The in-person portion of the Seattle International Film festival closed this weekend — first with a Gala screening of Sing Sing and a party at MOHAI on Saturday, then with the Golden Space Needle Brunch on Sunday morning (where Sing Sing director Greg Kwedar was on hand to accept the top audience prize).

The festival continues through the weekend with about 50 titles still playing online, but we took this transition from theatrical to home-viewing to catch our breaths and share our experience with this year’s big birthday event.

Overall take on this SIFF’s big 5-0? What number would you tear on your ballot?

Chris: Probably a four, rounded up from 3.5. There was a lot to like, such as the newly reopened SIFF Cinerama Downtown and the execution was excellent (I didn’t have any problems getting into all of the films I wanted to see and everything basically started on time, as far as I could tell), but there were more movies I saw that were good and not great. 

Josh: I’m about the same – with fifty festivals under their belt, SIFF knows what it’s doing. They brought in a lot of guests, conscientiously programmed a diverse slate, and executed near-flawlessly. The only minor grumbles I heard were about climate control, which kind of makes sense given the huge swings in Seattle weather during the festival’s key dates. The films I saw in person were quite striking with nearly full houses each time; so it was great to see people showing up to see movies together with strangers in the dark.

Morgen: I’m at about a four myself. I would have loved to see more but timing, other big events going on last week and just lack of energy kept me from seeing a huge amount. I like the increasing number of venues they’re showing in (especially with the truncated timeline of 11 days post-COVID) and I think I was lucky with the showings I went to, the temperature discomfort was kept to a minimum. One small complaint about the new SIFF Downtown, the chairs are almost unusable for me. I don’t know if it’s my body or I just don’t know how to sit properly, but they kept laying farther and farther backward and there was no way to stop them (and the associated creaking in the middle of the movie was embarrassing). I had to use my core to sit up and it just wasn’t fun.

Chris: I wish there was a lot more to SIFF this year, but it felt like a solid festival. For SIFFTY, I was hoping for more parties than just opening and closing night. SIFF was almost a month long before COVID and this year’s eleven day festival felt too short.

Josh:  I was out of town for opening weekend, so the festival really raced by for me! Still, I’m a fan of the eleven day in-person schedule format. I think it forces the programmers to make tough choices and really showcase the best of the best. If anything I wish they’d show slightly fewer films with at least three screenings of each. Too often, I heard great buzz about something before I could get out to see it for myself, but I guess that’s a good problem for a festival to have (there’s also the opportunity to stream quite a few movies over the next week, so I shouldn’t really complain).  

Morgen: Other than the minor problems, I always felt like I was able to see the films I made it out for, but at the same time the theaters were decently packed for all of them. I was also able to enjoy a lot more director discussions than in years past; could have been luck or that they had more creators come out for talks. Either way, it made for a much better experience.

Tony: A surplus of life happening fast and furious really took its toll on my SIFFTY-eth Anniversary experience, but that Grand Canyon-sized caveat aside, the small handful of movies  I caught was good-to-astonishing.

Josh: You really can’t ask for much more than doing closing night on a Saturday in the gorgeous SIFF Downtown, chocolate popcorn in hand, and a tremendously moving crowd-pleaser like Sing Sing on the screen. The Q&A with the formerly-incarcerated actors who were founders and participants in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program upon which the film is based was phenomenal and likely pushed the needle on voting to earn it a well-deserved Golden Space Needle audience award for best narrative film.

Let’s get into it, the Golden SunBreak Awards: Best Narrative Feature

Josh: Although I didn’t see it at SIFF, I Saw the TV Glow is at the top of my list for the best of the fest. The use of genre filmmaking to tell a deeply personal story that’s universally resonant is a phenomenal achievement. It was already playing in wide(r) release, but it’s still very cool that SIFF was able to bring Jane Schoenbrun to town to experience the film with an enthusiastic festival audience. In terms of films I saw for the first time at SIFF, closing night feature Sing Sing and semi-experimental narrative The Black Sea would be near the top.

Tony: I think I’m with you on this one, Josh. I Saw the TV Glow had me mesmerized from frame one. The only movie I’ve seen in recent years that’s offered a spin on genre this fresh and singular was Mandy. And that’s a lofty compliment from this corner.

Morgen: While it didn’t hit me quite as hard as I thought it would (the trailer had me champing at the bit) I was also taken in by I Saw the TV Glow. I’m not sure if it’s the films I chose or my headspace when I saw them, but nothing (for the first SIFF ever) really hit me like a ton of bricks. I saw some great films, but nothing was a huge standout for me, so I’ll go with majority rules.

Chris: I suppose I was the most bearish of the four of us on I Saw the TV Glow, which I respected more than I liked, though I thought it was likely going to be the winner for the Best Picture because of the buzz that surrounded it and it was probably the hottest ticket at SIFF. I don’t think I’ve seen the Egyptian so packed on the Friday night screening (which also, I should note, included a SunBreak quorum in the audience). I’m not convinced it lived up to its lofty ambitions. 

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, another hot ticket at SIFF with two way sold out screenings, was my favorite movie I saw at SIFF but you’ll have to forgive me for being slightly vague until later in the week when it opens at the Egyptian on Friday.

Josh: I very much want to talk to anyone and everyone about Evil Does Not Exist, which I found entrancing at TIFF, and whose ending I’d really love to have explained to me.

Best Documentary?  

Chris: Resynator. On the penultimate day of the festival, I caught Alison Tavel’s documentary of her journey to learn about her music pioneer father Don Tavel, who died when she was less than three months old. For the final hour, I had to watch the movie through a constant stream of tears. It was beautiful and sad and hopeful and tragic. It was the only movie I ripped a five on the ballot for.

Josh: I loved All We Carry, which followed a young family’s long wait to have their asylum claim adjudicated. Spanning multiple years (including Trump’s Wall and Covid lockdowns), the film’s delicate cinematography and intimate access put human faces on the practical and emotional dimensions of the immigrant experience, quietly showcased the local community, and never skewed into being emotionally overwrought. A really gorgeous, locally-set, window on the world. 

Tony: My paltry SIFF-sperience this year means I only saw one documentary, Scala!!!, and it was a solid one. London’s Scala Theatre, now a music venue, could best be described as the Velvet Underground of repertory cinemas–seemingly everyone who became regulars at the theater found profound inspiration in its staggeringly eclectic and risky programming, and ended up becoming a successful filmmaker, artist, or musician in their own right. The doc doesn’t blaze any bold new trails in documentary filmmaking, but it follows the Scala’s rise and fade-out with solid storytelling momentum, affection, and refreshingly undisguised nostalgia. I liked it a lot.

Morgen: I have to bow out on this one. Once again I didn’t catch enough documentaries to make a proper choice.

Special mention for best performances?

Chris: I thought Ido Tako was quite good as the title character in The Vanishing Soldier. He plays an Israeli soldier who goes AWOL during war while his country thinks he’s been kidnapped. It’s a multilayered performance about someone projecting a high level of confidence while underneath knowing he really, really messed up and is not sure how to get himself out of the situation that is beyond his control but his, and only his, fault.

Do you all mind if I give out a best actor and best actress shoutout? I was equally taken with Paula Grimaldo in the Soderbergh-produced Spanish film The Quiet Maid. She plays a Colombian woman in Spain who takes a job as a housekeeper with a truly awful rich family whose approval she needs to stay in the country but have been abusive and dishonest with her. I loved the way she conveyed a hidden strength when she knew all of the cards were stacked against her. 

Josh: Barbie Ferreira never quite got her spotlight in the crowded milieu of Euphoria, so what an absolute delight to see her in the spotlight in Bob Trevino Likes It! She holds every frame with confident vulnerability in heartbreakingly resonant performance. On the other end of the spectrum, I was a little bit mixed on the ambitions of highly stylized thriller Red Rooms, but Juliette Gariépy’s icy take on a Montreal fashion model hacker obsessed with a serial killer was undeniable. Like her character at the monster’s trial, I couldn’t look away. 

Tony: I’m not sure it’s legal to even mention this, as the embargo on press coverage for it is still in place, but June Squibb’s nuanced, irascible, and genuinely moving work in the SIFF 2024 Opening Night movie Thelma, woulda likely taken the prize even if I’d seen three-dozen other movies. It goes into theatrical release June 21, and I’m fairly chomping at the bit to talk about it in more length, soon.

Morgen: I’m with Tony on June Squibb’s performance, absolutely top notch; but I won’t steal his answer and instead come up with my own. Not a ton has been said about Sebastian: the story of a writer whose novel is informed by personally dabbling in the world of male prostitution. While I didn’t think so at first, after a few days had gone by I was still thinking about how I was impressed and affected by Ruaridh Mollica’s performance as Max in his first leading role. While the very end was a little meh, he was consistent and convincing throughout the rest of the film with subject-matter that could easily feel stilted. I also have to mention supporting actor Jonathan Hyde, he brought Mollica’s Max to a whole other level.

A Scoresheet of Everything We Saw at SIFF (so far)

Title	Chris	Josh	Morgen	Tony
399: Queen of the Tetons	☆☆☆☆
Aggro Dr1ft	☆☆☆	☆
All We Carry		☆☆☆☆
The Black Sea		☆☆☆☆
Bob Trevino Likes It		☆☆☆☆
Bonjour Switzerland			☆☆☆½
The Box Man			☆☆☆½
Chuck Chuck Baby			☆☆☆☆
Critical Zone(Mantagheye BohraniI)		☆☆☆
Dìdi (弟弟)		☆☆☆½	☆☆☆☆
Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story	☆☆☆
Dragon Superman			☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆
Empire Waist			☆☆☆☆½
Evil Does Not Exist		☆☆☆☆½
Fish War		☆☆☆½
Ghostlight		☆☆☆½
Gloria!		☆☆☆
Good One		☆☆☆½
Grandpa Guru	☆☆☆½	☆☆
Hitchcock’s Pro-Nazi Film	☆
I Saw the TV Glow	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆
Killing Romance			☆☆☆½
The Mother of All Lies		☆☆☆☆
Oddity				☆☆☆☆☆
Porcelain War	☆☆☆☆
The Primevals				☆☆☆
The Quiet Maid	☆☆☆☆
Rainier: A Beer Odyssey		☆☆☆
Red Rooms		☆☆☆½
Resynator	☆☆☆☆☆
Scala!!!	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆		☆☆☆½
Seagrass		☆☆½
Sebastian		☆☆☆½	☆☆☆☆☆
Sing Sing		☆☆☆☆½
Sono Lino	☆☆☆½	☆☆☆½
Stress Positions	☆☆☆½	☆☆☆☆
Susan Feniger. Forked	☆☆☆☆
Thelma	☆☆☆☆½	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆
Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox		☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆½
Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light			☆☆☆☆
Ultimate Citizens		☆☆☆½
The Vanishing Soldier	☆☆☆☆
We Can Be Heroes	☆☆☆
Wings of Desire				☆☆☆☆☆

 

SIFF’s juries and audiences have spoken … 

On Sunday morning, SIFF announced all their award winners at a brunch at the Grand Hyatt (the festival, or perhaps the classic venue, has long-since outgrown having breakfast awards on the actual Space Needle). The festival bestows a series of audience awards along with juried competitions. New this year was a poll of Seattle Film Critics Society members as well as the public rankings released by passholder SIFF aficionados group, Fool Serious. Here’s a rundown of how all the major rankings shook out:

Josh: Interestingly, Bob Trevino Likes It was the only film that appeared on everyone’s lists: ballot-tearing SIFF general audiences, Fool Serious pass-holding fanatics, and the Seattle Film Critics Society’s member poll. But it’s not surprising that Ghostlight and Sing Sing, two movies I really liked about the transformative power of community theater, topped the charts for audience awards [both played after the SFCS voting deadline].

Chris: I was sort of surprised that Sing Sing won, mostly because I very truly had no idea that SIFF was celebrating Closing Night on Saturday until Josh sent out an e-mail Saturday afternoon. I guess I didn’t pay attention too much because I thought I was eschewing Closing Night in favor of a Belle & Sebastian concert (it was awesome) and this is the first time since 2007, when SIFF first started giving me press credentials, that the closing night party was not on a Sunday night.

Josh: Yeah that was a weird swerve, but I kind of liked having Sunday to go to the awards brunch and decompress (I also ended up seeing B&S on a last-minute spare ticket). But back to the movies … in addition to both packing emotional wallops, both had guests in town – the real life family who acted together in Ghostlight, and the family of formerly incarcerated inmates who acted together in Sing Sing. That kind of presence always bolster’s a film’s impact (you have to think that Sing Sing really rocked the vote with some closing night campaigning) and is one of the great reasons to see movies at festivals.

For me, the real story is the Golden Space Needle Awards and the continued dominance of docs at SIFF. In particular, the Lena Sharpe Persistence of Vision award – which goes to the highest ranked film directed by a woman – was won by Black Box Diaries, which came in second in the documentary audience award. It’s a powerful and unconventional first-person documentary about a Japanese journalist investigating a sexual assault perpetrated against her, despite the detrimental effect that bringing the case could have on her career. A little math means that at minimum, it must have ranked above Ghostlight and Bob Trevino Likes It (the number 2 and 3 in the Narrative category). At the Awards Brunch, Beth Barrett mentioned that eight out of the ten most highly ranked films in the audience awards were documentaries, so these two might have been the best of the fest. 

Chris: One that did not surprise me was Porcelain War winning best doc. I thought it was excellent and timely, about some Ukrainian artists who make porcelain figurines while they’re also fighting Russian aggression. The screening I went to, at SIFF’s newest theater (I will not stop calling it Cinerama), had Governor and Mrs. Inslee in the crowd. 

Josh: As always, the competitions are their own universe … the only winner that I saw was Gloria!, a re-imagined Italian period drama about a group of young women in the early 1800s at a church-run musical training program outside Vienna, which won the official competition. It’s a fun, vaguely soapy, tale that’s well executed, but an  interesting choice among a pool that included Hamaguci’s masterful Evil Does Not Exist and Sean Wang’s heartfelt Didi, but Jury’s Going to Jury sometimes.

Anything you’re hoping to catch up on during Streaming Week?

Josh: First up on my queue is Porcelain War, winner of the Golden Space Needle for best documentary. It, along with Sono Lino, a very cool documentary about a local genius of fine art glass, is among the 50ish titles currently available to stream through the current SIFF-from-home festival encore. 

Chris: I liked both of those documentaries, Josh. I saw a lot of documentaries (100% on brand) but one I missed was The Etilaat Roz, about a newspaper in Afghanistan that’s at a crossroads when the Taliban (not believers in a free press) comes to power.

Any wishes for SIFF’s next half century? 

Chris: In the very, very early days of the second fifty years (like the next few weeks or months), I’d like SIFF to make good on their pledge to bring parts two and three of the Dragon Superman trilogy, if the demand is there. It was an insane Taiwanese superhero film from 1968 that was both the first archival film I ever saw at SIFF (I think) and the last film of SIFF 2024.

Josh: I always think it’s a bit weird when SIFF overlaps with Cannes. The audience and ambitions are obviously far different, but I’d love for SIFF to score a few more prestige premieres. Seattle’s a great moviegoing town, so I’d think that it would be a better place for filmmakers to launch their movies. 

Chris: I agree with you Josh, I’d love to see SIFF get some more high profile premieres. I’m sure it’s extremely difficult to find the right time for a festival, but it would be wonderful seeing SIFF beat out Sundance, SXSW, and Cannes on a few movies every now and then. 

Tony: If there’s anything I’d wish on SIFF’s next 50 years, it’d be to somehow recapture the lighting in a bottle that was the SIFF Midnight Screenings in the late ‘90s/early 2000’s. The houses were packed, the audiences were utterly riveted and engaged, and there was a feeling of being part of something exciting and special. A lot of external factors have muted the reception of the midnighters some–the advent of streaming, the desire for more bells-and-whistles ballyhoo as accompaniment, and probably (gulp) the graying of a significant portion of the midnight-movie crowd. But I’m hoping it’s possible for some of that heady, batshit-nutty magic to resurface. 

Josh: With that sense of optimism, let’s call it a wrap on our roundtable as we head back into the SIFF-stream!

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