Arts Center
In the first installment of an ambitious ongoing series, the journey of two brothers struggling to forge meaningful bonds with each over is chronicled over the course of 10 years.
How to Survive a Plague
May 20, Harvard Exit | May 21, Pacific Place
By definition of its title, investigative journalist David France’s debut documentary is the hopeful next chapter in the story of AIDS, taking viewers behind the scenes of AIDS activism which led to clinical breakthroughs that ended the darkest days of the then-epidemic.
Safety Not Guaranteed
May 23 & 25, SIFF Cinema Uptown
An unusual classified ad inspires three Seattle journalists to investigate Kenneth, an eccentric supermarket clerk, who believes he’s solved the riddle of time travel. Together, they embark upon a hilariously unexpected journey.
God Bless America
May 19, Egyptian Theatre | May 22, SIFF Cinema Uptown
Bobcat Goldthwait's ultraviolent, ultra-hilarious tirade against the vapid American pop culture, follows fed-up office worker Frank and teen outcast Roxy on a cross-country killing spree.
Cloudburst
May 22, Egyptian Theatre | May 24, SIFF Cinema Uptown
Oscar-winning actresses Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis portray aging lovers forced to go on the run to stay together in this riotous dramedy.
The Imposter
May 23, SIFF Cinema Uptown | May 29, Harvard Exit
A dark-haired, dark-eyed French Algerian man from Spain miraculously passes himself off as a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy from Texas, fooling international officials and, most incredibly, the boy's family.
