In news of another impending local festival, some details about this year’s Seattle International Film Festival (25 May to 18 June) are beginning to trickle out. You may remember that last year, a certain space western’s prequel finale banished SIFF from the beautiful giant screen at the Cinerama. This year, there’s no Sith to blame, but the festival will still be taking advantage of a new venue. Get ready for this: for eleven days (1 - 11 June) of the three-week extravaganza, some screenings will take place in Bellevue at the Lincoln Square Cinemas.

Artistic Director, Carl Spence is “thrilled we’re venturing beyond our traditional borders to the Eastside . . . ” as “. . . audiences on the Eastside love great movies too.” This is great news for film fans on the other side of the lake who hate making the commute into Seattle to watch movies, but I wonder what sort of reception this will get from Seattle film fans? And, more importantly, will Eastsiders insist on calling their part of the festival BIFF?

Last year’s newbie theaters (the Neptune and the Uptown) will still be used in this year’s festival, and Pacific Place (another Sith casualty) will be back in the mix [siff].

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In programming-related updates, expect a batch of films from the country most famous for a certain breakfast pastry known in some parts of the world as the Rose of Allah. Fourteen films from Denmark will play this year, five of them (1:1, Gambler, Pusher III, A Soap, & We Shall Overcome) will be shown here for their North American or US premieres, and none of them are from Lars van Trier. [siff]

The full lineup will be announced on 11 May.

Related posts:

1. Let’s Go To The Movies
2. United Artists Series at SIFF–you can win tickets!
3. be a part of siff
4. it’s here: siff 2008 schedule
5. Eastside Gossip: SIFF