Seattle International Film Festival
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Seattle_International_Film_Festival".

Charlize Theron at SIFF 2008

The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington, is the largest film festival in North America,¹ and among the top film festivals in the world. SIFF runs for more than three weeks (25 days) in May and June. SIFF is a constantly innovating year-round film organization that brings to Seattle edgy international and independent film, actors, and filmmakers that might otherwise be overlooked. SIFF prides itself on offering its audiences the opportunity to discover original stories, diverse cultures, history that is alive, and new emotional journeys. SIFF is a leader in providing an extensive forum for multicultural exchange, inspiration, and enlightenment for all people of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. SIFF’s principle objectives are to promote film as a medium that fosters cross–cultural communication, education, and international understanding.

SIFF 2008 included 445 films--197 narratives, 61 documentary features, and 187 shorts--representing 69 countries. There were more than 140,000 attendees.

Throughout its 34 years, SIFF has evolved into one of the leading independent and international film institutions in the United States and the world. With extensive local, national, and international media coverage, the Festival is one of Seattle’s most accessible and highly–publicized cultural events.

Acclaimed films such as Trainspotting, Braveheart, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Poltergeist, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Donnie Darko, and Last Days have had their World or American premieres at the Festival. Numerous directors and actors of critical acclaim and celebrity have come to Seattle to participate in the Festival. More recently, these include Joan Allen, Jessica Biel, Steve Buscemi, Anthony Hopkins, Ang Lee, Peter Sarsgaard, and Gus Van Sant.

SIFF’s mission is to create experiences that bring people together to discover extraordinary films from around the world. It is through the art of cinema that we foster a community that is more informed, aware, and alive.

History

1976

SIFF was co-founded as part of the for-profit Stage Fright, Inc. by Dan Ireland and Darryl MacDonald at the Moore Theatre. It was only two weeks long and showed 18 films. At the time, there were only a handful of film festivals in North America (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, and LA).

1980

SIFF initiates post-screening discussions with filmmakers.

1985

The Moore Theatre begins expansion. Festival moves to the Masonic Temple-turned-movie-theater, The Egyptian Theatre on Capitol Hill. In conjunction, the festival adds many other innovative programs to the schedule, including midnight movies, retrospectives, all-night movie marathons, short film competitions, and the secret festival.

1990

Cinema Seattle founded, assuming new non-profit administration of the festival.

1993

Cinema Seattle initiates membership program and begins regular off-season programming and screenings. The initial stand-alone fall festival – ECOVISION, focused on environmental issues – a predecessor to 2007’s festival program, Planet Cinema.

1995

SIFF is the first festival to broadcast an entire film over the Internet, making print headlines and nightly news broadcasts nationwide. The film was Party Girl, starring Parker Posey. SIFF also introduces the first Women in Cinema Festival, Screenwriters Salon, and beefs up the website and newsletter.

2007

SIFF opens the year-long programming venue, SIFF Cinema, located in McCaw Hall’s Nesholm Family Lecture Hall at the Seattle Center.

The nature of the festival

The festival includes a sidebar that is probably unique among major film festivals: a four-film "Secret Festival". Those who attend the Secret Festival do not know in advance what they will see, and they must sign an oath that they will not reveal afterwards what they have seen.

In general, SIFF has a reputation as an "audience festival" rather than an "industry festival".² The festival often partially overlaps the Cannes Film Festival, which can reduce attendance by industry bigwigs; in 2007 there were two days of overlap, May 24 and 25.

SIFF also curates the 1 Reel Film Feastival at Bumbershoot and the Sci-Fi Shorts Film Festival at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.³

SIFF Cinema

After three decades of talking about it, in the spring of 2007, SIFF opened SIFF Cinema in the heart of Seattle Center’s emerging Theater District on Mercer Street at McCaw Hall. The year-round 390–seat screening venue is outfitted with the latest state-of-the-art projection and sound technologies to show a smorgasbord of limited-run debuts, mini-festivals and new-print revivals of classics.

Awards

Since 1985, the Seattle International Film Festival has awarded the Golden Space Needle award each year to the festival's most popular movie. Ballots are cast by audience members at the end of each movie. Previous winners of the Golden Space Needle include Whale Rider for 2003, Trainspotting for 1996 and Kiss of the Spider Woman for 1985.

Golden Space Needle (Best Film) and SIFF Awards for Best Short and Documentary

SIFF Awards for Best Director, Actress and Actor

Jury awards

Premieres

Among the films that have received North American or world premieres at SIFF are

• Arafat, My Brother — Rashid Masharawi (2005, North American premiere)⁶
• Banlieue 13 — Pierre Morel (2005, North American premiere)⁶
• Burning in the Wind — Silvio Soldoni (2003, World premiere)⁷
• I Murder Seriously — Antonio Urrutia (2003, North American premiere)⁸
• Last Days — Gus Van Sant (2005, North American premiere)⁶
• Mars — Anna Melikian (2005, North American premiere)⁶
• Mongolian Ping Pong — Ning Hao (2005, North American premiere)⁶
• Monster House — Gil Kenan (2006, North American premiere) [1]
• Nate Dogg — Thomas Farone (2003, World premiere)⁸
• PTU — Johnny To (2003, North American premiere)⁸
• Tomorrow's Weather — Jerzy Stuhr (2003, North American premiere)⁹

See also

• List of film awards

References

1. ^ Annie Wagner, Everything SIFF, The Stranger, May 25 - May 31, 2006.
2. ^ Lynn Jacobson, Locals swarm huge Seattle fest. Variety, Jun. 19, 2005
3. ^ SIFF to Create New Home for Great Films at Seattle Center SIFF press release, November 28, 2006.
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Reel News (SIFF), Autumn 2007, p. 5.
5. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Reel-Autumn2008
6. ^ ^{a b c d e} News in 2005, SIFF. Accessed 23 November 2006.
7. ^ Burning in the Wind, SIFF, Accessed 23 November 2006.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Press release, SIFF. Accessed 23 November 2006.
9. ^ Tomorrow's Weather, SIFF, Accessed 23 November 2006.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Seattle International Film Festival

• official SIFF website
• SIFF Facebook page
• SIFF Myspace page
• SIFF Twitter page