Moira Macdonald’s guide to SIFF 2024

The Seattle International Film Festival is back, celebrating its 50^th anniversary and embracing its post-pandemic trimness.

For decades, SIFF was reportedly the largest film festival in the U.S., stretching over 3 ½ weeks and encompassing more than 400 films. But after experiencing pandemic-era shrinkage (the festival was canceled in 2020, online-only in 2021 and hybrid in 2022 during a COVID surge), it’s now settled in with an 11-day schedule. This year’s SIFF encompasses 261 films from 84 countries, screening in eight theaters May 9-19 with selected films offered online May 20-27.

Artistic director Beth Barrett, who presided over many editions of SIFF at the longer length, said she thinks it’s a permanent change.

“We’re a year-round film festival,” she said, citing the organization’s six screens (three at the Uptown, one each at SIFF Cinema Downtown, Egyptian and SIFF Film Center) kept busy with mini-festivals, studio and art house films, and international fare. “I think there’s enough going on through our cinemas that we can really hone the focus of the festival into those 11 days, and let the cinemas take the other 354.” A shorter festival, she said, is simply more doable for everyone — “it’s easier to really bring your full self.”

And what might those of us bringing our full selves to SIFF find this year? The biggest change: a full schedule of programming on the gloriously curved screen of SIFF’s newest cinema, SIFF Cinema Downtown, aka the former Cinerama. It’s been fun, Barrett said, to figure out which films would play best at that site, and festival staffers have looked for offerings that were particularly immersive — “that bring you into a different world.” Among these are many of SIFF’s archival titles, including restorations of Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire” (May 13), Ann Hui’s “July Rhapsody” (May 18) and Charles Crichton’s 1951 heist comedy “The Lavender Hill Mob” (May 15). SIFF staffers have also looked to book films with particularly elaborate sound designs into the theater; Barrett gave as examples the Belgian animated film “Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds” (May 12, May 19) and Amanda Kramer’s documentary about cyberspace films, “So Unreal” (May 12, May 13).

Also at SIFF Cinema Downtown will be one of the festival’s two special guests: Jean Smart, the Emmy- and SAG Award-winning actor best known for television work (“Hacks,” “Designing Women,” “Frasier,” “Mare of Easttown”) but no stranger to movies (“Babylon,” “A Simple Favor,” “The Accountant”). Smart, who was born in Seattle and graduated from Ballard High School and the University of Washington, will be presented with The Hollywood Reporter’s Trailblazers Award on May 18, in an event that will also include a screening of an episode of Smart’s latest television hit, “Hacks.”

The festival’s other special guest, announced earlier, is 94-year-old June Squibb, appearing at SIFF in the first starring role of her career: the title role in the opening-night comedy “Thelma.” It’s exciting, Barrett said, for the festival to be honoring two women who have been in the industry for so many decades, “and only in the last couple of years getting their true due.” Squibb, an Oscar nominee for “Nebraska,” will appear at the opening-night screening at the Paramount Theatre on May 9, and will be honored in a special tribute event and brunch on May 11.

Closing night — which, in a new twist this year, is happening on Saturday, May 18, a day before the festival actually ends — will feature the drama “Sing Sing,” starring Oscar nominee Colman Domingo (“Rustin”) as an unjustly incarcerated man who finds meaning in the prison’s theater program. Director Greg Kwedar and members of the cast — who are being given the Golden Space Needle Award for excellence in ensemble casting — will attend. A party will follow at MOHAI, celebrating the 50^th edition with fundraising games and vintage SIFF swag. (A prize will be awarded to the person showing up with the oldest SIFF memorabilia.)

Elsewhere, SIFF presents a vast range of films, presenting them in various categories: some named for geographical regions or cultures (cINeDIGENOUS, African Pictures, Asian Crossroads, Ibero American Cinema), others grouping films with common themes (Face the Music, Culinary Cinema, WTF) or intended audiences (Films4Families, FutureWave).

The cINeDIGENOUS package is particularly strong this year, with 11 feature-length films and one shorts package from Indigenous filmmakers around the world. Among them: “Bring Them Home” (May 16, May 18), a documentary narrated by Lily Gladstone about a Montana wild buffalo herd; the Australian drama “The New Boy” (May 18, May 19) about an Aboriginal orphan and featuring Cate Blanchett as a nun; “Sugarcane” (May 12, May 15), winner of a Sundance documentary award, about the abuse suffered by Indigenous children at a now-closed British Columbia school, with director Julian Brave NoiseCat attending.   

The Northwest Connections program, which showcases films made in and about the Pacific Northwest, this year offers six feature-length documentaries on topics ranging from Indigenous fishing rights to the history of Rainier Beer, one short film package, one installment of an ongoing web series (Gregg Lachow’s neo-noir “The Uncertain Detective,” screening May 15 and 17), and one narrative feature: Stimson Snead’s made-in-Spokane science fiction tale “Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox” (May 10, May 11).

Asked for a few recommendations, Barrett named the timely documentary “Porcelain War” (May 12, May 13), made by two Ukrainian artists and winner of the documentary prize at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Other standouts she singled out: “399: Queen of the Tetons” (May 12, May 13), about an internet-famous bear; “Hitchcock’s Pro-Nazi Film” (May 14, May 15), which examines whether the filmmaker’s “Lifeboat” contains unintended propaganda; “Sono Lino” (May 16, May 17), about glass artist Lino Tagliapietra; and “Aggro Dr1ft” (May 17), the latest unclassifiable feature from filmmaker Harmony Korine. The latter, showing on the Downtown screen, will be “a spectacle,” said Barrett, who called the film “retina-scorching.” (Want more recs from SIFF staffers? See siff.net/festival/programmers-picks-2024)

I’ve seen no SIFF 2024 films as of this writing, but as I browse through the schedule, plenty of intriguing possibilities pop up: “Ghostlight” (May 17, May 18), a poignantly named drama about a family coping with trauma through art. “Merchant Ivory” (May 16, May 17), a documentary about a remarkable artistic and personal partnership. “Evil Does Not Exist” (May 10, May 11), a drama from Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who made the beautiful, meditative Oscar winner “Drive My Car” a few years back. “Green Border” (May 15, May 16) the Venice Film Festival prizewinner from Agnieszka Holland, about a family of Syrian refugees. Oscar-nominated (“Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó”) documentarian Sean Wang’s first narrative feature, the coming-of-age tale “Dìdi” (May 18, May 19), which won the audience award at Sundance. The magical 1984 film “The Neverending Story,” screening with a live soundtrack spun by Seattle DJ NicFit (May 14).

Over the years, SIFF has brought a lot of magic. Here’s hoping the 2024 edition brings even more.