Results tagged “siffgroup”

At long last, after months and months of announcements and press releases, it's finally time to kick off the 33rd annual Seattle International Film Festival. Tonight's the opening gala event (7pm), held for the first time at SIFF's swanky new digs at McCaw Hall. This year's opening night film--Son of Rambow--much like last year's, falls somewhere in between previous year's selections, including the mawkish abomination that is The Notebook and the precious artsy genius of Me and You and Everyone We Know. Rambow won't be out in U.S. theaters until 2008, so this screening is way early, offering you the ability come next year to sigh and say to your lesser-connected friends, "Son of Rambow? Oh, I saw that last spring."

STORIES: Matt "Defective Yeti" Baldwin, one of the 12 funniest people on the Internet, appears with Sean O'Connor at a special A Guide to Visitors event. It's being filmed for the Seattle Channel, it's free, and the organizers point out that the Skylark serves "Tater Tots and mozzarella sticks."

Now that we're well into the new year, movies can go back to sucking. Sure, there's a few Oscar-worthy films that have yet to open in Seattle (see: The New World, Transamerica, Match Point). But for the most part, films released in January blow big-time (don't see: Grandma's Boy, Tristan and Isolde, Last Holiday, Annapolis). Thankfully, there's an alternative to the schlock, in the form of two primo film series opening this week.

This month at the Screenwriters Salon, it's noted local filmmaker Brian McDonald at the mic. Seattlest has this freaking eterna-cold that's going around now, so we're still deciding whether or not to infect the goings on with our presence. It's a tough call, because McDonald's take on story structure in film is particularly insightful and grounded.

Well, another month has rolled around, which means it's time for another installment of SIFF's Screenwriters Salon. In a change-up from the seminar format, this month's offering is a "top-secret" staged script reading, featuring George Wing. The George Wing -- who, by the way, used to be a legal assistant here in Seattle, before they turned 50 First Dates into a hit film and he disappointed his parents by turning his back on a promising legal career.

Werner Herzog and David Cronenberg---the names alone are enough to make a crowd of film fanatics gasp. That's exactly why local den of cinema-geekery Seattle International Film Festival Group is spotlighting each filmmaker's work with screenings next week at the Seattle Art Museum; first Herzog and then Cronenberg.

Listen, you remember the last time you had a great idea. You sat down and sketched it out, outlined the plot, and wrote treatment after treatment. Then some Bobby-Evans-type said, "Kid, I like your stuff," a year-and-a-half later Tim Allen signed on in the lead, and after the three-day crying jag you nearly drove off the Aurora Bridge.

Twenty-five days and 348 films later, the 31st Annual Seattle International Film Festival came to a close yesterday. This was a big SIFF---over 150 actors/filmmakers were brought to town for the fest (we do so love the Q&A), and organizers are reporting an approximate 5% increase in ticket sales from 2004's record year. Additionally, Sunday's live movie poster auction raised nearly $7000 for the SIFF Group.