50 Years of SIFF

50 Years of SIFF

November 3–December 3, 2023

Discover 50 years of the Seattle International Film Festival’s rich history with this 21-film series of Audience Award winners and classic SIFF picks.

See Series Schedule | Download Schedule (PDF)

When the Seattle International Film Festival launched in 1976, no one could’ve guessed that it would ultimately transform into one of the largest nonprofit film organizations in the United States. Over the last five decades, the Festival has presented more than 10,000 films from all over the world, and SIFF now thrives with four year-round cinema venues, educational programming, and more. 

The 21 films in our 50 Years of SIFF series represent a small slice of the Festival’s history—from Golden Space Needle Audience Award winners to classics that represented the first wild decade of SIFF. Whether you’re a seasoned Festival-goer ready to rewatch old favorites or are a new cinema explorer, join us to discover 50 years of SIFF’s rich film exhibition history.

Seattle International Film Festival 2024 passes on sale now.

50 Years of SIFF: Eighth Grade

USA | 2018 | 93 min. | Bo Burnham

November 3 - 24, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

In a star-making performance, Elsie Fisher captures the everyday humiliations and triumphs of a modern-day thirteen-year-old making her way through her disastrous eighth grade year in the filmmaking debut of comedian Bo Burnham. | SIFF 2018 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Australia | 1994 | 103 min. | Stephan Elliott

Now Playing - Dec 1, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Three girlfriends—two drag performers and a transgender woman—escape from their harsh city life and embark on an all-singing, all-dancing, all-camping cross-country tour into the wild Australian outback in their lavender bus, Priscilla. | SIFF 1994 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

Germany | 1975 | 106 min. | Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta

November 3 - 25, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

In the film that opened the very first Seattle International Film Festival in 1976, a woman is harassed by the police and press after a chance encounter with a wanted man until she takes violent action. | SIFF 1976

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50 Years of SIFF: Captain Fantastic

USA | 2016 | 120 min. | Matt Ross

Now Playing - Dec 3, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Viggo Mortensen stars in this heartfelt story of unconventional family values as the father of a brood of six who live off the grid in the wilds of Washington state, until events lead them back to the outside world for the first time in decades. | SIFF 2016 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: Comrades: Almost a Love Story

Hong Kong | 1996 | 118 min. | Peter Ho-sun Chan

Now Playing - Dec 2, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Two Chinese-mainlanders living in Hong Kong (Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai) form a close friendship that shifts over the years into love, and back again, but secretly those feelings always lie just under the surface. | SIFF 1997 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: WarGames

USA | 1983 | 114 min. | John Badham

November 10 - 27, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

In this techno-thriller shot in Seattle, WarGames follows a young man (Matthew Broderick) who finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III. | SIFF 1983

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50 Years of SIFF: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

France | 2006 | 99 min. | Michel Hazanavicius

November 10 - 20, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Agent OSS 117 (Jean Dujardin)—France’s answer to James Bond, Maxwell Smart, and Austin Powers—goes undercover in Cairo to investigate the murder of a fellow agent. Presented on 35mm. | SIFF 2006 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: The Empire Strikes Back

USA | 1980 | 124 min. | Irvin Kershner

November 10 - 23, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

After the Rebels are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett. | SIFF 1980 World Premiere

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50 Years of SIFF: Boyhood

USA | 2014 | 164 min. | Richard Linklater

November 12 - 25, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Shot over the course of 12 years in and around Austin, Texas, Richard Linklater’s coming-of-age micro-epic Boyhood tracks the evolution of a single American family through the eyes of a young boy. | SIFF 2014 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: Blood Simple

USA | 1984 | 99 min. | Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Now Playing - Dec 2, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife in this now classic neo-noir from the Coen Brothers. | SIFF 1984

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50 Years of SIFF: Run Lola Run

Germany | 1998 | 80 min. | Tom Tykwer

November 12 - 18, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks. | SIFF 1999 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: Kiss of the Spider Woman

USA | 1985 | 124 min. | Héctor Babenco

November 12 - 24, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Two Brazilian men, imprisoned during the military dictatorship for very different reasons, find a common ground recounting memories of favorite films. Starring William Hurt and Raul Julia. Presented on 35mm. | SIFF 1985 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: Facing Windows

Italy | 2004 | 102 min. | Ferzan Özpetek

November 13 - 17, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Overburdened and stuck in a greying marriage, Giovanna takes to caring for the Jewish Holocaust survivor her husband brings home. As she begins to reflect on her life, she turns to the man who lives across from her…| SIFF 2004 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: The Kingdom I

Denmark | 1994 | 277 min. | Lars von Trier

November 18 - 19, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Strange things are happening in the underbelly of a Danish hospital in Lars von Trier’s long unavailable cult TV phenomenon. Stunningly restored in never-before-seen versions, The Kingdom I is a wickedly funny supernatural mystery. | SIFF 1995 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: The Kingdom II

Denmark | 1997 | 295 min. | Lars von Trier

November 19 - 26, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Picking up from the cliffhanger ending of The Kingdom 1, our motley crew of physicians and administrators are still squabbling among themselves, unaware of the profound evil rising from the bowels of Copenhagen’s favorite haunted hospital. | SIFF 1998

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50 Years of SIFF: Multiple Maniacs

USA | 1970 | 96 min. | John Waters

Now Playing - Dec 2, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

SIFF favorite director John Waters’s second feature film follows The Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling freak-show that is a front for a band of psychotic kidnappers and murderers. | SIFF 1977

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50 Years of SIFF: The Wedding Banquet

Taiwan | 1993 | 106 min. | Ang Lee

Now Playing - Dec 1, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

To satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord and a female tenant agree to a marriage of convenience, but when his parents arrive to visit, and celebrate their wedding, things get out of hand. Presented on 35mm. | SIFF 1993 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: Black Dynamite

USA | 2009 | 90 min. | Scott Sanders

Now Playing - Dec 3, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

When 'The Man' murders his brother, pumps heroin into local orphanages, and floods the ghetto with adulterated malt liquor, 1970s African-American action legend Black Dynamite is the one hero willing to take him on. | SIFF 2009 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: Trainspotting

United Kingdom | 1996 | 94 min. | Danny Boyle

Now Playing - Dec 3, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

In this ‘90s hit from director Danny Boyle, Ewan McGregor plays Renton, who is deeply immersed in the Edinburgh drug scene and trying to clean up and get out, despite the allure of the drugs and influence of friends. | SIFF 1996 Audience Award Winner

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50 Years of SIFF: Diva

France | 1982 | 117 min. | Jean-Jacques Beineix

Now Playing - Dec 2, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

Two tapes, two Parisian mob killers, one corrupt policeman, an opera fan, a teenage thief, and the coolest philosopher ever filmed all twist their way through this intricate and stylish French-language thriller. Presented on 35mm. | SIFF 1982

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50 Years of SIFF: Picnic at Hanging Rock

Australia | 1975 | 115 min. | Peter Weir

Now Playing - Dec 3, 2023

SIFF Cinema Egyptian

A few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace during a rural summer picnic in Picnic at Hanging Rock, voted the best Australian film of all time and a favorite of SIFF festival goers. | SIFF 1979

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SERIES SCHEDULE

 

Friday, November 3 - 3:30pm Eighth Grade | 5:45pm The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert | 8:15pm The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

Monday, November 6 - 5:00pm Captain Fantastic | 7:45pm Comrades: Almost a Love Story

Friday, November 10 - 1:45pm WarGames | 4:30pm OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies | 7:00pm The Empire Strikes Back

Sunday, November 12 - 12:00pm Boyhood | 3:30pm Blood Simple | 6:00pm Run Lola Run | 8:00pm Kiss of the Spider Woman

Monday, November 13 - 6:00pm Run Lola Run | 8:00pm Facing Windows

Friday, November 17 - 3:30pm Facing Windows

Saturday, November 18 - 11:30am The Kingdom I | 4:45pm Run Lola Run

Sunday, November 19 - 11:30am The Kingdom I | 5:15pm The Kingdom II

Monday, November 20 - 5:15pm Multiple Maniacs | 7:30pm OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

Thursday, November 23 - 4:30pm The Wedding Banquet | 7:15pm The Empire Strikes Back

Friday, November 24 - 12:45pm Black Dynamite | 3:00pm Eighth Grade | 5:15pm Trainspotting | 7:30pm Kiss of the Spider Woman

Saturday, November 25 - 12:00pm Boyhood | 3:30pm The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum | 6:00pm Diva | 8:30pm Black Dynamite

Sunday, November 26 - 12:00pm The Kingdom II | 5:30pm Trainspotting | 7:45pm The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Monday, November 27 - 5:00pm WarGames | 7:30pm Picnic at Hanging Rock

Friday, December 1 - 5:00pm The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert | 7:30pm The Wedding Banquet

Saturday, December 2 - 12:00pm Comrades: Almost a Love Story | 2:45pm Diva | 5:15pm Blood Simple | 7:30pm Multiple Maniacs

Sunday, December 3 -11:30am Captain Fantastic | 2:30pm Black Dynamite | 4:30pm Picnic at Hanging Rock | 7:00pm Trainspotting