SIFF 2026: What to see and expect at this year's festival

The Seattle International Film Festival is back, and it's a little smaller and cozier this year.

The 52nd annual festival, spread out over 10 days beginning May 7, features 203 films from 71 different countries. (Last year was 245 films from 76 countries - still significantly smaller than the organization's prepandemic footprint, which typically featured 400+ titles.) SIFF has in recent months faced financial troubles, the loss of a theater and staff layoffs, in the wake of a challenging time for film festivals.

Nonetheless, even in its more compact size, SIFF is still a formidable festival with plenty to see. And Artistic Director Beth Barrett sees an upside: With fewer venues, nearly all of them in Queen Anne, the festival has more of a campus feel. "Everything is within walking distance," she said, noting that SIFF Cinema Uptown, SIFF Film Center and PACCAR IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center (a new addition this year) are close together, and SIFF Cinema Downtown (formerly Cinerama) is easily reached via bus or monorail.

"We've been thinking about that kind of community building," Barrett said, remembering that in the older days of the festival, "you'd meet the same people walking back and forth" from the Egyptian, Broadway Performance Hall and Harvard Exit, all on Capitol Hill. "I honestly miss that," she said, " … just walking around and providing those conversation starters, where you get to know someone because you see them all the time."

And though the fest is smaller, it will still contain many of its trademarks. Opening night will feature a gala screening of Boots Riley's fashion-heist comedy "I Love Boosters" with Riley scheduled to attend, followed by a party at Cannonball Arts. Director and star Olivia Wilde ("Don't Worry Darling") will attend the festival's closing night with her film "The Invite," a dark comedy in which a San Francisco couple (Wilde, Seth Rogen) invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors (Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton) for a dinner party. The film, which will open theatrically later this summer (as will I Love Boosters), will screen at the SIFF Downtown on May 17. In a departure from previous years, there will be no closing-night party.

The Secret Festival, a longtime SIFF tradition in which attendees must sign NDAs before viewing a film that for legal reasons cannot be disclosed, returns for two screenings at the SIFF Downtown, May 10 and 17. Numerous trademark SIFF programs return, including cINeDIGENOUS (featuring Indigenous filmmakers from around the world), the music showcase Face the Music, an assortment of food-related titles in Culinary Cinema, the all-ages program Films4Families, and the audience-voted Golden Space Needle Awards, presented on the festival's final day.

And the customary Northwest Connections program, showcasing local films, is "really strong" this year, Barrett said. Among its six films are "Phoenix Jones: The Rise and Fall of a Real Life Superhero," a documentary about the Seattle man who became famous for donning a superhero suit and intervening in downtown crime scenes - but whose real story was a little more complicated than a comic book. Director Bayan Joonam is scheduled to attend the festival screenings on May 16 and 17. And "RADIOHEART: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole" celebrates a legendary KEXP radio figure, with filmmakers Peter Hilgendorf and Andrew Franks and subject Kevin Cole attending screenings on May 12 and 15 at the Uptown.

Among the individual films in the festival that Barrett singled out as favorites were György Pálfi's "Hen," the story of a hen in peril that's "a metaphor for what's happening in the world," Barrett said. It screens May 11 and 12 at SIFF Downtown and Uptown, respectively. She also pointed to the festival's strong documentary lineup, noting that a third of the full-length films in the festival are nonfiction. Her favorites include "Nuisance Bear," about polar bears in Manitoba, Canada (May 8 at PACCAR IMAX, May 9 at SIFF Downtown); "The Seoul Guardians," about a 2024 takeover of the South Korean government (May 9-10 at SIFF Uptown); the Spanish food documentary "One of Our Own: A Tribute to Joan Roca" (May 12-13 at SIFF Uptown); and "Jaripeo," an examination of the gay Mexican rodeo scene (May 15-16, SIFF Uptown).

And the festival's program of archival screenings is small but mighty, including a new restoration of the 1929 Erich von Stroheim silent melodrama "Queen Kelly," starring Gloria Swanson (it's the film she's watching in "Sunset Boulevard"), screening at SIFF Downtown May 10. Also recently restored is the 1939 Argentine classic "Prisoners of the Earth," set among a group of men laboring on a plantation in 1915; it's at SIFF Downtown May 17. And, for something completely different, local DJ NicFit will create a live soundtrack for Wes Craven's 1984 slasher classic "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (May 12 at SIFF Downtown).

Tickets to most individual films are $20 ($16 SIFF members, $17 students/seniors); packages of six tickets are available for $110 ($92 SIFF members). For more information, see siff.net.

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 4:54 PM.