PR KINOFEST Seattle 2018

SIFF Press Contact:
Leah Anderson, Marketing Manager
leah.anderson@siff.net | (206) 315 - 0685

KINOFEST Seattle Comes to SIFF
October 19 - 21, 2018

Seattle - September 25, 2018 - SIFF, the largest film festival in the United States, is joining forces with the Portland German Film Festival to present KINOFEST Seattle 2018 from October 19 through 21, 2018, at SIFF Film Center.

KINOFEST showcases feature films, documentaries and short films that represent the state-of-the-art in German language filmmaking, including films from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The festival gives audiences the chance to experience the diversity, history, and progress of German-speaking countries in Europe.

This year's festival opens with The Invisibles (Die Unsichtbaren), a powerful true story of four Jewish survivors of Nazi Germany, interweaving their testimony with highly accomplished dramatizations, an unusual hybrid approach that brings edge-of-your-seat suspense to their years spent underground. Directed by Claus Räffle, the film won the Audience Favorite Silver Award from the Mill Valley Film Festival 2017. The Opening Night party at the Film Center will follow the film with tasty bites from Rhein Haus and a lively selection of wine and spirits.

The Austrian highlights are: Cerro Torre - A Snowball's Chance in Hell (Cerro Torre), a documentary chronicling Austrian climbing wunderkind David Lama's attempt to free-climb the notoriously dangerous Cerro Torre mountain in Argentina, and Egon Schiele: Death and Maiden (Egon Schiele: Tod und Mädchen) a film that honors the controversial Austrian painter 100 years after his passing.

In addition, there are family-friendly favorites, including; The Peppercorns and the Curse of the Black King" (Die Pfefferkörner und der Fluch des schwarzen Königs), in which a group of young amateur sleuths hunt after an evil mountain spirit, and the Washington Premiere of the German children's classic Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer), a modern fairy tale about adventure, dragons, and the power of friendship. As a special treat to celebrate 50 years since its premiere in East Germany, we're showing Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft's cult-classic Hot Summer (Heisser Sommer), directed by film legend Joachim Hasler. Often described as East Germany's own version of Grease, Hot Summer has developed a cult following since its 1993 screening on German TV.

Other festival highlights include, Next Generation Short Tiger 2017, which comprises twelve shorts by promising and up-and-coming filmmakers from German film schools; and a special screening of Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (Vor der Morgenröte), directed by Maria Schrader (Germany 83), this biopic chronicles the author's life in exile before and during WWII, and his growing desperation with the situation in Europe.

Rounding out the weekend is our closing night film, the Swiss comedy Streaker (Flitzer), about a young man finding unorthodox ways to collect money for his dream of opening a Gottfried Keller Museum. It won Best Foreign Feature Film and Best Director at the Los Angeles Comedy Festival, and was an audience favorite at the Seattle International Film Festival.

SIFF Artistic Director Beth Barrett says, "We are thrilled to welcome KINOFEST and these great German language films to SIFF, and to kick off the DeutschlandJahr here in Seattle, showcasing the close cultural and artistic ties between Germany and the USA.

SIFF Festival Programming Manager, Stan Shields, adds, "We're very excited to team up with KINOFEST this year. Their Portland festival has been bringing some of the best in German language cinema to the Pacific Northwest, and we are looking forward to sharing their films with our audience."