Tag Archives: siff 2013

SIFF 2013 Picks (Week 1)

The  Seattle International Film Festival is well underway, with film fanatics coming down from an overcast weekend’s cinematic overdose. True professionals, though, are likely just hitting their stride as the festival stretches into its first full week of regular screenings. While there are plenty of options in town, this is the week that SIFF expands its reach to temporarily embrace the good people of Renton. Festivities kick off with a gala presentation of Lynn Shelton’s Touchy Feely and continue with a week’s worth of movies at the IKEA Performing Arts Center. Those who aren’t willing to make the commute to will still find tons of fresh options right here at home. Below, we provide a few suggestions for your cinematic dance card.

Keep track of all The SunBreak’s festival coverage on our SIFF 2013 page.

Mistaken for Strangers: Matt Berninger, the lead singer of the The National, invited his younger brother Tom to take a break from their parents basement and ride along on the band’s 2010 tour to help as a roadie. Although Tom isn’t particularly well suited toward the attention to detail required to keep an eye on tour rider or with the vision required to make a concert film, he inadvertently made a self-centered horror movie about the consequences of hiring an aimless sibling as support staff and/or documentarian.

  • May 21, 2013 4:00 PM Egyptian Theatre

Scrapper: In his latest, Seattle filmmaker, musician (Ephrata), music video director (Jaill, Vivian Girls), photographer Brady Hall brings the story of a south Seattle metal forager (Michael Beach) whose life takes a turn upon finding a teenaged runway (Anna Giles) locked up in Mayor Littlefinger Carcetti’s (Aidan Gillen) basement. Adult film star Joanna Angel is among the cast; an afterparty at the Crocodile featuring Kithkin, Rose Windows, and Ephrata follows Tuesday’s screening.

  • May 21, 2013 6:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown
  • May 22, 2013 4:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown

Bwakaw asks the eternal question: What happens when a grumpy old man finally comes to terms with his sexual orientation? Veteran Filipino movie star Eddie Garcia plays Rene as a fully realized character, dealing with his late-life discovery at the same time as facing his very real mortality, and trying to make friends with someone besides his dog. It’s a dramedy, people.

  • May 21, 9:15 p.m., Harvard Exit
  • May 23, 4 p.m., Harvard Exit

Touchy Feely : Two years ago, Lynn Shelton’s Your Sister’s Sister opened SIFF. This year, her latest opens the weeklong Renton branch of the festival with a gala at the Renton Events Pavillion. The program describes it as “a touching comedy about touching people” — Rosamarie DeWitt is a massage therapist with an aversion to bodily contact, her brother is a failing dentist with a jawache, Ellen Page tries to keep the practice afloat, and Allison Janney shows up as a Reiki master with a healing non-touch. Emotions ensue.

  • May 23, 2013, 7:00 PM Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center | Party at Renton Events Pavilion follows
  • May 25, 2013 1:30 PM Egyptian Theatre 

Yellow: Nick Cassavetes’s best outing so far reimagines, says Indiewire’s Eric Kohn, “Bad Teacher by way of Bob Fosse and Todd Solondz.” Co-writer Mary Holmes  also plays reality-challenged substitute teacher Heather Wahlquist who trades in a trainwreck of a career for sweet home Oklahoma, only to discover past traumas still smoldering.

  • May 23, 2013 7:00 PM Egyptian Theatre
  • May 24, 2013 4:30 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown
  • May 25, 2013 6:00 PM Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center

The Last Shepherd: SIFF 2012 brought you Winter Nomads, about a Swiss winter shepherd driving his flock to new grazing grounds; this documentary introduces you to Renato Zucchelli, the last shepherd in Lombardi, Italy, and his unique brand of guerrilla marketing. If you like shepherds and the sheep they care for, it’s obviously unmissable.

  • May 22, 2013 6:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown
  • May 24, 2013 4:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown

More than Honey: The SunBreak is a little bee-crazy, so we’ll go see any film they’re in. Swiss director Markus Imhoof is the latest filmmaker to tackle the mystery of what’s killing off bees worldwide, and he visits with the usual suspects: beekeepers, farmers, and scientists (Imhoof is himself a third generation beekeeper). His film was huge in Switzerland, so Seattle (which also loves chocolate, cheese, and climbing mountains) will likely turn out for it as well.

  • May 23, 2013 8:30 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown
  • June 4, 2013 4:30 PM Egyptian Theatre

Scandal! Bias! Just 3 Sports Movies at SIFF 2103

Keep track of all The SunBreak’s festival coverage on our SIFF 2013 page

SIFF will present 272 feature films this year and only 3 of them are principally concerned with sports. While I hold out hope that “An Evening with Kyle MacLachlan” will focus on his youth golfing career in Yakima, I suspect that this will not be the case. Three nights — 1.1 percent of the festival’s entries — are all you get, sports fans. (Note: SIFF lists seven movies under the genre of “Sports,” but the other four are about: trapeze, mountain climbing, big wave surfing, and chess. HA!)  Yes, a rant is coming, but only after I tell you about the three actual sports films.

The Trials of Muhammad Ali
This documentary focuses on Muhammad Ali’s conversion to Islam and subsequent refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. The doc sounds unreasonably broad to me — to try to cover this much ground in 92 minutes is impossible. Consider that the stellar When We Were Kings, the best boxing documentary of all-time, focused on a single fight. The doc promises never-before-seen footage and chats with Ali intimates, so if you are an Ali admirer this is worth a look.

May 25 in Renton. June 7 at Uptown. June 8 at the Egyptian.

Little Lion
Boy meets dream, boy loses dream, boy gets dream back. This drama is about Mitri, a Senegalese teenager who falls under the influence of a crooked soccer scout and pays his way to a supposed tryout camp in France only to find out it was all a scam. Luckily Mitri meets up with an Odd But Brilliant Coach With Nothing To Lose (that would be your Mr. Miyagi character) whose (presumably) unorthodox methods could help Mitri find soccer stardom after all! These kind of movies are so predictable but so damn awesome. This is the one sports movie I’ll see.

May 27 at Pacific Place

The Crash Reel
The story of Kevin Pearce, a competitive snowboarder who gave himself a traumatic brain injury trying to perfect an insane stunt that would get him to the 2012 Olympics. It’s billed as “a sobering counterpoint to the flash and hype of events like the X Games,” but the promotional image is a snowboarder soaring through the air, sooo…. I have to say, I don’t really even consider competitive snowboarding a sport, I’m including this only because the Olympics does. If you care about snowboarding you will probably enjoy this; director Lucy Walker made a magnificent film called The Waste Land about the trashpickers of Rio de Janeiro, and I’d imagine this film will be similarly unflinching.

May 31 at the Harvard Exit. June 2 at the Egyptian.

RANT (no charge):

Have you ever picked up a newspaper? If you have, you’ll notice that there is a section called “Sports.” You know this. Perhaps you don’t know this: Of the top ten highest-rated U.S. television programs in 2012, nine were sporting events. It’s not just an American phenomenon. A sporting event is the most-watched television program in the history in all of these countries: Australia (2005 Australian Open Tennis Final), Canada (2012 Olympics Gold Medal Hockey Game), India (2011 Cricket World Cup Final), Germany (2010 World Cup Semifinal), New Zealand (2011 Rugby World Cup), Philippines (Boxing: Pacquiao vs. Morales), and the United Kingdom (1966 World Cup Final). And yet, only three movies at SIFF have to do, even peripherally, with this key part of world culture.

No offense to such worthy cultural endeavors as music (23 SIFF movies), art/design (15 SIFF movies), and dance (9 SIFF movies), but are any of these as culturally relevant to the mass of humanity as sports? Music, maybe, but 10.7 *times* as culturally relevant? Newspaper sales and TV ratings say no.

I’m not sure who is to blame here. If filmmakers are avoiding the topic of sports they are only hurting themselves. What’s the number one documentary of all-time, according to the International Documentary Association? The basketball doc Hoop Dreams. What won the 2012 Oscar for Best Documentary? The football doc Undefeated. Who holds the all-time record for hits in a single season? Ichiro.

The SIFF Red Carpet Becomes the Center of the Whedonverse (Photo Gallery)

Keep track of all The SunBreak’s festival coverage on our SIFF 2013 page

Clark Gregg and Carl Spence.
Clark Gregg.
Alexis Denisof.
Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof.
Joss Whedon.
Lynn Shelton.
Amy Finkel.
Amy Acker.
Joss, Amy, Nathan.
Joss Whedon the Clown.
Nathan Fillion.
Joss, Amy, Nathan
Much Ado red carpet.
Anna Giles

Got a crush on Much Ado About Nothing lead Amy Acker? Here. You're welcome. (photo by Tony Kay)

Got a crush on Firefly/Castle dreamboat Nathan Fillion? Here you go. You're welcome. (photo by Tony Kay)

SIFF Artistic Director Carl Spence hangs with Clark Gregg. (photo by Tony Kay)

Got a crush on Avengers character-actor god Clark Gregg? Here you...sorry. Pull date on joke reached. (photo by Tony Kay)

Alexis Denisof, Benedick in Much Ado and Buffy/Angel star, meets the press. (photo by Tony Kay)

Willow's all grown up: Buffy/How I Met Your Mother star Alyson Hannigan with hubby Alexis Denisof. (photo by Tony Kay)

The center of the Whedonverse: Joss Whedon, on the SIFF red carpet. (photo by Tony Kay)

Lynn Shelton, director of Touchy Feely, on the SIFF red carpet. (photo by Tony Kay)

Amy Finkel, director of the acclaimed documentary, Furever, on the red carpet. (photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

(photo by Tony Kay)

Joss Whedon and his Much Ado cast. (photo by Tony Kay)

Scrapper actress Anna Giles. (photo by Tony Kay)

SIFF’s Opening Night Gala landed at McCaw Hall last night, and its customary mini-sprinkling of glitz and glamour was rendered a little glitzier and glammier by the presence of Joss Whedon and several cast members from Whedon’s SIFF-debuting adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

Guess what? The movie, which sees formal release June 21, is pretty damned swell, even for folks who aren’t regular visitors to the Whedonverse. Shot in clean black-and-white and executed with a light touch for much of its run time (no surprise to Whedon fans), there’s an offhanded, almost European quality to its look–California imbued with a pinch of La Dolce Vita–and it proves that the considerable charm of the Whedon actors that make up the cast isn’t just reserved to the cult TV shows and films they’re associated with.

But you’re not hear to read me yakking on about Much Ado About Nothing. You want pictures of movie people, and I’m happy to deliver.

There  weren’t quite as many different celebrity red-carpet walkers last night as there were at last year’s SIFF Opening Night Gala, but those that were there, as Spencer Tracy once said, were cherse. Enjoy.

SIFF 2013 Opening Weekend Picks

By this point you’re either shaking off a hangover from rubbing elbows with the Whedonverse at last night’s Seattle International Film Festival or regretting that you didn’t get a ticket. Or maybe you’re talking about the new Star Trek or the latest dispatches from Cannes, that “other” film festival conveniently cross-scheduled against our own local treasure. In any case, if you’re in Seattle, it’s time to dive into SIFF 2013, which starts regular screenings tonight and runs for 24 more days. Here are a few prognostications from your friends at the SunBreak to get your feet wet with weekend filmgoing.

LIGHTER FARE

Frances Ha (USA, 2012) Master of dry witty melancholy, Noah Baumbach is back with Greta Gerwig (girlfriend, writing partner, indie darling) in the role of young adult trying to make sense of it all. Here, we follow her struggling modern dancer as she apartment hops around New York and further afield trying to, you know, find herself. As far as the Baumbach canon goes, this one looks to be on more funny than heartbreaking end of the spectrum.

  • Friday, May 17, Pacific Place Cinemas, 9:45 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 18, Pacific Place Cinemas, 4 p.m.

Populaire In a typically French story, a terrible secretary with supernatural typing skills takes the speed typing world by storm under the tutelage of her boss (Romain Duris). Will these crazy kids find love and/or glory?

  • Saturday, May 18, Pacific Place, 6:30 p.m. (Party at Il Fornaio with fashion by Oska follows the screening).
  • Tuesday, May 21, Egyptian Theatre, 6:30 p.m.

DRAMATIC

Brit Marling plays a woman who infiltrates a group of eco-terrorists, only to become smitten with the enclave’s enigmatic leader in The East, the latest from Sound of My Voice director Zal Batmanglij. The movie’s rapturous reception at Sundance and a strong cast (including Ellen Page, Alexander Skarsgard, and Julia Ormond) portend a riveting ride.

  • Saturday, May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 9 p.m.
  • Friday, May 24, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center, 8:30 p.m.

Byzantium The last time Crying Game director Neil Jordan turned his attention to the vampire condition, we got Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt playing house with Kirsten Dunst in old timey New Orleans. In this gothic tale, two lady vampires (Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan) visit to the seaside Byzantium Hotel while on the run from an vampire hunters. Bloodsucking, humane and otherwise, ensue.

  • Friday, May 17, Harvard Exit, 9:30 p.m.
  • Saturday May 18, Pacific Place, Pacific Place, 1 p.m.

The Deep Among the few Icelandic entries in this year’s festival (the other focuses on the country’s infamous penis museum), this one dramatizes the harrowing true story of one man’s whose survival for hours in the icy waters following a 1984 shipwreck made him a national hero and scientific curiosity.

  • Friday, May 17, Pacific Place Cinemas, 12 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 18, Egyptian Theatre, 12:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, May 19, Egyptian Theatre, 9 p.m.

NON-FICTION

The Act of Killing This documentary, in which perpetrators of Indonesian death squads pridefully re-create their atrocities in Hollywood style, was the most favorited among this year’s SIFF Programmer Picks. If their universal acclaim for Joshua Oppenheimer’s presentation of horrific crimes as “film noir tropes, elaborate musical numbers, and heroic cowboys” doesn’t convince you, perhaps hearing that Errol Morris and Werner Herzog are among the film’s producers will.

  • Saturday, May 18, Harvard Exit, 4 p.m.
  • Wednesday, May 22, Harvard Exit, 9:30 p.m.

A Band Called Death tells one of those stories that sets the hearts of record-store crate-diggers aflutter: Sibling power-trio cuts volcanic rock record that prefigures punk rock’s screaming breach-birth by a good two to three years; demo of said rock record languishes, dust-caked in an attic, for decades; demo resurfaces in the 21st century to blow minds and shine an overdue light on unsung Afro-punk geniuses. Affecting family dynamics, riveting rock music history, and killer riffs? Sounds like a no-brainer.

  • Saturday, May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 3 p.m.
  • Tuesday, May 28, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 9 p.m.

We Steal Secrets: the Story of WikiLeaks Although the WikiLeaks saga is, by now, well traveled ground, it’s probably worth another look when the perspective is coming from Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side). Here he turns his attention to this important story of mysterious founder Julian Assange, U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, and the largest leak of classified documents ever released to the public. Gibney and producer Marc Shmuger will be on hand for both screenings.

  • Friday, May 17, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 11 p.m.

Our Nixon (USA, 2013): A giddy Super8 portrait of the Nixon administration shot in the throes of youthful enthusiasm by eventual Watergate conspirators H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and Dwight Chapin. Director Penny Lane unearthed this unintentional chronicle of government slipping from wide eyed joy to paranoid corruption from long-forgotten archives seized during the Watergate investigation. Producer Brian Frye will be on hand for Q&A after both screenings.

  • Saturday, May 18, Harvard Exit, 7 p.m.
  • Sunday, May 19, Harvard Exit, 1:30 p.m.

Furever Not all dogs go to heaven; some go to the taxidermist. In this documentary, Amy Finkel explores the ways that American families memorialize their beloved household pets.

  • Saturday, May 18, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6 p.m.
  • Sunday, May 19, Harvard Exit, 11 a.m.
  • Sunday, June 9, 6:30 PM Egyptian Theatre, 6:30 p.m.

SCARY MOVIES

The Fest’s Midnight Movie series looks to be off to an engaging and suitably bloody start tonight with 100 Bloody Acres, an Australian black comedy about two brothers   who’ve created a top-quality organic fertilizer, thanks to one hell of a secret ingredient. If the trailers and advance word around the horror-nerd campfire are indicators, this should be a blast. 

  • Friday, May 17, Egyptian Theatre, Midnight
  • Wednesday, May 22, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 9:30 p.m.

Flaws and all, the omnibus chiller V/H/S was hands-down the scariest thing Tony saw at SIFF 2012. V/H/S 2 promises more of the same, and if it mines the found-footage-horror vein with its predecessor’s ferocious effectiveness, there won’t be an unbitten nail in the house.

  • Saturday, May 18, Egyptian Theatre, Midnight
  • Tuesday, May 21, Pacific Place Cinemas, 9:30 p.m.

We’re not saying that you should see it, but we feel that it’s our duty to let you know that not only does there exist a movie in which Robin Wright and Naomi Watts act as as mothers who seduce each other’s sexy surfer sons on a seaside vacation, but that Two Mothers is screening twice this weekend during the festival. Do what you will with that information, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

  • Friday, May 17, Egyptian Theatre, 9:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, May 18, Egyptian Theatre, 3 p.m.

SPECIAL EVENTS REMINDER:

This weekend features a few events and panels, including An Afternoon with Peter Greenway to coincide with a screening of Goltzius and the Pelican Company (Sun, 4 p.m.). He’ll also be around after the regular screening (Friday, 6:30 p.m.) to answer your questions about his latest artistic provocation: a story of sixteenth century erotic biblical engravings.

  • Friday, May 17, Egyptian Theater, 6:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, May 19, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 4 p.m. (part of An Afternoon With Peter Greenaway)

LIMITED AVAILABILITY WARNING LIST:

As usual, check the SIFF website/various social media accounts for the latest updates (which seem to be going up on the SIFF website as a pdf by day under the Festival Updates heading), but as of this compilation the following weekend showing were looking low on spare tickets:

  • Friday Films: Youth (Fri, 6:30pm); Middleton (Fri, 7pm), Frances Ha (9:45pm), Concussion (9:30pm)
  • Saturday Films: Epic (Sat, 10:30pm); Frances Ha (4:00pm); Doch (5:30pm); the African Cypher (6:30pm)
  • Sunday Films: Stories We Tell (5:00pm); Coming Forth By Day (Sun, 6pm)
  • Special Events: Panel: Transition from Stage to Screen (2pm, Sat); Get Animated Workshop for Kids (1pm, Sunday); Indie Stunts: Meet the Men and Women that [sic] Pack the Punch into Our Movies (1pm Sunday)

STANDBY ONLY:

  • Secret Festival

EARLY TWIN PEAKS ALERT SYSTEM:

Want to spend an evening with Portlandia’s Mister Mayor? Buy your ticket early: the event includes the presentation of the Seattle International Film Festival Award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting, an onstage interview with film clips from his career, a Q&A, and a screening of the Twin Peaks pilot and is bound to sell-out.

SIFF 2013 Pro-Tips, or Let’s Get Ready to Festival

Here we are again, on the verge of the annual marathon known as the Seattle International Film Festival. (Keep track of The SunBreak’s ongoing festival coverage on our SIFF 2013 page.) SIFF 2013 officially kicks off this Thursday night with near-instantly sold-out Much Ado About Nathan Nothing, and by the time all all is said and done with The Bling Ring on closing night, the 39th annual SIFF will have run a full 25 days, and that’s not even counting the three weeks of media/uber-passholder screenings in advance of the fest. So get ready and don’t show up to the festival looking like a n00b. SIFF like a pro, courtesy of our time- and fest-tested tips:

PLANNING

  • Plan ahead. Get to know the new SIFF website well (pay close attention, as options have changed with the facelift). Check ahead to see if guests will be at the screening for a Q&A, for timing and scheduling purposes, if not for celeb-watching, and monitor the various SIFF feeds regularly for updates, so you’ll have the heads up before a screening sells out.
  • In case you haven’t heard from the internets, tickets to this Thursday’s opening night film, the beloved Buffy creator’s take on Much Ado About Nothing are long gone, as are those for the “mystery” Whedon-related screening the day after, which overwhelmed the redesigned SIFF site upon last Saturday morning’s on-sale. Twitter was full of tales of an hourlong wait before verification of purchase and charges going through…and that was the happy news from those lucky enough to garner tickets. (If a film org cannot handle the onslaught of the Whedonverse AFTER FIRST ACTIVELY COURTING the Whedonverse, do they deserve them in the first place? I digress.)
  • The festival is stuffed with panels, parties, and events; given the speed at which Opening Night sold out, you might want to book early for these special engagements.
  • In terms of choosing what to see among the 447 non-secret films (197 features, 67 documentary features), the festival’s official programs and have once again grouped movies into “moods” by the programmers. There are various imperatives: “thrill me,” “provoke me,” “show me the world,” “make me laugh,” “open my eyes,” “face the music”; elliptical “Love…”; inclusive “Sci-fi and fact” (though heavily fact over fiction this year); and “Creative Streak” (which could be any of the above).
  • Technology is your friend! SIFF is never as tech-integrated as one would like — R.I.P. iSIFF app — but you can still make use of the SIFFter, My SIFF, and the ability to email your personal festival schedule to friends. Getting it onto social media or your own Google calendar, however, remains a pipe dream.
  • While your schedule and your online presence might not be b.f.f.s, SIFF itself is riding indiscriminately on various social media bandwagons. Keep up with festival news on Facebook & Twitter; views on YouTube and Instagram. Turn your schedule into a manic pixie dreambook with Pinterest. If you’re stumped for what to watch, visit the festival’s “SIFFcurious” tumblr for film recommendations from semi-famous locals.
  • Free printed guides should be turning up at your neighborhood Starbucks; if you can’t find it in paper, there’s an online version available. Buried in the flashy new website is an old-fashioned online calendar.
  • Once the festival starts, you can get a commemorative catalog. The glossy pictures and longer descriptions make almost every film look more compelling, and the giant book makes a nice souvenir/scorecard.

BUYING

  • Consider buying in bulk. Ticket packages cut down on service fees and are cheaper than individual tickets.
  • Flying by the seat of your pants and getting into a film via the standby line is a complete crapshoot — don’t count on it for a popular film. But if a miracle does occur, those tickets are full price and “cash preferred.”
  • However, it doesn’t hurt to try your luck with whatever happens to be playing on whatever night you happen to be free. Not every screening has an interminable line, sometimes those scary-looking line is just hard-core SIFFers with time on their hands and/or an ingrained sense of promptness, and many times you may walk right in to a half-empty theater. It’s the chance to experience seeing something you enjoy on some level, if only just a window to a different world/experience than what you’re used to. GIVE IN to the festival.
  • Head to a SIFF box office to get your tickets in advance and avoid an extra line at the venue for will call. If you must pick up tickets at will call, try to drop in between screenings and have them print all of your pre-ordered tickets at once.

ATTENDING

  • If you’re particular about where you sit, there’s no such thing as arriving too early. Expect every screening to have a long line and a full house. Still, as long as you have a ticket, you’ll have a seat. If you’re a passholder, you can usually show up about 20-30 minutes in advance of the screening and still get a good seat. Ticketholders, try 30 min. All bets are off in the case of movies with big buzz. In that case, take whatever seat you can get, but just sit down already. There’s not going to be some magical super-seat in the theater if you scour the entire venue.
  • Be prepared with umbrella and light jacket. Bringing some snacks is acceptable, but don’t be That Guy who sneaks in a four-course meal.
  • Find your path of least resistance. For example, at the Egyptian, nearly everyone enters the theater and goes to the left. So break away from the herd and go to the right.
  • Bathrooms! (Ladies, I’m mostly speaking to you, unless you’re a dude at a dude-heavy midnight screening.) It’s a good rule of thumb that the further away the bathroom is, the shorter the line. So the third floor bathrooms at the Harvard Exit are much more likely to be free compared to those on the second floor. Another way to avoid the line is to either head straight to the restroom as soon as you get into the theater, or wait until the lights go down and the SIFF ads start. You’ve still got about 7 minutes of ads, trailers, and announcements before the film begins.
  • Consider subtitles. If your film has them and you’re not fluent, find a seat with a clear view of the bottom of the screen. Aisle left or right is generally a good bet. The seats on the center aisle (exit row) at the Egyptian have tons of room to stretch your legs, but the raking of the theater flattens out for the aisle, so you’re likely to have an obstructed view of the subtitles if anyone of average height or above average skull circumference sits in front of you.
  • If you’re a passholder, the queue cards are back to give you a place in the passholder line. SIFF staff start handing them out about 30 minutes before showtime to figure out (and limit) how many passholders they’re letting in to the venues. Passholders who show up after the supply of queue cards have been exhausted will join the huddled masses in the standby line.

EXTRACURRICULAR

  • If you’re on foot, trying to see multiple films in a row, and want a little brisk exercise between screenings, the sweet spot is the Egyptian. It’s a walkable distance from the Harvard Exit, as well as Pacific Place. The Egyptian is also right next to a Walgreen’s, if you need water, snacks, or eye drops after 12 hours of movie viewing.
  • Alternately, with SIFF’s resurrection of the Uptown theater and opening of their Film Center on the Seattle Center grounds, Lower Queen Anne is basically a film buffet. Festgoers who usually stick around the Downtown/Capitol Hill area theaters (Pacific Place, the Egyptian, the Harvard Exit) will want to plan some extra travel time accordingly: the roster of SIFF entries playing the Uptown is just too diverse and strong to ignore. However, heading to Queen Anne leaves you reliant on Seattle’s not always timely bus service. Might we suggest the monorail? OR GONDOLAS?
  • Get your latte before you head to the Egyptian. The espresso stand is gone, though they do serve drip coffee!
  • Speaking of theater eats and drinks, Bloombergites will be happy to know that most of the theaters have semi-secret human scale snack options on the menu (though the only way to get an actually small soda is often when paired with an actually small popcorn). At Pacific Place, it’s the “light snacker,” it exists at the Landmark chain under a name unknown, and at SIFF, it’s blissfully and accurately called a small.
  • In contrast to last year’s hyperkinetic intro video, the World Famous and WDCW crew have lovingly crafted a more meditative tribute to film magic to ease you into the 2013 festival. Expect to have this stop-motion montage seared into your brain after a few screenings. If you can’t identify every referenced film (surprisingly, all played at SIFF at some point) the first time through, you’d better be able to name them all by the end of the festival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFLQ8oCNu0s
  • Because you don’t have tickets to opening night: