SIFF 2026 Roundup: Zach’s Don’t-Sleep-on-These Picks
When you see the schedule of films at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), you wonder if there is enough time to build a low-level time machine, like it only traverses hours or at most a day. With this time machine you could potentially see all the films SIFF has to offer. But then you would not truly savor the experience of the ones that would capture your heart.
I anticipated many films this year whose descriptions piqued my interest. These films satisfied me for the most part, but there were a handful of films I did not really expect to knock me back in my seat. It’s rare to capture a film's essence in a descriptive paragraph or even a trailer. It is in the mind of the watcher that a film becomes a more than pleasant surprise or, even better, truly great. The following films surprised and delighted me.
Hen:There are animal movies that can be a bit cutesy or a sort of watered-down version of what an animal might experience. Hen pulls no punches about the life of this bird and surprises you with a timely commentary on human trafficking. It’s funny, but poignant too.
Hot Water: Road trip movies are a delight because of the extremes potentially revealed in a person who is low on sleep and trapped in a cramped space with someone else. Hot Water is both riotously funny and very moving. It’s a great look into the relationships of children and parents as well as a meditation on what home means.
The Seoul Guardians: As documentaries go, The Seoul Guardians relies far less on talking heads than the raw footage from a chaotic scene of the press attempting to document the impending fall of a democracy. The footage is pulse pounding, but the connection to the last time South Korea was under martial law in 1980 connects the actions of the subjects as they defended their democracy on December 3, 2024. It is a harrowing film to watch knowing how fragile our own democracy feels.
Three Goodbyes: This is one of the films that snuck up on me. Several minutes in you feel like you know what this film is and what it wants to say, but as the story expands it becomes something else entirely. The ideas of how we touch the lives of those around us and how the spaces in our lives hold a sacred memory is beautifully conveyed.
Three of a Kind: This one also snuck up on me. The lead performances are so strong from the get-go that by the climax you feel as if you’re not watching actors anymore, but have become a fly on the wall of this engrossing family dramedy. It’s a wickedly funny meditation on motherhood and how much we are affected by those who raise us.
Bucks Harbor: This documentary is an incredibly intimate look at a microcosm of masculinity. The subjects run the gamut of how they were raised by the hardest men imaginable. The vulnerability they are able to convey is stark and refreshing. It is a window into the minds of these cloistered men who live and feel trapped at an edge of civilization.
En Route To: I love found family films. The friendship that evolves between two girls is funny, heartbreaking, and sweet. It can be hard to make the idea of a student impregnated by a teacher funny, but En Route To finds the light in these awful circumstances. The three lead characters are incredibly well developed and superbly acted.
Marama: This film is an eerie and gothic horror that exposes the dark heart of colonialism. Every twist and every turn is so well paced and thought out. Putting the pieces together, you find that the horror is not with the ghosts that haunt, but from the men that made them in the first place.
Body Blow: This might be the only neo-noir you will ever see that depicts voluntary male chastity devices. Body Blow is a steamy thriller that asks you to suspend your disbelief as it expertly conveys the tropes of noir through a queer lens. It is devilish, erotic, and soaked in a glow of neon and sweat that demands your attention.
Still from Body Blow
Courtesy of SIFF
The truth about festivals like SIFF is that you will not know how something will play until you get there. It is a festival with such tremendous care in its curation that even the films that you didn’t love are still worth thinking about and parsing in the hours that follow. You may not be able to see everything, but what you see will be worth it for the hum of excitement for something new and original. SIFF may only be ten days, but the raw power of its cinema lasts and bolsters us until the next festival.
