When Canadian filmmaker Jeremy Podeswa -- the director of "Eclipse" (1994) and "The Five Senses" (1999) -- was honored as an Emerging Master at the recent Seattle International Film Festival, it seemed an odd choice to some critics. After all, this encouragement award usually goes to a promising newcomer, and Podeswa is a 20-year directing veteran better known for cranking out episodes of cable television -- "Queer as Folk," "Six Feet Under," "The L Word," "Nip/Tuck" and "The Tudors." But his new feature, "Fugitive Pieces" -- which was showcased in the festival and goes into its regular run today -- is so assured and accomplished that it's easy to see why it inspired the SIFF directors to break tradition and get behind him.
By William Arnold | June 27, 2008
Movie reviewer John Hartl's favorite movies at Seattle International Film Festival 2008 included "Boy A," "Edge of Heaven," "Man on Wire," "Stranded."
By John Hartl | June 16, 2008
Gentle Snark
"The Fall," screening at SIFF this weekend and opening in general release next week, is a banquet of breathtaking, dreamlike imagery. And if the story sometimes goes flat, there's always another magnificent image to compensate for it.
By Geoff Carter | May 22, 2008
And so it begins: The Seattle International Film Festival,
starting Thursday and continuing through June 15 with hundreds of
movies, even more hundreds of lines and countless thousands of kernels
of popcorn. For the casual SIFF-goer, the question is this: How do I
choose, from the aforementioned hundreds, what to see?
By Moira Macdonald | May 18, 2008
Is the Seattle International Film Festival finally bowing to critics
who suggest Seattle's annual deluge of celluloid has simply become too
large for human consumption and needs a cutback? "Maybe," artistic director Carl Spence said, smiling, last month.
"To a small degree. We know that some of you feel it's become too much."
By William Arnold | May 16, 2008
Gentle Snark
Wow. It's almost excessive, innit? Over the course of the Seattle International Film Festival's 25-day run -- from May 22 to June 15 -- we are expected to screen 191 narrative films, 57 documentaries and 170 shorts, for a grand total of 418 movies. It's a good thing none of us have jobs.
By Geoff Carter | May 15, 2008
It's getting so close, you can almost smell the popcorn. The 34th annual Seattle International Film Festival will unspool May 22 through June 15 at a number of venues around town.
By Moira Macdonald | May 4, 2008
Gentle Snark
Hosted by Eddie Mueller, president of the Film Noir Foundation and acknowledged by many as "the Czar of Noir," Noir City features 14 classics of the film noir genre, originally released between 1943 and 1953.
By Geoff Carter | February 12, 2008
Convergence Zone
Look, we all knew this was coming. There were signs, omens. Some claim to have heard whispered warnings before recent screenings. Some have dreamt of a "closing-night gala," which they describe as being "just like the opening-night gala, only backwards."
By Geoff Carter | June 12, 2007
