The 7th annual Children’s Film Festival Seattle runs now through February 5 at the Northwest Film Forum. These are films made for children and/or by children, a 10-day extravaganza of more than 100 features and shorts from 29 countries. The kids really run the show, with 15 of them (aged 8 to 12) on the festival’s Children’s Jury, judging the films and handing out the awards at closing ceremonies, February 5. “It’s Story Weather Outside,” so get out of the wind and rain and watch some movies, kids!
Friday night’s the kick-off pajama party (ages 3+), featuring local kindindependent rockers Caspar Babypants, led by Chris Ballew of The Presidents of the United States of America, of course. Also this weekend is the annual Saturday-morning pancake breakfast followed by a short film program for the whole family. Or nurture your young Godard’s burgeoning talents with the fest’s hands-on workshops on how to make movies with sock puppets and claymation!
In other local cinema news, one of the nice things about SIFF’s expansion to the Uptown is that pretty much every film that screens there is on an open-ended run, meaning that right now you can see Margaret, Kenneth Longeran’s (You Can Count On Me) uber-delayed sophomore release, and Shame, starring Michael Fassbender’s Oscar-snubbed schlong, for as long as you want. Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams has been held over yet again by popular demand, so you’ve got no excuse not to have seen the nutty German’s ode to the Chauvet caves by now. Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood premiered at SIFF last May, and it’s also opening this weekend at the Uptown. And one to grow on: Ralph Fiennes’ adaptation of Coriolanus starts its run February 3.
Meanwhile, Central Cinema is currently showing Team America, and they’ll be seeing their shadow on February 2 with Groundhog Day.
