What’s Awaiting You at the 51st SIFF

The 51st annual Seattle International Film Festival kicked off last night at the Paramount Theatre with a screening of Darren Thornton’s Four Mothers. The festival has grown immensely since its debut in 1976, where it showed 18 films. Now, over the next ten days through May 25, you can expect screenings of 245 films that span continents, criss-cross genres, and highlight brand new and longtime filmmakers alike. 

Among notable statistics of this year’s festival, the films are presented in 63 languages, including three sign languages, and representing 74 countries. There are 35 documentaries, 122 short films bundled into different thematic packages, and 83 feature films. Nearly 51% of the selected filmmakers identify as women or nonbinary, 37% as BIPOC, and 20% as LGBTQ+. Meanwhile, 60% are either first- or second-time filmmakers. It is also important to remember that 73% of the films do not yet have distribution, and may not see theatrical release. Therefore, SIFF is a phenomenal opportunity for fans and sponsors of the arts to come together and support new filmmakers. 

The festival screenings will be held across Seattle, at SIFF Uptown and Downtown, AMC Pacific Place 11, Shoreline Community College Theater, the Paramount Theatre, and SIFF Film Center. Following the in-person festival’s conclusion, a week of virtual screenings will be available on the SIFF Channel from May 26 to June 1, 2025. 

Holly Woodlawn as Eve Harrington in Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers

SIFF press kit

Among additional programming at the festival, SIFF will be screening three archival films: 1982’s The Dark Crystal, reimagined via a collaboration with Cross-Faded Cinema that will feature a live mixed soundtrack from DJ Nicfit; the 1953 film noir The Glass Web presented in 3-D; and finally, Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers, the 1972 underground film starring trans trailblazer Holly Woodlawn, which was nearly lost before its restoration by the Academy Film Archive. 

The festival will also hold its beloved Secret Festival, two secret screenings which will be revealed only upon attendance, happening at 11 a.m. on May 18 and May 24 at SIFF Downtown. These screenings, which have been a SIFF tradition since 1983, require the signing of an NDA prior to viewing. 

SIFF is also now in its tenth year of hosting the 4th World Media Lab, a traveling year-long fellowship for Indigenous filmmakers in the beginning or middle of their careers. Notably, former graduates of the fellowship have films showing at this year’s festival: Paige Bethmann (Haudenosaunee) with Remaining Native, and Colleen Thurston with Drowned Land. 

The short film packages offer a plethora of moods and themes, whether that’s the whimsical world of Through the Looking Glass or Sound Visions’ celebration of Pacific Northwest talent. The festival also offers thematic and geographic programs, including Films4Families, WTF, and Face the Music. 

SIFF is running juried competitions in several categories, as well an audience participatory competition, the Golden Space Needle Awards. To participate in the Golden Space Needle Awards for categories such as Best Director, Best Performance, and Best Short Film, you will be asked to rate films after each screening using a new digital platform. Winners in SIFF competitions will be announced on May 25, the final day of the festival. 

Indy, the goodest boy from Good Boy.

SIFF press kit

As for personal highlights, the films I am most excited about so far include the new thriller Cloud from J-horror legend Kiyoshi Kurosawa, She’s the He, a directorial debut comedy from Siobhan McCarthy played by a cast of almost entirely trans, nonbinary, and queer people, and Ben Leonberg’s Good Boy, which presents a haunted house story from the perspective of the homeowner’s dog.

See you at the Festival!