The Seattle International Film Festival is a massive event that spans more than three weeks. We’ll be posting about it through the marathon of movies. To help you keep track, here’s a page with all of our coverage linked in one place.

Action! A whirlwind tour of the SIFF 2019 schedule, including highlights of special events, tributes, galas, and all of our tips and tricks for living your best festlife.

• Films mentioned:  Sword of Trust, Late Night, Support the Girls, The Farewell

Roundtables

Opening Weekend: A mini-roundtable on Sword of Trust, plus a selection of early contenders for best-of-fest must-sees, and some speculative and well-informed picks for the coming weekend.

• Must see: Funke, Roll Red Roll, Botero, The Nightingale, Late Night, the Farewell
• Check out: Volcano, Knife + Heart., Monos, Running with Beto, Banana Split, The Good Girls , International Falls , Sons of Denmark, Le Chocolat de H, Sune vs Sune, Firecrackers 

Week One Roundtable: festival favorites, spirited discussion about Running with Beto and The Nightingale, plus a true hygiene horror story!

• Favorites: Phantom of the Opera, What She Said: the Art of Pauline Kael, A Faithful Man
• Discussed: Running With Beto, The Nightingale, Shorts Fest, Kifaru, The Art of Self-Defense, Who Let The Dogs Out.

Knife + Heart Roundtable: Morgen, Tony, and Josh saw Yann Gonzalez’s mind-blowing murder meta-mystery and just had to talk about it.

Closing Weekend Roundtable: our latest favorites, some minor gripes, and thoughts heading into SIFF’s closing weekend.

• Favorites: Lynch: A History, the Long Haul: the Story of the Buckaroos, Afterlife, Them That Follow, Nightmare Cinema, Sibel, I Am Cuba
• Discussed: Ten Years in Thailand, Go Back to China, Ms. Purple, Botero, Enormous: the Gorge Story

Wrap Party Roundtable: A ranked list of everything we all saw at SIFF, reactions to the audience and jury awards, some gripes about jukebox musicals, and final comments on our SIFF 2019 experiences.

• Favorably Reviewed: The Legend of the Stardust Brothers, In Fabric, and Cities of Last Things, Sons of Denmark, We are the Radical Monarchs, International Falls, The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia
• Also Discussed: Yesterday, Blinded By The Light

Golden SunBreak Awards: We each pick our best of the festival for narrative features, documentaries, and acting.

• Best Narrative Features: Sword of Trust, The Farewell, Knife + Heart, Remi Nobody’s Boy
• Best Documentaries: Lynch: A History, Kifaru, Roll Red Roll, Funke
• Best Acting: Marc Maron (Sword of Trust), Lorenzo Ferro (El Angel), Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale), Julian Hilliard & Icee the Golden Retriever (Greener Grass)

Interviews

• Ben Kasulke talks about Banana Split, his directorial debut
• Botero director Don Millar on his great, new documentary of the prolific Colombian artist
• We Take the Low Road is the anti-capitalist revenge fantasy you need
• What She Said director Rob Garver on his great film about Pauline Kael
• A look at The Long Haul, a great new documentary about Seattle’s most unlikely strippers

Picks

Quick Takes: Four highly speculative picks from your SunBreak Film Team as well as the most-recommended picks from the SIFF Programmers.

• We were most excited to see: Lynch: A History,
  What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael, In Fabric, and Rémi, Nobody’s Boy
• Films also mentioned: The most programmer-picked films are often a good starting place. This year’s favorites included The Farewell, Knife + Heart, the Nightingale, Another Day of Life, Greener Grass, Pigeon Kings, Q Ball, Sibel, In Fabric, What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

Picks for Week One: quick reviews and speculation on what to see in SIFF’s first full week.

• Favorably reviewed: Sauvage/Wild, Blinded by the Light, Spies, Between the Lines
• Check out: American Factory, Shut Up and Play the Piano, Cold Case Hammarskjold, Sonja – The White Swan, Retrospekt

Picks for Memorial Day Weekend: what we’re looking forward to seeing over the long weekend

• Check out: Enormous: The Gorge Story, What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael, Wild Rose, Crystal Swan, The Apollo, Botero, Afterlife, Top End Wedding

Picks for Week Two: a few selections through Centerpiece Weekend.

• Favorably reviewed: This is Not Berlin. The Art of Self-Defense,
• Special events: Late Night gala; Tribute to Regina Hall   with Support the Girls, Kirkland opening night with Non-Fiction.
• Check out: Them That Follow, Sons of Denmark, El Angel, Funke, Carmen & Lola, Deadtectives.

Picks for Week Three: We’re in the home stretch now

• Favorably reviewed: Lynch: A History 
• Check out: Clemency, Nightmare Cinema, Koko-di Koko-da, The Man Who Bought the Moon, X&Y, Socrates, Go Back to China

Picks for Closing Weekend: it’s the end of SIFF as we know it and we feel mostly fine.

• Parties: The Farewell, Yesterday,  Halston, I Do Not Care if We Go Down in History as Barbarians, Koko-di Koko-da. 
• TBAs: announced: the Peanut Butter Falcon, Another Day of Life, The Invisible Witness, Sibel, Lynch: A History 
• Favorably Reviewed: Aurora, Driveways, Long Time No Sea
• Check out: The Dead Don’t Die, The Death of Dick Long, Greener Grass, Here Comes Hell, Cities of Last Things, The Announcement

Reviews

Some Short SIFF reviews, part I

Chris reviewed a bunch of movies: David Crosby: Remember My Name, Enormous: The Gorge Story, The Farewell, Making Coco: The Grant Fuhr Story, The Nightingale, Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins, Roll Red Roll, Running with Beto, Stories of Us: Camp Second Chance, Sword of Trust, We Are the Radical Monarchs, Who Let the Dogs Out?, X: The eXploited

More Short Reviews:

Josh revisited his SIFF notebook. Some reviews:

• Oakland Calling: We Are the Radical Monarchs, Lynch: A History
• Chinese Exchange Studies: American Factory, The Farewell
• Beto and Beta Bros: The Art of Self-Defense, Running With Beto
• Funny Girls: Late Night, Greener Grass, Banana Split
• Continental Lovers: The Days to Come, A Faithful Man

They Come Back: The Dead Don’t Die, Ghost Town Anthology