The 51st Seattle International Film Festival kicks off tomorrow! Running in person from May 15–25, the festival features 245 films playing in-person across the city — including daily programming at the recently-reopened Cinerama — with many getting online encore screenings the following week. Sorting through the whole program and/or film finder can help you to dial into your exact needs for a cinematic holiday (per SIFF’s vacation-themed, “Trip to the Reel World”), 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 some screeners, we have a few more suggestions for how to spend the opening days of the festival.

Starting today, tickets and passes are now available to the public for the 50th Seattle International Film Festival. While we’re digging through the schedule and plotting our own agendas, we thought we’d start by each highlighting a film (or two) from the program that we’re most excited to see or recommend.

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. 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.

Starting today, tickets and passes are now available to the public for the 50th Seattle International Film Festival. While we’re digging through the schedule and plotting our own agendas, we thought we’d start by each highlighting a film (or two) from the program that we’re most excited to see or recommend.