The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees.[1] SIFF runs for more than three weeks (24 days) in May-June, and features a diverse assortment of predominantly independent and foreign films and, in recent years, a strong contingent of documentaries.
SIFF 2006 included 300+ films and was the first SIFF to include a venue in neighboring Bellevue, Washington since an ill-fated early attempt. However, in 2008, the festival was back to being entirely in Seattle, and had a slight decrease in the number of feature films.
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The festival began in 1976 at a then-independent cinema, the Moore Egyptian Theater (now back to its earlier name, the Moore Theater, and functioning as a concert venue). When founders Dan Ireland and Darryl Macdonald of the Moore Egyptian lost their lease, they founded the Egyptian theater in a former Masonic Temple on Seattle's Capitol Hill, which remains a prime festival venue to this day, although the festival now typically uses about half a dozen cinemas (including, since 2007, its own SIFF Cinema at Seattle Center), the exact roster varying from year to year.
During the 1980s, SIFF audiences developed a reputation for appreciating films that did not fit standard industry niches, such as Richard Rush's multi-layered The Stunt Man (1980). SIFF was instrumental in the entry of Dutch films into the United States market, including the first major American success for director Paul Verhoeven.
The festival includes a sidebar that is 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.
The SIFF group also curates the Global Lens film series, the Screenwriters Salon, and Futurewave (K-12 programming and youth outreach), coordinates SIFF-A-Go-Go travel programs (organized tours to other film festivals), and co-curates the 1 Reel Film Feastival at Bumbershoot and the Sci-Fi Shorts Film Festival at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.[1]
November 28, 2006, SIFF and Seattle mayor Greg Nickels announced that SIFF will soon have a home and a year-round screening facility in what has been the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall of McCaw_Hall, the same building at Seattle Center that houses the Seattle Opera. The city contributed $150,000 to the $350,000 project. This auditorium is now a "flagship venue" for SIFF festivals[1] and the site of most press screenings.
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.
| Year | Best Film (Golden Space Needle) | Best Short | Best Documentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Kiss of the Spider Woman (dir. Héctor Babenco, Brazil) | Frankenweenie (dir. Tim Burton, United States) | |
| 1986 | The Assault (dir. Fons Rademakers, Netherlands) | The Big Snit (dir. Richard Condie, USA) | |
| 1987 | My Life as a Dog (dir. Lasse Hallström, Sweden) | Your Face (dir. Bill Plimpton, USA) | |
| 1988 | Bagdad Café (dir. Percy Adlon, West Germany) | Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (dir. Jonathon Sanger, USA) | |
| 1989 | Apartment Zero (dir. Martin Donovan, USA) | Tin Toy (dir. John Lasseter, USA) | |
| 1990 | Pump Up the Volume (dir. Allan Moyle, USA) | Knick Knack (dir. John Lasseter, USA) | |
| 1991 | My Mother's Castle (dir. Yves Robert, France) | The Potato Hunter (dir. Timothy Hittle, USA) | Paris Is Burning (dir. Jennie Livingston, USA) |
| 1992 | Betty Blue (dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix, France) | Anima Mundi (dir. Godfrey Reggio, USA) | A Brief History of Time (dir. Errol Morris, USA) |
| 1993 | The Wedding Banquet (dir. Ang Lee Ti Wong, Taiwan/USA) | The Fairy Who Didn't Want to Be a Fairy Anymore (dir. Laurie Lynd, Canada) | Road Scholar (dir. Roger Weisberg, USA) |
| 1994 | Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (dir. Stephan Elliott, Australia) | The Wrong Trousers (dir. Nick Park, UK) | The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (dir. Ray Müller, Germany) |
| 1995 | The Kingdom (dir. Lars von Trier, Denmark) | Surprise! (dir. Veit Helmer, Germany) | Crumb (dir. Terry Zwigoff, USA) |
| 1996 | Trainspotting (dir. Danny Boyle, UK) | That Night (dir. John Keister, USA) | Hype! (dir. Doug Pray, USA) |
| 1997 | Comrades: Almost a Love Story (dir. Peter Chan, Hong Kong) | Ballad of the Skeletons (dir. Gus Van Sant, USA) | Licensed to Kill (dir. Arthur Dong, USA) |
| 1998 | God Said Ha! (dir. Julia Sweeney, USA) | Sin Sostén (dir. Rene Castinello, Antonio Urrutia, Belgium) | Frank Lloyd Wright (dir. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, USA) |
| 1999 | Run Lola Run (dir. Tom Tykwer, Germany) | 12 Stops of the Road to Nowhere (dir. Jay Lowi, USA) | Buena Vista Social Club (dir. Wim Wenders, USA) |
| 2000 | Shower (Zhang Yang, China) | In God We Trust (dir. Jason Reitman, USA) | Trade Off (dir. Shaya Mercer, USA) |
| 2001 | Finder's Fee (dir. Jeff Probst, USA) | Boychick (dir. Glen Gaylord, USA) | The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition (dir. George Butler, USA) |
| 2002 | Elling (dir. Petter Næss, Norway) | The Host (dir. Nick Tomnay, Australia) | Ruthie & Connie: Every Room in the House (dir. Deborah Dickson, USA) |
| 2003 | Whale Rider (dir. Niki Caro, New Zealand) | Misdemeanor (dir. Jonathan Lemond, USA) | The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (dir. Kim Bartley, Donnacha O'Briain, Ireland/Venezuela) |
| 2004 | Facing Windows (dir. Ferzan Ozpetek, Italy) | Consent (dir. Jason Reitman, USA) | Born into Brothels (dir. Zana Briski, Ross Kauffmann, USA) |
| 2005 | Innocent Voices (dir. Luis Mandoki, Mexico) | Raftman's Razor (dir. Keith Bearden, USA) | Murderball (dir. Henry-Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro, USA) |
| 2006 | OSS 117: Nest of Spies (dir. Michel Hazanavicious, France) | Full Disclosure (dir. Douglas Horn, USA) | The Trials of Darryl Hunt (dir. Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg, USA) |
| 2007[3] | Outsourced (dir. John Jeffcoat, USA) | Pierre (dir. Dan Brown, USA) | For the Bible Tells Me So (dir. Daniel Karslake, USA) |
| Year | New Director Award | New American Cinema Award | Best Documentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007[3] | Eric Richter Strand (Sons, Norway) | Shotgun Stories (Jeff Nichols, USA) | Harald Freidl, (Out of Time, Austria) |
| Year | Short film awards - Narrative short |
Short film awards - Animated short |
Short film awards - Documentary short |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007[3] | Wigald, Timon Modersohn (Germany) | Everything Will Be OK, Don Hertzfeldt (USA) | Chocolate Country, Robin Blotnick (Dominican Republic / USA) |
Among the films that have received North American or world premieres at SIFF are
   | SIFF homepage - Seattle International Film Festival Home |
| | Official SIFF 2006 Flickr Page - Flickr: SIFF 2006's Photostream |
| | Locals swarm huge Seattle fest - Locals swarm huge Seattle fest - Entertainment News, Film Festivals, Media - Variety |
| | the SIFF Shiftboard - Online Scheduling for SIFF Volunteers: Participate |
| | SIFF celebrates 30 years of movies (2006) - SIFF celebrates 30 years of movies | The Falcon |
| | Interviews with SIFF Directors - Hollywoodreviews.com - ebert roeper Resources and Information.This website is for sale! |
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