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.
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
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
50 Years of SIFF: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Australia | 1994 | 103 min. | Stephan Elliott
Now Playing - Dec 1, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
Germany | 1975 | 106 min. | Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta
November 3 - 25, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Captain Fantastic
USA | 2016 | 120 min. | Matt Ross
Now Playing - Dec 3, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Comrades: Almost a Love Story
Hong Kong | 1996 | 118 min. | Peter Ho-sun Chan
Now Playing - Dec 2, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: WarGames
USA | 1983 | 114 min. | John Badham
November 10 - 27, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
France | 2006 | 99 min. | Michel Hazanavicius
November 10 - 20, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: The Empire Strikes Back
USA | 1980 | 124 min. | Irvin Kershner
November 10 - 23, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Boyhood
USA | 2014 | 164 min. | Richard Linklater
November 12 - 25, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Blood Simple
USA | 1984 | 99 min. | Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Now Playing - Dec 2, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Run Lola Run
Germany | 1998 | 80 min. | Tom Tykwer
November 12 - 18, 2023
After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks. | SIFF 1999 Audience Award Winner
50 Years of SIFF: Kiss of the Spider Woman
USA | 1985 | 124 min. | Héctor Babenco
November 12 - 24, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Facing Windows
Italy | 2004 | 102 min. | Ferzan Özpetek
November 13 - 17, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: The Kingdom I
Denmark | 1994 | 277 min. | Lars von Trier
November 18 - 19, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: The Kingdom II
Denmark | 1997 | 295 min. | Lars von Trier
November 19 - 26, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Multiple Maniacs
USA | 1970 | 96 min. | John Waters
Now Playing - Dec 2, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: The Wedding Banquet
Taiwan | 1993 | 106 min. | Ang Lee
Now Playing - Dec 1, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Black Dynamite
USA | 2009 | 90 min. | Scott Sanders
Now Playing - Dec 3, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Trainspotting
United Kingdom | 1996 | 94 min. | Danny Boyle
Now Playing - Dec 3, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Diva
France | 1982 | 117 min. | Jean-Jacques Beineix
Now Playing - Dec 2, 2023
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
50 Years of SIFF: Picnic at Hanging Rock
Australia | 1975 | 115 min. | Peter Weir
Now Playing - Dec 3, 2023
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