After last night’s opening, the 38th annual Seattle International Film Festival is officially up and running. Before you dash off to your first screening of the festival year, be sure to check the SIFF updates page to see which films are already sold out or are selling fast. Individual tickets for most films cost $11 for the public and $9 for SIFF members. Matinees are a bit cheaper ($8/$7) and those who are more willing to commit can consider all sorts of passes still for sale as well as slightly discounted packs of tickets in bundles of 6 or 20.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the SIFF films that we’re most looking forward to seeing over the next couple days. You can’t see it all, so let’s hit some of the highlights!

• Trishna Director Michael Winterbottom takes on a few genres at once, transplanting Thomas Hardy’s 1891 novel Tess of the D’Ubervilles to contemporary Rajasthan. Starring the luminous actress Freida Pinto. (Friday 6:30 p.m., Sunday 3:30 p.m. @ SIFF Uptown)
• Polisse looks to be France’s take on Law & Order SVU meets The Wire, with ripped-from-the-headline stories of cops and cases in the Parisian Child Protection Unit. (Friday 9 p.m., Sunday 2:30 p.m. @ SIFF Uptown)
• Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry This documentary looks at China’s most famous dissident, who has turned his protests into performance art–or vice versa. Director Alison Klayman is scheduled to attend both SIFF screenings. (Friday 6:30 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m. @ Pacific Place)
• Starry Starry Night is a magical Taiwanese coming-of-age film about young love that features some spectacular Van Gogh-inspired CGI effects. (Saturday 6 p.m. @ SIFF Uptown; Sunday 4 p.m., Wednesday 9:30 p.m. @ Pacific Place)
• Eden Local filmmaker Megan Griffiths latest drama won an Audience Award at SXSW for its portrayal of a young woman who gets abducted into a Las Vegas human trafficking ring. (Saturday 9:15 p.m. @ the Egyptian; Monday 4:30 p.m. @ SIFF Uptown)