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Lola Versus

Everett Opening Night, May 24, Everett Performing Arts Center
This anti-romantic comedy tells the tale of Lola, a 29-year-old woman unwittingly dumped three weeks before her wedding, which sends her on a series of desperate encounters with her two best friends in an attempt to find her place in the world.

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Tickets On Sale Now!

Opening Night Gala, Tributes, Special Presentations...
Purchase your ticket now to the most popular festival events!

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Shop the SIFF Store!

SIFF merchandise is available online and at select theaters
T-shirts, hats, and more! Visit our stores at SIFF Cinema Uptown, AMC Pacific Place 11, and the Egyptian, or browse our online store.

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Adobe Youth Voices

SIFF is proud to showcase the mentorship of Adobe Youth Voices programs, empowering youth in 32 countries around the world to communicate their ideas and take a leadership role in the communities using media.

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The Do-Deca-Pentathlon

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.

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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.

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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.

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High Ground

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.

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Tey

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.

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The Sex of the Angels

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.

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Madrid, 1987

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.

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Valley of Saints

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.

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The Mexican Suitcase

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.

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Wetlands

May 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.

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Eden

May 29, Everett Performing Arts Center

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Next 50 Film Series

Wednesdays, SIFF Film Center
The SIFF Film Center is teaming up with The Next Fifty—the Seattle Center's six-month celebration of the impact, the memories and the legacy of the 1962 World's Fair—for a series of free films and forum discussions. Each week we'll present a free screening of a documentary, shorts program, or feature that highlights one of The Next Fifty focus areas including Science and Technology, Global Heath, Learning, Civic Action, and more.

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SIFF Membership

SIFF Members receive many benefits including $5 admission to all regular-priced shows at SIFF CINEMA, a popcorn punchcard, free invitations to exclusive screenings of new films before their theatrical release and discounts on tickets and passes to the Seattle International Film Festival. Renew now or become a SIFF Member.

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SIFF 2012: Press Launch

Local Academy Award®-winning director T.J. Martin (Undefeated) stopped by this year's Press Launch to receive the SIFF Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award.

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SIFF 2012: How to SIFF (Tickets & Passes)

Need help deciding which tickets and passes to get for this year's Festival? Here's a quick breakdown to help you figure it out!

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SIFF 2012: Official Festival Trailer

The official trailer for the 38th Seattle International Film Festival has been released! Imagined by WONGDOODY, the largest independent creative agency in Seattle, and brought to life by the creative geniuses at World Famous, this year's trailer is a visually stunning, kaleidoscopic feast showcasing nearly 50 films from past SIFFs in only on... Read more

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SIFF Film Center Fundraiser

Watch this special fundraiser that helped raise money and awareness for the Film School and the new SIFF Film Center, featuring a conversation with Seattle's own Tom Skerritt!

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Sponsor Report SIFF 2011

Watch this special thank you to our sponsors for supporting 2011 SIFF and see examples of their impact and presence at the Festival.

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WAIT FOR ME

As part of the Complete Amateur Filmmaking Workshop on June 5, 2011 at the SIFF Film Center, participants created a short film. We're happy to present their completed project here.

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Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure

Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure

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WEEKEND, with director Andrew Haigh

WEEKEND, with director Andrew Haigh

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PROJECT NIM, with Bob Ingersoll

PROJECT NIM, with Bob Ingersoll

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Hurricane Kalatozov

Hurricane Kalatozov

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CIRCUMSTANCE, Part 2

CIRCUMSTANCE, Part 2

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CIRCUMSTANCE, Part 1

CIRCUMSTANCE, Part 1

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BEING ELMO with director Constance Marks

Constance Marks and James Miller of BEING ELMO

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Toy Story: Hawaiian Vacation + a Look at Cars 2

Chatting with the excited audience at Pacific Place!

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WISH YOU WERE HERE

As part of the Complete Amateur Filmmaking Workshop on June 5, 2011 at the SIFF Film Center, participants created a short film. We're happy to present their completed project here.

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WATER WORKS

As part of the Complete Amateur Filmmaking Workshop on June 5, 2011 at the SIFF Film Center, participants created a short film. We're happy to present their completed project here.

SIFF Photostream

image of Flickr logo

Spotlight

  • Tickets On Sale Now!
    Tickets On Sale Now!

    Tributes, Special Presentations and Gala Screenings

    Purchase your ticket now to the most popular festival events!

  • SIFF 2012 Tributes
    SIFF 2012 Tributes

    Sissy Spacek and William Friedkin

    SIFF will recognize Oscar-winning actress Sissy Spacek and director William Friedkin as 2012 Tribute honorees during a weekend of celebratory events at SIFF 2012. On sale now!

  • Automatic Membership Renewal Now Available!
    Automatic Membership Renewal Now Available!

    Renew by June 12 to Enter to Win!

    You can now automatically renew your membership yearly, and if you join, renew, or upgrade your membership by June 12, you will be entered in a drawing to win a 7-night Caribbean cruise for two or Dinner and a Movie at the Volterra Drawing room for 20 people!