The 52nd Seattle International Film Festival kicks off this week! Running in person from May 7-17 the festival features 203 films playing in-person: with most in SIFF’s Lower Queen Anne Headquarters and at the SIFF Downtown. Sorting through the whole program, mainlining all of the trailers, strategizing with a Letterboxd List, obsessively spreadsheeting out your schedule and/or slicing and dicing th program with the film finder can guide you to optimal “cinellation” (per SIFF’s latest trailer), but we’re also here to help.
Last week, we gave you some quick picks in the wake of the press launch. Now, with some more time with the program and access to preview screenings, we have a few more suggestions for how to spend the opening days of the festival.
First up, Opening Night. SIFF kicks off the festivities at the Paramount with I Love Boosters on Thursday May 7th. The latest from Boots Riley (who will be in attendance) features Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige as a trio of radical shoplifters in Oakland taking on the excesses of the fashion industry (as represented by a mogul played by Demi Moore). After the film, make your way over to Cannonball Arts for an afterparty featuring gallery exhibits, a signature photo activation, food, drinks, and a live set from DJ Eliogold. Note, this is SIFF’s only official party this year — the closing soiree at the MOHAI is now a historical artifact — so plan to start the festival off big. (Tickets: $75 for the whole event; $45 for the film alone with discounts for SIFF members)
SOME OF THE MOVIES WE’RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT
Chris
April X (2025 | USA | 93 min. | Michel K. Parandi)
Having been on standby since I first saw this movie in the program guide, I’ve been intrigued and will likely queue up for Saturday afternoon’s screening in lieu of my mid-afternoon nap. The SIFF program guide says, “A black-market body-parts hustler desperately searches for his missing twin sister who can digitally record her dreams. As he digs deeper, a sinister conspiracy threatens to consume them both in this sci-fi noir thriller.” They had me at “black-market body-parts hustler.”
- FRIDAY, MAY 8 – PACCAR IMAX – 8:30 PM
- SATURDAY, MAY 9 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 3:30 PM
Franz (2025 | Czech Republic | 127 min. | Agnieszka Holland)
Reviews have been mixed for Agnieszka Holland’s new film about the life and legacy of Franz Kafka, but I remain intrigued. Holland is one of the giants of Czech cinema and this movie appears to be part biopic part mockumentary (though probably less funny). It cannot possibly go further up my alley. (May 8, 10)
- FRIDAY, MAY 8 – SIFF Cinema Downtown – 3:30 PM
- SUNDAY, MAY 10 – SIFF Cinema Downtown – 5:00 PM
Josh
Again, Again (2026 | USA | 99 minutes | Mia Moore, Heather Ballish)
It’s not often that SIFF sees world premieres, let alone ones produced by a Wachowski sister. This Abderdeen-set fantasy/nightmare finds a woman caught in a time loop with her runaway bride girlfriend (think Groundhog Day or Palm Springs, but considerably less funny). When she wakes up the next morning to find the loop finally broken, it’s both freeing and unsettling. With strong performances, a clear-eyed vision of human foibles, and a continually surprising story structure, it’s both an effective metaphor for the Trans experience as well as a moving story of navigating identity.
- MONDAY, MAY 11 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 6:30 PM
- TUESDAY, MAY 12 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 3:00 PM
- FRIDAY, MAY 15 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 8:00 PM
- Director Mia Moore, Producer Cliff Noonan, and Executive Producer Ian Schrank scheduled to attend.
Hen (2025 | Germany | 96 minutes | György Pálfi)
A runaway hen escapes a food processing factory only to bear witness to the fickle cruelty of the real world that intersects with a seaside Greek taverna? Sounds like a poultry-based successor to EO, but that harrowing tale of an expressive donkey on the run remains one of my favorite cinematic experiments. Of course, I’m going to put a chicken’s eye view in a different part of the world (taking on the theme of motherhood?) with quirky camerawork and a folksy soundtrack at the top of my watchlist.
- MONDAY, MAY 11 – SIFF Cinema Downtown – 6:00 PM
- TUESDAY, MAY 12 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 4:00 PM
Morgen
Hot Water (2026 | USA | 97 minutes | Ramzi Bashour)
While mother and son are of Lebanese descent, this could be about any strained family relationship just trying to navigate teen angst and single motherhood. A roadtrip between the two offers a glimpse into who they have become and where they want to go.
- FRIDAY, MAY 8 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 9:00 PM
- SATURDAY, MAY 9 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 11:45 AM
Deadline (2026 | Taiwan | 118 minutes | Kiwi Chow)
While it hails from Taiwan rather than Japan, Deadline is reminiscent of another film I recommended last year called Happyend. Neither one of them will have an happy ending, but it speaks to the pressures put on children to succeed at any cost and hopefully in Deadline, just as in Happyend, they’ll find a way to fight back for control over their own lives.
- FRIDAY, MAY 8 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 4:00 PM
- SUNDAY, MAY 10 – SIFF Cinema Downtown – 8:15 PM
- Producer Peiyi Lin scheduled to attend.
The Seoul Guardians (2026 | South Korea | 71 minutes | Jong-woo Kim, Shin-Wan Kim, Chul-Young Cho)
I was only supposed to choose two, but just don’t tell my editor I snuck this one in too. South Korea has become a pretty important place to me over the last handful of years and this was an event I “lived through” on this side of the world. Only seeing snippets on US news sites and online sources, a lot more came directly from Koreans that experienced it themselves. If you think you know what happened on 12/3/25, declaration of Martial Law and quick removal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, it was a lot closer to crisis than we were ever told. This first hand account gets to the heart of the story. One note of warning, this one is mainly first-person footage and unstable camerawork so if you’re susceptible to vertigo beware (but it’s worth it).
- SATURDAY, MAY 9 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 6:00 PM
- SUNDAY, MAY 10 – SIFF Cinema Uptown – 12:00 PM
- Director Chul-Young Cho scheduled to attend.
Tony
Queen Kelly (1929 | USA | 105 minutes | Erich von Stroheim)
Director Erich von Stroheim’s flawed silent masterpiece about a commoner (Gloria Swanson) entering a tumultuous romance with a prince gets a spiffy new transfer, with SIFF 2026 rolling it out as the first of the fest’s two archival screenings. The restoration reportedly recreates the movie’s original (and lost) finale from previously-unreleased material, and I’m totally here for it.
- SUNDAY, MAY 10 – SIFF Cinema Downtown – 2:15 PM
Boorman and The Devil (2025 | USA | 105 minutes | David Kittredge)
Director John Boorman’s career has encompassed everything from stone masterpieces (Deliverance, Hope and Glory) to ambitious misfires (The Emerald Forest) to pure batshit lunacy (Zardoz). This new doc by director David Kittredge covers the making of Exorcist II: The Heretic, easily Boorman’s most maligned and (Kittredge asserts) misunderstood film. Word around the cineaste campfire runs rapturous about this exhaustive chronicle of the movie’s painful development, poisonous reception, and late-period reappraisal.
- SUNDAY, MAY 10 – SIFF Cinema Downtown – 8:30 PM
- WEDNESDAY, MAY 13 – SIFF Cinema Downtown – 12:30 PM
- Director David Kittredge and Co-Producer Craig Smith scheduled to attend.
GUEST LIST
SIFF has outdone themselves bringing guests to the festival this year, see below for a preliminary look at who’ll be in town in support of their films.Director Chul-Young Cho scheduled to attend.
| Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] | Director Zack Khalil (Ojibway) |
| Again Again | Director Mia Moore, Producer Cliff Noonan, and Executive Producer Ian Schrank |
| American Doctor | Director Poh Si Teng |
| April X | Producer Lanivia Postolache |
| The Ascent | Directors Edward Drake and Scott Veltri, and Subject Mandy Horvath |
| Assets & Liabilities | Director Zach Weintraub and Actor Arsenio Salvante |
| Balandrau, Where the Fierce Wind Blew | Producer Guille Cascante |
| Beat the Lotto | Director Ross Whitaker |
| Boorman and the Devil | Director David Kittredge and Co-Producer Craig Smith |
| The Best Summer | Director Tamra Davis |
| The Big Cheese | Director Sara Joe Wolansky and Executive Producer/Co-Producer/Subject Adam Moskowitz |
| Birds of War | Director Janay Boulos |
| Bucks Harbor | Director Peter Muller |
| Chili Finger | Directors Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad |
| Cookie Queens | Co-Producer Ann Rogers and Executive Producer Steve Hall |
| Crystal Cross | Director Richie James Follin (Cherokee) |
| Deadline | Producer Peiyi Lin |
| Edie Arnold is a Loser | Directors Kade Atwood and Megan Rico |
| Fifteen | Director Yossy Zagha |
| The Friend’s House is Here | Directors Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei |
| The Garden We Dreamed | Director Joaquín Del Paso |
| Ghost in the Machine | Subject Emily M Bender |
| Hanging by a Wire | Director Mo Naqvi and Producer Bilal Sami |
| Hot Water | Director Ramzi Bashour and Cinematographer Alfonso Herrera-Salcedo |
| I Love Boosters | Writer/Director Boots Riley |
| The Invite | Director & Star Olivia Wilde |
| Jaripeo | Directors Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig, and Producer Sarah Strunin |
| Kikuyu Land | Producers Moses Bwayo, Mike Morrisoe, Mia Vyzis; Executive Producers Barbara Terzieff and Tracy Rector; and Star Nganga Mungai |
| Lady | Director Samuel Abrahams |
| The Life We Leave | Director JJ Gerber and Producer Clementine Briand |
| Love Chaos Kin | Director Chithra Jeyaram |
| Maintenance Artist | Writer Anne Alvergue |
| Meadowlarks | Director Tasha Hubbard (Cree) |
| Nuisance Bear | Editor Jocelyne Chaput and Cinematographer Ian Kerr |
| Obsession | Actor Cooper Tomlinson |
| Phoenix Jones: The Rise and Fall of a Real Life Superhero | Director Bayan Joonam |
| Powwow People | Director Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) |
| RADIOHEART: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole | Directors Peter Hilgendorf and Andrew Franks; Subject Kevin Cole; and Rebecca Staffel |
| Reservation Redemption | Directors Brenda Fisher (Yakama) and Blake Pickens (Chickasaw) |
| Rising Through the Fray | Director Courtney Montour |
| See You When I See You | Director Jay Duplass and Executive Producer Mel Esyln |
| The Seoul Guardians | Director Chul-Young Cho |
| Three of a Kind | Director Charlotte Brodthagen, plus Producers Anne Falkesgaard and Sophie D’Souza |
| Under a Million Stars | Director Chezik Tsunoda |
| Valentina | Director Tatti Ribeiro |
| Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird) | Director Anna Fitch |
The 2026 Seattle International Film Festival runs from May 7-17. Keep up with our reactions on social media (@thesunbreak) and follow our ongoing coverage via our SIFF 2026 posts