Festival First Look: Six Landmarks of the Reel World

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

2025 Festival First Look

The countdown has begun to the 51st Seattle International Film Festival, your destination for the most transporting of international and independent film. In anticipation of your escape to the Reel World, you’ve circled May 15 on your calendar, and it’s time to start planning your itinerary. Although our full film lineup won’t go live until April 23, here’s a first look at the first-rate amenities you’ll enjoy on this most enchanting getaway.

These films offer an delightful assortment of enriching experiences; they thrill, educate, warm the heart, and inspire. Want to see all the sights? Buy a Festival 6-Pack and secure your tickets to this tour of cinematic excellence.

Buy 6-Pack

Cloud

Legendary filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Cure, Tokyo Sonata) ramps up the thrills in this genre-bending potboiler about a craven opportunist who finds success as an internet reseller, only for revenge-seeking vigilantes to come calling. (d: Kiyoshi Kurosawa c: Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Daiken Okudaira, Amane Okayama, Japan 2024, 123 min)

Dancing Queen in Hollywood

North American Premiere

In the sequel to SIFF 2023 Golden Space Needle Best Film winner Dancing Queen, young hip-hop-dancing Mina and her dance partner Markus head to Los Angeles in hopes of starring in a music video, only for her to get the chance to be in a major motion picture! (d: Aurora Gossé c: Liv Elvira Kippersund Larsson, Sturla Puran Harbitz, Viljar Knutsen Bjaadal, Norway 2025, 97 min)

Diamonds

In this lush, metatheatrical crowdpleaser that was a box office smash in its native Italy, SIFF favorite Ferzan Özpetek gathers 18 of his country’s greatest actresses to tell the story of a Rome-based tailoring shop that makes costumes for the big screen. (d: Ferzan Özpetek c: Luisa Ranieri, Jasmine Trinca, Stefano Accorsi, Kasia Smutniak, Italy 2024, 135 min)

DJ Ahmet

15-year-old shepherd Ahmet rebels against his conservative North Macedonian farming village when he gets a taste of electronic dance music in this heartwarming dramedy, winner of the World Cinema’s Audience Award Prize at Sundance 2025. (d: Georgi M. Unkovski c: Arif Jakup, Agush Agushev, Aksel Mehmet, North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Serbia/Croatia 2025, 97 min)

SALLY

Sally

Award-winning documentarian Cristina Costantini directs this peek into the personal life of Sally Ride, the first woman in space. But as Ride journeyed among the stars, she kept a nearly three-decade romance with author and tennis player Tam O’Shaughnessy a secret. (d: Cristina Costantini, USA 2025, 103 min)

Seeds

Filmmaker/cinematographer Brittany Shyne vividly and patiently captures multiple generations of Black farming families in Thomas County, Georgia, from social challenges to financial straits and their dedication to one another. Winner of the US Grand Jury Prize - Documentary at Sundance 2025. (d: Brittany Shyne, USA 2025, 122 min)

Date: March 26, 2025
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