Welcome to the Seattle Film Festival
A Selection of Films and Past Seattle Film Festival Winners
Runtime 1 hour 20 min black and white
FORTY WINKS
Eighteen-year-old Will Parker has his directorial debut about a struggling Hypnotist deals with his monotonous day to day life, until he is blackmailed into being the world's first hypnotist hit man after a mysterious woman finds out his degree is fake.
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Justin Marcel McManus, John Turturro
Runtime 20 minutes 57 seconds
A recovering addict suffers the dangers and indignities of gig work in the wealthy homes of the privileged few directed by Angela Garcia Combs.
Cast: Alfred Molina, Julia Maria Combs
AMERICAN DREAM
ENNIO
Runtime 2 hours 36 minutes
Ennio is a 2021 documentary directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, focused on the figure of the Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who passed away on 6 July 2020, made through interviews with directors and screenwriters such as Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino who have worked with him or who enjoyed throughout his long career.
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Ennio Morricone, Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone, Bruce Springsteen,
Bernardo Berolucci
MURMUR
Runtime 1 hour 30 minutes
Indie Spirit Award Winner Mark Polish’s new film about five Bay Area friends who venture into the Redwood National Forest to play the augmented (mixed) reality (AR) game MURMUR, their own reality becomes dangerously distorted.
Cast: Logan Polish, Cyrus Arnold, Colin Ford, Megan Lee, D.W. Moffett, Francesca Xuereb
POCKET MOUSE PROTECTOR
Runtime 1 hour 24 minutes
In Paul Bright’s campy screwball comedy, environmentalist Larry takes an experimental virility drug to woo back his wife Mary who's having an affair with Barry who works for Thierry who plans to destroy the remaining habitat of the endangered pocket mouse. Larry and Barry both take a double dose of the virility drug and when it makes them gay their entire world view changes. Barry resists and attempts ridiculous 'conversion' treatments; Larry discovers the joys of being a gay man. They both get what they want in the end.
Cast: Paul Bright, James Sharinghousen, Jonas Israel, Yelena King, Eleanor O’Brien
SALTY
Runtime 40 minutes
Gracie Fojtik, Dinah Berkeley and Lily Harris direct this women-led adventure. A young, stubbornly determined woman– “G” – turns to a night of camping alone in the Utah Salt Flats to heal from an unspoken grief. Her isolation is quickly interrupted when a mysterious entity spirits her away to an indistinguishable room. Addressed only by a faceless voice “with wizard space skills” and accompanied by many snake plants, G finds herself transported between locations on an uninvited adventure to confront the places she’s buried her emotions. Salty takes a bitterly funny, sharply emotional look at the lonely process of letting go and healing from loss.
Cast: Gracie Fojtik
FIRST TIME CALLER
Runtime 1 hour 15 minutes
Brent Ziff is an internet shock-jock at the top of his game. Fans & followers tune in from coast to coast to be insulted and dismissed by their favorite on-air provocateur. But on one very unusual night, Brent's world is rocked by a long-time listener who calls in with a grave message.
Based on Gideon Media's acclaimed podcast, FIRST TIME CALLER is a darkly hilarious look at success, power, loneliness and the apocalypse. Abe Goldfarb and Brian Silliman reprise their roles as Brent and Leo, along side vocal performances from Greg Proops, Ophira Eisenberg, and Ashlie Atkinson. Goldfarb co-directs with James Darling of Cinedata.
Cast: Abe Goldfarb
Runtime 1 hour 41 minutes
Emmy winning Producer Mary O’Leary directs the documentary feature DARK SHADOWS AND BEYOND – THE JONATHAN FRID STORY about the TV icon who portrayed vampire Barnabas Collins on the gothic serial, “Dark Shadows.”
Cast: Jonathan Frid, Jerry Lewis, Dick Cavett, Marion Ross, Ian Buchanan
DARK SHADOWS AND BEYOND-
THE JONATHAN FRID STORY
STORAGE
Runtime 16 minutes 56 seconds
Colin Francis Costello directs this sci-fi thriller short. After waking up in a basement storage room with no memory of how she got there or who put her there, a pragmatic doctor must learn to work with an emotionally unstable cheerleader in order to escape.
Cast: Laura Huckaby, Kate Schrader, Francesca De Luca, Jordan Butcher, Alicia Blasingame, Megan Penn
BEATS
Runtime 25 minutes 10 seconds
Director Simon Pfister’s student short film about a series of attacks terrorizes Munich. Max, having survived the first shots fired at the audience in the electro club Beats, hides in a storage room with his new friend Sefi and other party attendees. The immediate danger puts the humanity of all trapped people to the test and Max has to decide whether he wants to save himself or try to save a stranger, as well.
Shortly before arriving at home, Alexa hears of the attack on the club she left her brother Max at. She decides to go back, accompanied by her boyfriend Raphik, who joins her in the end despite his misgivings.
Cast: Giulia Goldammer, Julian Lehr, Daron Yates
GARY
Runtime 6 minutes 38 seconds
Director Doug Cox directs this Comedy Horror Short about the brave crew of the Equinox having just landed on Mars. Now inhabitants of Station Orion, they will look to each other for inspiration and survival. And then there's Gary...
Cast: Scott Wickman, Baily Hopkins, Dorian Lockett, Stu Barnes
SONG FOR HOPE
Runtime 1 hour 20 minutes
Directed by Chris Haigh and Produced by Tara Wyatt, “Song For Hope” is the incredible story of Ryan Anthony, the renowned principal trumpet of the Canadian Brass and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra after he was diagnosed with terminal blood cancer and given just months to live.
Cast: Ryan Anthony
2024 AWARDS GALA
(Photographs by Getty Images)
