Early this week, SIFF members got a chance to preview the 2011 lineup with some guidance from the festival’s programmers and get their last shot at early ticketing. Members of the general public who are interested in a programmer tour of the unmissable foreign films can stop by the Triple Door on May 12 for a $6 preview of the festival. Today, though, the festival officially opens for business to the rest of the city, with the main box office set up on the second floor of Pacific Place and online ticketing ready to receive orders.
The full schedule is now also online for the perusing (or “SIFFting“) and in magazine format for browsing, with free copies available at some (but not all) of the city’s finest Starbucks locations. The glossy everything-looks-better-in-silky-print festival catalog won’t be available until opening night. Still, carriers of Apple-branded pocket computers will also be happy to learn that iSIFF has been refreshed for the new season. The exceptionally well-designed mobile guide to the schedule and pocket ticket counter is now ready for download from the App Store for prominent home screen placement.
From the looks of the program, film fans should plan to be scattered throughout the city with fewer easier opportunities to dash between venues on foot. The main daily festival venues will be SIFF Cinema (Seattle Center), Pacific Place (Downtown), the freshly revived Neptune (U-District), the Egyptian & Harvard Exit (Capitol Hill), and the Admiral (West Seattle). The festival will also spend one week each in Renton, Everett, and Kirkland, with the latter two performing arts center hosting its own regional “opening night” gala for Young Goethe In Love and Bon Appetit, respectively.
In other, less sunny festival news, the Tony Awards have stolen Al Pacino away from the festival, turning his scheduled appearance from “one night only” to “zero nights, with refunds”. However, tickets to dine with Ewan McGregor (cocktail attire, no photos or autographs) are still available to the first 75 people to get to the ticket window with $250 in hand.
Individual tickets for most films cost $11 for the public and $9 for SIFF members; although the matinees are a bit cheaper ($8/$7), and “stimulus matinees” (first two shows of the day before 2:30 p.m. on Fridays) are cheaper still ($6). For the more committed, there are all sorts of passes still for sale as well as slightly discounted packs of tickets in bundles of 6 or 20.
We’re still digging our way through the lineup and previews, but do let us know what you’re most excited about seeing.