By Dennis Hartley
(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 10, 2025)
The 51st annual Seattle International Film Festival opens May 15th and runs through May 25th. This year’s SIFF features a total of 245 shorts, documentaries, and narrative films in 63 languages. The brick-and-mortar event will be immediately followed by a week of select virtual screenings from this year’s catalog (May 26th to June 1st) on the SIFF Channel.
SIFF has certainly grown exponentially since its first incarnation in 1976 (in case the math is making you crazy, festival organizers “skipped” the 13th event; you know how superstitious show people get about Scottish kings and such). Compare the numbers: In 1976, the Festival boasted a whopping 19 films from 9 countries, with one lone venue. Then again, there were only 13 people on the staff in 1976.
Regardless of how large or small the staff, the one constant over the decades has been the quality of the curation. Long before “sharing files” (or even making mix tapes) was a thing, SIFF’s annual lineup reflected that sense of joy in turning friends on to something new and exciting; instilling the sense there was a tangible film lover’s community (others who enjoyed being alone together, out there in the dark).
From a joint statement by Excecutive Director Tom Mara and Artistic Director Beth Barrett:
More than ever, the power of thoughtfully crafted stories is necessary as we face a quickening influx of distressing and bewildering news that distracts us from pausing, discerning, and perhaps gaining greater understanding of our world and each other. Films inspire us, invigorate us, and buoy us while we struggle with the heightened emotions and uncertainty of our time. At SIFF, you don’t have to face these challenges alone. The Festival is designed to not only connect us with films but also with one another. Each year during the Festival, the two of us find ourselves taking a step back to appreciate how each screening spurs new connections among the film lovers in the audience. These connections and the stories told on screen help us to understand each other’s adversities and joys, which is crucial with the world so divided. […]
A society without an arts landscape rich in beauty, diversity, and critical thought is a society that leaves little room for personal and collective flourishing. SIFF is dedicated to the creation of vibrant experiences and spaces that champion film discovery and arts education so that we can all continue to grow as individuals, neighbors, and global citizens.
Amen, and please pass the popcorn.
This will be the 33rd SIFF I’ve attended (in one guise or the other). As (an alleged) film critic, I have been covering SIFF for Hullabaloo now for 19 years (since 2007), but as always, the looming question is – where to begin? The trick to navigating festivals is developing a 6th sense for films in your wheelhouse (I embrace my OCD and channel it like a cinematic dowser).
Let’s dive in!
This years Opening Night Gala selection is an Irish import. Four Mothers is the latest from writer-director Darren Thornton (A Date For Mad Mary). James McArdle stars as a gay novelist about to embark on an important American book tour. However, he is unexpectedly sidelined by having to take care of four elderly women (including his mam) for a week. A delightful dramedy/road movie inspired by the Italian film Mid-August Lunch (my 2009 SIFF review).
Politics, politics. I’m intrigued by two 1960s period pieces: Waves (Czech Republic) promises to be a “nerve-wracking journalism thriller” set in 1967 Czechoslovakia; and The Safe House (Switzerland) is a comedy-drama about a 9 year-old boy and his eccentric family grappling with political unrest in the streets of 1968 Paris.
The documentary Suburban Fury (USA) profiles FBI informant Sara Jane Moore, who attempted to assassinate President Ford in 1975. The timely doc Free Leonard Peltier (USA) “…outlines the decades-long efforts to free the Indigenous activist from prison through the commutation of his sentence at the age of 80 in January 2025.” And Transfers (Argentina) is billed as “a poignant documentary about Argentina’s onetime military dictatorship’s use of the infamous and brutal Death Flights.”
No people like show people: Chain Reactions (USA) features five horror luminaries discussing how Tobe Hooper’s no-budget classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre impacted their life and work (no…Elon Musk is not among them). Jean Cocteau (USA) utilizes Cocteau’s journals, letters and artistic works to assemble an intimate portrait of the filmmaker/playwright/poet. By the Stream (South Korea) is a drama about a lecturer who coaxes her famous uncle out of retirement to write and direct a play for her students after the production hits a snag.
In the comedy Dancing Queen in Hollywood (Norway), a hip-hop dancing duo travels to L.A. with hopes of starring in a music video. Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers (USA) is a 1972 film starring the legendary Holly Woodlawn (immortalized in Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side”) as “a small-town girl hoping to make it big in New York City”. This is a revival presentation, via a newly-restored print by the Academy Film Archive (this “lost” film has never been available in any home video format).
Speaking of midnight movies…Fucktoys (USA) is described as a “…campy, vividly pastel-colored romp about a woman who embarks upon a sex worker odyssey through Trashtown with her nonbinary friend to break a terrible curse that has befallen her.” OK then. Since I’m already going down this road: The animated adult musical Spermageddon (Norway) follows the adventures of “sperm cells Simon and Cumilla as they attempt to defeat the nefarious Jizzmo” (I just report the news, folks). I’m eager to see Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (UK/Poland/Germany) – the latest stop-motion animation from the enigmatic Brothers Quay (I wrote about their work here).
Crime and punishment: Sons (Denmark) is a drama about a prison guard (Sidse Babett Knudsen of Borgen fame) who faces deep moral and ethical dilemmas when she learns that a dark figure from her past has been transferred to her facility. Cloud (Japan) is billed as a “genre-bending potboiler about a craven opportunist who finds success as an internet reseller, only for revenge-seeking vigilantes to come calling”.
Set in the mid-90s, The Kingdom (France) concerns a Corsican mobster and his daughter who are forced to go on the run when an underground war breaks out between nationalist groups and crime syndicates. And here’s a special treat for noiristas: The Glass Web in 3-D (USA)…Jack Arnold’s 1953 crime drama has been newly restored by the 3-D Film Archive from the original 35mm camera negatives. Sounds like fun!
I always look forward to SIFF’s music-related fare. There are 3 promising documentaries on my radar:1-800-ON-HER-OWN documents the making of alt-folk singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco ‘s 2021 album “Revolutionary Love”, Paul Anka: His Way (USA) covers the life and career of the Canadian-born pop idol and songwriter, and Salsa Lives (Columbia) features genre legends like Rubén Blades and Henry Fiol and “…shows how entire generations have celebrated their common identity through music and dance.”
There’s always room on my checklist for some fantasy and sci-fi. Time Travel is Dangerous (UK) is a comedy-adventure about a pair of North London antique shop owners who stumble across a working bumper car time machine (shades of Time Bandits). U Are the Universe (Ukraine) concerns “… a space trucker [who] thinks he’s the last living person in the universe…until a call from a distant space station sets him on a course across the cosmos.” Right in my wheelhouse. And for a one-time-only event, SIFF will be presenting a screening of The Dark Crystal, wih DJ NicFit providing a live soundtrack to accompany Jim Henson and Frank Oz’s cult 1982 fantasy adventure.
Always with the drama: Boong (India) is a coming-of-age/class warfare tale of a 9 year-old schoolboy who hits the road with his best friend to investigate whether or not his absentee father really has passed away as rumored. Shot in black and white, Color Book (USA) is a “day in the life” story about a recently-widowed Black father in Atlanta who takes his young disabled son to his first professional baseball game. Souleymane’s Story (France) is a timely tale about the travails of a Guinean immigrant who is trying to apply for asylum.
Sorry, Baby (this year’s Closing Night Gala selection) was written and directed by its star Eva Victor (who you may recognize from Showtime’s Billions). The film is described as a “…nonlinear, seriocomic story about a melancholic English professor’s complicated path toward healing in the aftermath of an all-too-common tragedy.”
Obviously, I’ve barely scratched the surface. I’ll be plowing through the catalog and sharing reviews with you beginning next Saturday. In the meantime, visit the SIFF site for full details on the films, event screenings, special guests, and more.