..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

May 14, 2006

For Immediate Release:

The 32nd Annual
Seattle International Film Festival
May 25-June 18, 2006

The Largest Film Festival in the U.S. to Celebrate 25 Days
of more than 600 Film Screenings, Special Events, Forums,
Educational Outreach Programs and More!

Seattle, WA-May 25th marks the opening of the 32nd Annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), the largest and most highly attended festival in the United States. Running a full 25 days, SIFF brings 418 feature length and short films from more than 60 different countries, including 19 World Premieres (5 features, 14 shorts), 40 North American Premieres (31 features, 9 shorts), and 22 US Premieres (17 Features, 5 shorts). From May 25th through June 18th at various venues throughout the city, SIFF 2006 promises to again bring the best in cinema from fiercely independent fare to studio-produced masterworks.

Opening night will kick-off May 25 at the historic Paramount Theatre in downtown Seattle, with a celebration for 3,000 film revelers to follow, featuring The Illusionist, a thrilling tale of magic and mystery directed by Neil Burger, and starring Ed Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Jessica Biel. This film, enhanced by a magnificent score by composer Philip Glass, is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat and transport you to a time that embraced the supernatural. Michel Gondry's Science of Sleep, starring Gael Garcia Bernal (Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tú Mamá También, Amores Perros) will wrap the festival at SIFF's Closing Night Gala on June 18. Gondry's intensly visual and surreal film about a young artist who returns home after the death of his father and soon finds the lines between his waking life and dream life incredibly blurred, is a perfect bookend to the many offerings presented.

Over the 25 days, more than 200 actors, directors and film industry professionals will be in attendance and at the screenings of their films, including Aaron Eckhart (Conversations with Other Women), Matthew Lillard (The Groomsman, Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas), Patrick Fugit (Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas), Stewart Copeland (Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out), Nicolas Winding Refn (Pusher Trilogy), Peter Chan (Perhaps Love), Eddie Muller (renowned film noir expert), Donald Sosin (internationally known silent film accompanist), Jason Reitman (juror, and director of Thank You for Smoking), Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo, and composer for Royal Tennenbaums, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Rushmore), Marisa Tomei (Factotum), Jessica Biel (The Illusionist) and Neil Burger (The Illusionist).

SIFF 2006 World Premiere Features:
Little Fugitive, directed by Joanna Lipper (USA)
A nearly absent father and an overworked mother leave two young brothers to their own devices for 24 hours. When a vicious practical joke goes awry, seven-year-old Joey flees to Coney Island in this skillfully updated version of the landmark 1953 film.

Mom's Apple Pie: The Heart of the Lesbian Mother's Custody Movement, directed by Jody Laine, Shan Ottey, Shad Reinstein (USA)
An important document of GLBT history, Mom's Apple Pie looks at Seattle-based Lesbian Mothers Defense Fund, founded in the early 1970s as a resource for mothers whose children were being legally removed from their care based solely on the fact that they were lesbians. Narrated by Kate Clinton.

The Standard, directed by Jordan Albertsen (USA)
Taking place in the time just before high school graduation, Dylan Anderson isn't sure what his future holds. Shot on Whidbey Island, this dreamily realized reflection on Gus Van Sant's Elephant is an intimate peek at friendship, young love and loss.

This is Gary McFarland, directed by Kristian St. Clair (USA)
Seattle director Kristian St. Clair explores the life and times of self-taught jazz musician, composer and arranger Gary McFarland, who, before his mysterious death in 1971, collaborated with such notables as Gerry Mulligan, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz, Bill Evans, Clark Terry, Gabor Szabo and Cal Tjader.

Urban Scarecrow, directed by Andrew McAllister (USA)
The second feature from Seattle filmmaker Andrew McAllister (Shag Carpet Sunset) tells the bittersweet story of a quiet and detached teenager who, in the six years since his mother's death, has been living with his father in a small motel amid the landscape of abandoned buildings and old signs of Highway 99.

North American Premiere Features:
1:1, directed by Annette K. Olesen (Denmark)
4 Barefooted Women, directed by Santiago Loza (Argentina)
A Side, B Side, Seaside, directed by Wing-Chiu Chan (Hong Kong)
Beyond Hatred, directed by Olivier Meyrou (France)
The Birthday, directed by Diane Kurys (France)
Container, directed by Lukas Moodysson (Sweden)
Four Stars, directed by Christian Vincent (France)
Frostbite, directed by Anders Banke (Sweden)
Gambler, directed by Phie Ambo (Denmark)
Garpastum, directed by Alexey Guerman Jr. (Russia)
Gradually, directed by Maziar Miri (Iran)
Gravehopping, directed by Jan Cvitkovic (Slovenia)
The Great Match, directed by Gerardo Olivares (Spain)
Happy As One, directed by Vanessa Jopp (Germany)
Host & Guest, directed by Shin Dong-il (South Korea)
Isabella , directed by Pang Ho-Cheung (Hong Kong)
The Line of Beauty, directed by Saul Dibb (United Kingdom)
Liviu's Dream, directed by Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania)
Los Aires Difíciles, directed by Gerardo Herrera (Spain)
Love Sick, directed by Tudor Giurgiu (Romania)
Molly's Way, directed by Emily Atef (Germany)
The Nightly Song of the Travellers, directed by Chapour Haghighat (Iran)
Requiem, directed by Hans-Christian Schmid (Germany)
Round Two, directed by Daniel Cebrián (Spain)
Shinobi, directed by Ten Shimoyama (Japan)
Slumming, directed by Michael Glawogger (Austria)
Starfish Hotel, directed by John Williams (Japan)
Tertium non datur, directed by Lucian Pintilie (Romania)
Tough Enough, directed by Detlev Buck (Germany)
A Trip to Kharabakh, directed by Levan Tutberidze (Georgia)
What Are You Going to Do When You Get Out of Here?, directed by Saso Podgorsek (Slovenia)

US Premieres
49 Up, directed by Michael Apted (United Kingdom)
Ahlaam , directed by Mohamed Al-Daradji (Iraq)
Au Bonheur des dames, directed by Julien Duvivier (France)
Early in the Morning, directed by Gahité Fofana (Guinea)
Every Other Week, directed by Måns Herngren, Hannes Holm, Felix Herngren, Hans Ingemansson (Sweden)
The Fish Fall in Love, directed by Ali Raffi (Iran)
The Horizon of Events, directed by Daniele Vicari (Italy)
Isolation, directed by Billy O'Brien (United Kingdom)
Itinéraires, directed by Christophe Otzenberger (France)
...More Than 1000 Words, directed by Solo Avital (Germany)
Pierrepoint, directed by Adrian Shergold (United Kingdom)
Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark)
Seven Swords, directed by Tsui Hark (Hong Kong)
Ski Jumping Pairs - Road to Torino 2006, directed by Mashima Riichiro, Kobayashi Masaki (Japan)
Suicidals, directed by Juan Villegas (Argentina)
A Summer Day, directed by Franck Guérin (France)
We Shall Overcome, directed by Niels Arden Oplev (Denmark)

"With so many exciting new initiatives and venues in this years festival, we look forward to further exploring cinema in it's many manifestations, including our expanded Face the Music section highlights the variety of ways that music and film can intersect. SIFF 2006 dares us to open our eyes, to go beyond the barrage of media sound bites, to enter worlds that challenge, enlighten and delight us, and to understand those who don't seem so different from ourselves. We are incredibly proud of this year's line-up and think it truly offers something for everyone," says Carl Spence, SIFF Artistic Director.

Four films encompass SIFF's Weekend Gala Presentations, with special screenings and celebrations to follow. SIFF's 2006 Gala selections include Robert Altman's highly anticipated Prairie Home Companion, Peter Chan's award-winning Perhaps Love, Bent Hamer's Facotum, a film based on the life of Charles Bukowski starring Matt Dillon, and the hilarious and long-awaited Strangers with Candy directed by Paul Dinello, and starring Amy Sedaris as Jerri Blank-the 47-year-old ex-junkie whore who returns home after 32 years as a runaway. Additionally, The Robert Zemeckis and Stephen Spielberg executive produced CGI animated film Monster House and the American independent feature Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Ryan Fleck will be spotlighted as Special Presentations in the festival.

Shedding light on the lives, stories, and struggles between the notes, SIFF's Face the Music returns in an expanded format to include headlining special events, master classes and forums that further explore how Music + Film are integrally linked in the creative process in addition to twelve new music documentaries that travel the globe capturing extraordinary performances.

Special events include a screening of The Unknown with Portastatic (featuring members of Superchunk) presenting a new live score to Tod Browning's freakish carnival tale from 1927 starring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford; Melodic Meshes with Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie-Budd (past collaborator with Brian Eno) and Guthrie (formerly of The Cocteau Twins) will create a special score of their ethereal music to a series of surrealist and avant-garde shorts; A Conversation with Stewart Copeland, followed by screening of Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out; a Master Class with composer Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo); a special Face the Music rock party to showcase Seattle's burgeoning music scene at Neumo's; and Cues and Connections, a panel on Making Music in Film.

This year's line-up of Face the Music films cover a wide range of musical styles and approaches, highlighting celebrated artists including: The Pixies; The Police; Leonard Cohen; Harry Nilsson; JJ Cale; Bjork; and George Michael as well as incredible overlooked masters and undiscovered talents in Brazil, West Africa, Iceland and Turkey.

The festival is honored to announce its special country spotlight on Denmark, with a remarkable selection of 14 films from this country currently experiencing an incredible resurgence in extraordinary filmmaking. SIFF celebrates Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn as one of four Emerging Masters, and will host the US Premiere of the latest film in his acclaimed Pusher Trilogy-Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death. The Danish Spotlight also sees the North American premieres of 1:1 by Annette Olesen (SIFF 2004 Emerging Master), and Gambler directed by Phie Ambo, and the US Premiere of We Shall Overcome directed by Niels Arden Oplev.

SIFF's Archival Series has much to offer this year with 15 rarely screened classics and masterworks from 1925 to 1978, including Charlie Chaplin's favorite film-The Gold Rush, a film noir double feature-The Window (1949) and The Man Who Cheated Himself (1951), a celebration of Roberto Rossellini with The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) and Rome, Open City (1945), and special ensemble musical accompaniment led by renowned musician Donald Sosin to the newly restored Au Bonheur des dames (1930) and The Scarlet Letter (1926).

The festival's very first Hong Kong Weekend will take place June 9-11 with six films hailing from the region, including special Gala event featuring Peter Chan's Hong Kong Film Festival award-winner Perhaps Love. Additionally, SIFF will host a gravity-defying wirework stunt event to demonstrate how Hong Kong filmmakers rely on wirework to tell stories of the supernatural or of heroes with super-human abilities.

Emerging Masters honors the work of four directors poised to become the world's next cinematic masters. This year SIFF honors Brazil's Andrucha Waddington (Me, You, Them and House of Sand); China's Wang Xiaoshuai (The Days and Shanghai Dreams); Denmark's Nicolas Winding Refn (Pusher, Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands, and Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death); and Adam Curtis from the United Kingdom (The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares; The Rise of the Politics of Fear). Curtis is one of the first documentarians to be celebrated as an Emerging Master.

Alternate Cinema (an expansion of 2005's New Pioneers) presents 11 feature films and 25 short films that explore and shatter the boundaries of conventional filmmaking-creating new styles, genres, techniques, and new ways of looking at movies themselves. The program includes visionaries and talents such as Jan Svankmajer, Kenneth Anger, Chris Marker, The Quay Brothers, Patrick Carpentier, Betzy Bromberg and Lukas Moodysson.

SIFF youth programming is undeniably strong this year with the introduction of two new festival programs: FutureWave-a competition and showcase of 17 short films (selected from over 100 submissions world-wide) made by filmmakers under the age of 18; and Super-Fly Filmmaking-a youth workshop and retreat in conjunction with Longhouse Media and Sherman Alexie modeled after SIFF's popular Fly Filmmaking; and the return of SIFF Goes to School, a program that brings SIFF to the classroom, and the classroom to SIFF, in effort to expand educational initiatives to foster appreciation for film as an artistic medium, as well as to inspire curiosity and creative ambition of future filmmakers and film aficionados.

The incredible diversity in the Spawned in Seattle showcase, featuring 14 features and 17 shorts with direct NW connections, proves that Seattle is making it's mark in nearly every genre and is soon to emerge onto the national radar for filmmaking. With four World Premieres (Mom's Apple Pie: The Heart of the Lesbian Mother's Custody Movement, The Standard, This is Gary McFarland and Urban Scarecrow), four competition contenders in New American Cinema, and a film in five major SIFF showcases (Face the Music, Documentaries, Alternate Cinema, Gay-la Presentation of Boy Culture, and SIFF Shorts)-SIFF is extremely proud to spotlight our hometown heroes and continue to support and applaud our burgeoning film scene.

Four SIFF competitions-New Directors Showcase, New American Cinema, Documentary Competition and Short Film Competitions (Live Action, Animation, and for the first time ever, Documentary)-promise the best of the best in contemporary film. Each competition is judged by a jury comprised of filmmakers and industry professionals. A total of $23,000 in cash prizes will be awarded this year-the winner of each feature competition is given $5,000, and the shorts recipients are awarded $2,500 for each respective category. Additionally, the best film in the FutureWave showcase, as juried by 2006's Fly Filmmakers, will be rewarded with a $500 cash prize. The prestigious Golden Space Needle Awards are given to Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Documentary and Best Short, as decided by festival attendees.

"The voice of SIFF"-SIFF's Forums-are bigger and better than ever before with over 20 discussions, panels, and events designed to explore the behind the scenes world of film and filmmaking from start to finish from screenwriting, promotion, animation, stunt work, production, musical composition and scoring, and how to get your film screened. 2006 forum events include: Talking Pictures with Jane Eaglen, Tom Douglas, and Dale Chihuly · Seattle Summit: A State of the Industry Address with Top Level Panelists presented by Screen International · Fly Filmmaking · Producers School Series · Digital Media Lab · Cues and Connections: Making Music in Film · Animation Master Class with DreamWorks · On a Wire and a Prayer: Wirework Stunt Demo · Screenwriter's Salon · "I Wake Up Screening": A Conversation with John Anderson and Laura Kim · The Great Debate: The Northwest Voice and the National Scene · FutureWave Competition and Showcase · Encoding Your Film for the Internet · Master Class with composer Mark Mothersbaugh · A Conversation with Stewart Copeland

Over 140 films from all over the world ranging from 3 to 30 minutes make up SIFF's Shorts Program. SIFF Shorts, broken in to twelve categories, with some debuting before select feature films, represent a plethora of themes and subjects in various genres from animation, to narrative to documentary. The 2006 Shorts packages are: The Family Picture Show (mostly animated shorts suitable for the whole family); Rites of Passage; El Cine Gigante (the best shorts from Spain, Latin American and other Spanish-speaking countries); Attack of the Animated; Gay Discovery; Outside Looking In; Film Femme; Twisted Love; Expressions du Cinema (films about artistic expression); Headlines and History; Reflective Properties; Beg, Borrow and Steal (a selection of experimental found footage films).

Returning to SIFF this year are highly anticipated and popular programs-the one-of-a-kind Secret Festival, Films4Families, Fly Filmmaking Challenge, Contemporary World Cinema and Midnight Adrenaline.

The festival has evolved into a highly anticipated event and is looked upon as a leader in helping to shape Seattle's ever growing vibrant arts and film community. Since its inception in 1976, SIFF has held the World and North American Premieres of some of film's biggest national and international independent triumphs (Run Lola Run, Ghost World, Trainspotting, Last Days), and mainstream hits (Braveheart, Dazed and Confused, Poltergeist, The Full Monty, To Die For, The Return of the Jedi and Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark). While bringing the best in national and international film and talent to Seattle, SIFF has also remained dedicated to fostering and showcasing the creative genius of those working and creating locally.

Cited by the New York Times, Variety, Film Comment and USA Today as one of the top five festivals in North America, SIFF is also considered one of the best "audience festivals" in the world.

Seattle's love for film (Seattleites see more movies per capita than any other city in the nation) makes the city the most appropriate setting for new films to be seen, tested and celebrated, by everyone-film fan and filmmaker alike.

Mark your calendars for this great event, May 25-June 18. For more information on the festival, including descriptions of films and events, please visit www.seattlefilm.org or contact Britt Curtis at brittc@seattlefilm.org or 206.447.5513.

The Seattle International Film Festival is supported in part by The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Alaska Airlines, Boeing, Comcast, Encore, FileMaker, Media Group, The MAC Store, IrisInk, Modern Digital, POP, RealNetworks, Samsung, Starbucks, and WongDoody

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