Festivals & Series
SEPT 13–29
Big Screen 70 mm Film Festival
More than two weeks of humongous classics shown on 70 mm, including 2001, Vertigo, Baraka, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music, and more.
Cinerama Theater
SEPT 13–15
Seattle Design Festival
Three days of new films featuring architecture and design, this year featuring films on the wind-powered home of Japanese artist Susumu Shingu, the creation of the world's first park dedicated to parkour, and the rebuilding of the 9/11 ground zero site.
SIFF Film Center
SEPT 16–OCT 21
Samurai Cinema
Every Monday night for six weeks, SIFF screens a samurai classic, including Masaki Kobayashi's Cannes-honored Harakiri (Sept 16), Kihachi Okamoto's dark action comedy Kill! (Sept 23), and Akira Kurosawa's Star Wars–influencing The Hidden Fortress (Oct 21).
SIFF Cinema Uptown
SEPT 20–25
Fritz Lang Silents Restored
Fresh restorations of Fritz Lang classics, including M, Metropolis, and a five-hour version of the Nordic legend that inspired Wagner's Ring cycle.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
SEPT 26–DEC 5
Ride the Night: The 36th Annual Film Noir Series
Every Thursday for nine weeks, SAM screens great noir films—from Orson Welles's The Lady from Shanghai (Oct 24) to Steven Soderbergh's The Limey (Dec 5)—on 35 mm.
Seattle Art Museum
SEPT 27–OCT 3
Local Sightings
Northwest Film Forum's annual celebration of new Northwest cinema.
Northwest Film Forum
OCT 10–20
Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Ten days of queer film from around the world. Highlights include I Am Divine (the new documentary about John Waters's legendary drag muse from the man who directed Vito), Stranger by the Lake (the sexually explicit French thriller that knocked 'em out at Cannes), and Dick (a documentary about the human wang).
Various venues, including Cinerama, Harvard Exit, Northwest Film Forum, and Pacific Place
OCT 23–27
French Cinema Now
Five nights of contemporary Francophone cinema, featuring filmmakers from around the world working in the French language.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
OCT 28–NOV 7
The Best of National Theater Live
An 11-day festival featuring new productions (Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth!) and encores of NT Live favorites (Danny Boyle's Frankenstein!).
SIFF Cinema Uptown
NOV 14–21
Cinema Italian Style
A weeklong fest devoted to the best in current Italian films.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
Events
SEPT 13–16
Le Joli Mai
Pierre Lhomme and Chris Marker's 1963 documentary—compiling unassuming interviews with random Parisians into a groundbreaking film collage—screens in the United States for the first time in 50 years, in a new restoration.
Northwest Film Forum
SEPT 16
First Stories: Early Film Narratives, 1901–1913
The Sprocket Society presents a program of short films tracing the early evolution of narrative cinema, featuring "famous and obscure selections from America, France, and Britain."
Northwest Film Forum
SEPT 19
Jamel Shabazz: Street Photographer and Wild Style
Two artsy documentaries—one new, one old, both directed by Charlie Ahearn—exploring the world of hiphop. Jamel Shabazz: Street Photographer (2013) chronicles its namesake's 25-year mission to create a portrait of the hiphop generation. Wild Style (1983) is Ahearn's classic portrait of the early days of New York City hiphop (with a particular spotlight thrown on graffiti artists).
SIFF Cinema Uptown
SEPT 28
Stranger Genius Awards
The annual blowout crowning the new batch of Stranger Genius Award winners—five artists in five genres, each of whom will receive $5,000. Among the delights: music from Seattle Rock Orchestra, a post-ceremony dance party, and three brilliant contenders for the 2013 Genius Award in film: writer-directors Zach Weintraub and Scott Blake, and cinematographer Ben Kasulke.
Moore Theater, 1932 Second Ave, 8 pm, $10, 21+
OCT 4–10
L'Avventura
A new 35 mm print of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1960 classic, in which a rich girl disappears on an island, and no one knows how much they're supposed to care.
Northwest Film Forum
OCT 10
Not My Life
The World Affairs Council presents a screening of a new documentary about human trafficking and modern slavery (with the depressing horror leavened by some heartening survivor stories).
SIFF Cinema Uptown
OCT 18–24
After Tiller
The acclaimed documentary about the few American doctors still performing third-trimester abortions after the 2009 assassination of Dr. George Tiller—their tough ethical decisions, their daily struggles, the perpetual threats against their lives.
SIFF Film Center
OCT 25–31
Tiger Eyes
The first major motion picture to be made from the work of Judy Blume (!) is a coming-of-age tale about a teenage girl waylaid by personal tragedy.
Northwest Film Forum
OCT 26
The Lesser Blessed
The Seattle premiere of Anita Doron's 2012 feature, based on the novel by Richard Van Camp and telling the story of a First Nations teenager growing up in a small rural town.
Northwest Film Forum
NOV 1–7
Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton
Back after an acclaimed run at SIFF 2013, Big Joy is the documentary about the avant-garde filmmaker and poet James Broughton, who lit up the San Francisco art world from the 1950s onward. Also screening: Small Joys, a collection of Broughton's best short films.
Northwest Film Forum
NOV 15–20
Nostalghia
A new 35 mm print of Andrei Tarkovsky's penultimate film, which follows a misanthropic Russian poet who travels to Italy and falls into melancholy.
Northwest Film Forum
NOV 16
Indigenous Showcase
Two films by and about Hawaiians: In Haku Inoa, documentarian Christen Hepuakoa Marquez sets out to learn the meaning of her incredibly lengthy Hawaiian name from her estranged mother. In The Haumana, artist and filmmaker Keo Woolford tells the story of a high school boys' hula class and its surprising new teacher.
Northwest Film Forum
NOV 22–24
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
This filmed performance piece features the pop philosopher Slavoj Zizek "applying a psychoanalytic lens to the interpretation of movies," through a series of classic film clips.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
Openings
SEPT 13
The Family
A dark action comedy in which a Mafia boss (Robert De Niro) goes into the witness protection program and winds up in a sleepy town in France, along with his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) and children (no one you'd know). Directed by Luc Besson.
Wide release
Salinger
The furiously hyped documentary about the famously reclusive writer hits Seattle. (According to early reviews, it's not a great film, but you'll totally want to see it anyway.)
Wide release
SEPT 20–22
C.O.G.
Based on a David Sedaris story and winner of the New American Cinema Grand Jury Prize at SIFF 2013, C.O.G. is a wry comedy about a young man's summer spent working on an Oregon apple farm.
SIFF Film Center
SEPT 20
Thanks for Sharing
A star-packed dramedy about a group of friends in sex-addiction recovery, starring Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alecia "P!nk" Moore, and The Book of Mormon's Josh Gad.
Guild 45th Theater
Populaire
A French homage to the romantic comedies of the 1950s, following a small-town secretary who's catapulted to instant fame when she competes for the title of "fastest typist in the world."
Varsity Theater
SEPT 27
Don Jon
Written and directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon stars Gordon-Levitt as an internet porn addict and Scarlett Johansson as his rom-com-obsessed love interest.
Wide release
OCT 4
Haute Cuisine
Based on the real-life story of Danièle Delpeuch, chef to former French president François Mitterrand and the first female chef to cook in the Élysée Palace.
Varsity Theater
OCT 11
Romeo & Juliet
Shakespeare's deathless tale of love and the stupidity of suicide, revamped with a screenplay by Julian "Downton Abbey" Fellowes.
Wide release
Captain Phillips
The amazing Paul Greengrass gives the amazing Paul Greengrass treatment (finding documentary realism within a tightly scripted drama) to the 2009 hijacking of a US container ship by Somali pirates. Starring Tom Hanks, who hasn't won an Oscar in almost 20 YEARS.
Wide release
OCT 18
The Fifth Estate
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Julian Assange in the fictionalized story of how WikiLeaks came to be.
Wide release
Carrie
Julianne Moore and Chloë Grace Moretz star in a negligibly necessary reboot of Stephen King's classic tale of high school, family strife, and vengeful telekinesis.
Wide release
NOV 15
The Wolf of Wall Street
Martin Scorsese's latest stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a New York stockbroker thrown into a world of securities fraud and organized crime. Also starring Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler, and Matthew McConaughey.
Wide release
God Loves Uganda
A documentary exploring the role of the American evangelical movement in fueling Uganda's legislation making homosexuality a crime punishable by death.
SIFF Cinema Uptown
NOV 22
Nebraska
The latest from the always interesting Alexander Payne, starring Bruce Dern (who won best actor at Cannes for his performance) and Will Forte as a father and son on a lottery-win-fueled road trip.
Wide release
NOV 27
Black Nativity
Langston Hughes's musical drama gets a contemporary update loaded with stars, including Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, and Nas.
Wide release
