On behalf of the SIFF Board of Directors and Staff, we are excited to recap SIFF’s 2015 accomplishments and impact through our Annual Report. Thanks to the generous support and investment of our donors, members, sponsors, and audience members, 2015 was a year to be proud of our programming accomplishments, but also a time to reflect on how far we have come since our inception in 1975, and to share our excitement about SIFF’s future.

Our global reach is firmly rooted with the greater Seattle community – we’ve grown exponentially, from our beginnings as a single screen cinema and festival showing films you could not see anywhere else to our current status as the largest film festival in the United States with three cinema locations with five screens operating year-round. From seasonal programming to year-round independent, international and specialized theatrical exhibition, we have seen how the art of cinema can truly bring our community together to discover extraordinary films in a theatrical setting. We have also experienced first hand how our community unified to save our beloved neighborhood cinemas with their continued support of both the Uptown and Egyptian theaters. We continue to push boundaries and share films that foster a community that is more informed, aware, and alive.

This report provides a snapshot of what was accomplished in 2015 through SIFF Education, SIFF Cinema Exhibition at our three locations, and the Seattle International Film Festival. You will see growth in our educational outreach and offerings, a membership base that continues to flourish, and an amazing array of programmatic opportunities provided by SIFF Cinema.

We can’t thank you enough for your ongoing support and commitment to SIFF. Without your generosity and investment, SIFF simply would not be where we are today. As we prepare for the future, we are confident and excited to share SIFF’s journey with each of you.

Here’s to many more incredible years to come!

Brian LaMacchia
Board President

Carl Spence
Festival Director & Chief Curator

Christine Martin
Interim Executive Director

Supporters
SIFF Education Highlights
Over 12,500 Students Served
160 Classes & Programs Offered

SIFF Education experienced a stellar 2015 with more programs than ever before reaching a much more diverse audience of youth and adult audiences.

Education class offerings expanded at the SIFF Film Center and by the end of the year there were workshops or classes occurring every week. These classes ranged from Filmmaker Masterclasses to multi-session classes to SIFF’s first Summer Camps for young filmmakers. Throughout the summer of 2015, students from across the Seattle metro area filled the classroom and halls of the SIFF Film Center with creativity overflowing. Thanks to a community donation, we were able to offer free camp registrations for students in need.

SIFF’s school-based programming continued to connect youth from elementary schools to universities with filmmaker role models and hands-experiences in filmmaking. During the 2016 Seattle International Film Festival, the filmmakers and poets of the Documentary Audience Award-Winning Romeo is Bleeding joined SIFF Educational Programs Manager Dustin Kaspar at Mountlake Terrace, Franklin, and Cleveland High Schools for screenings and Q+A’s with over 1,200 students throughout the day. Students at both Franklin and Cleveland High School were so inspired by the film that an impromptu poetry slam began featuring poets from the student body.

SIFF Cinema Highlights

This year, a beloved Seattle rock icon made for one of the most exciting programs in SIFF Cinema history: our exclusive ten-day engagement of director Brett Morgen’s Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, which played to packed houses and became the biggest documentary film opening in the history of the Egyptian.

Throughout the year, SIFF Cinema’s three full-time venues continued to feature the best new films from around the world including high profile award winners (The Revenant, Spotlight, The Danish Girl, Carol, Creed), works from exciting new voices (Dope, Tangerine, Victoria, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), exclusive presentations of the best in international cinema (Two Days One Night, The Assassin, White God, Phoenix), eye-opening documentary films (Heart of a Dog, Cartel Land, Janis: Little Girl Blue), and outstanding genre cinema (Goodnight Mommy, What We Do in the Shadows, It Follows).

Seattle’s most prestigious film festivals continue to call SIFF Cinema home, from the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival to the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, as well as SIFF’s own curated festivals Cinema Italian Style, French Cinema Now, and Women in Cinema. And let us not forget the three nights of sold out audiences overloading on cuteness at the Internet Cat Video Festival.

SIFF Cinema also continued to present unique and original programs involving special guests (actor Nick Kroll, activist Naomi Klein, director Whit Stillman), interactive twists (the Clueless Make-Over Party, “Bring Your Own Dog” movie night, Willy Wonka in Smell-O-Vision), the best of classic cinema (the Apu Trilogy, the films of Frank Capra, monthly screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show), and the expansion of National Theatre Live, which we began presenting live via satellite starting with the global sellout screenings of Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

41st Annual Seattle International Film Festival Highlights
193 Feature Films
SIFF stats

Our 41st Festival was another fantastic celebration of storytelling in all its forms. We presented everything from the storied cinematic past (archival screenings celebrating Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation and live read of the late Stewart Stern's Rebel Without a Cause), to the iconic (Kevin Bacon!), to the independent (Jason Schwartzman and his new comedy 7 Chinese Brothers). With a record 92 countries represented and sold-out shows every night, last year's Festival was bigger than ever, but it also fittingly included a proper send-off of an iconic movie house, the Harvard Exit. It also highlighted Seattle's great continuing movie houses including our own SIFF Cinema Egyptian and SIFF Cinema Uptown. Plus, we bookended the Festival this year with two stellar comedies, kicking off with our Opening Night film Spy and finishing with our hilarious Closing Night indie The Overnight. Starting and ending with laughter while traveling the world in between is a great way to mark another whirlwind 25-day celebration of cinema.

Financials
Financial Stats
Financial Stats
Board of Directors

James Angelo
Dialogue Pictures

Mary Bass
Wells Fargo

William Belickis
Mistral Kitchen

Sharon Conner
HBO

Christopher Conrad
Conrad & Company Photography

Katherine De Bruyn
Board Secretary, Retired CIO

Rich Fassio
Modern Digital

Craig Friedson
Entrepreneur

Lynn Hubbard
Board Vice President, Community Advocate

Donna James
Community Advocate

Brian LaMacchia
Board President, Microsoft

Scott Lipsky
Entrepreneur

Darryl Macdonald
Palm Springs International Film Festival

Ian G. J. MacNeil
Board Vice President, Glass Distillery

Mary Metastasio
Community Advocate

Richard Meyer
Seattle University

Billy O’Neill
Silver Scout Partners

Michelle Quisenberry
Volterra Restaurant

Rick Rasmussen
Alaska Airline

Mark Rosencrantz
Watt, Tieder, Hoffar, & Fitzgerlad, LL

Keith Simanton
IMDb.com

Carl Tostevin
Microsoft

Richard von Riesen
C3, LLC

Edwin H. Weihe
Seattle University

Sheree Wen
UNESCO

SIFF Staff

Carl Spence, Festival Director and Chief Curator
Christine Martin, Interim Executive Director

PROGRAMMING

Beth Barrett, Director of Programming
Clinton McClung, Director of Cinema Programming
Dustin Kaspar, Educational Programs Manager
Megan Leonard, Programming Coordinator

DEVELOPMENT

Nancy Kennedy, Director of Strategic Partnerships
Ben McCarthy, Director of Philanthropy
Gwen Whiting, Special Events Manager
Branden Hawkins, Community Relations Manager
Natalie Chhim, Development Coordinator
Eddy Dughi, Membership Coordinator
Rick Baker, Corporate Development Manager

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Elizabeth Rossi, Director of Marketing & Communications
Charlotte Linton, Digital Marketing Manager
Tyler Potts, Graphic Design Manager
Leah Anderson, Marketing Manager

OPERATIONS

Catherine Muth, Director of Finance
Tim Nicholson, Director of Cinema Operations
Dustin O’Dell, Director of Festival Operations
Mike Pearson, Technical Operations Manager
Betty Tweedy, Festival & Cinema Operations Manager
Lisa Brown, Volunteer & HR Manager
Chase Patrick, Accounting Assistant
Andrew Niece, SIFF Cinema Manager Uptown

Current staff and board as of May 2016.

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