Want more? Here’s everything we recommend this month: Music, Visual Art, Literature, Performance, Film, Food & Drink, and This & That.
Céline and Julie Go Boating
Sept 6
In French New Wave director Jacques Rivette’s delightful 1974 film Céline and Julie Go Boating, magician Céline (Juliet Berto) and librarian Julie (Dominique Labourier) cross paths in a park in Paris and instantly form a playful bond. Soon, the pair stumbles upon a haunted house that replays a murder-mystery melodrama in an incessant loop, and they become entangled in its repetitive narrative. Rivette worked closely with his two stars to create the film, which ranks at #78 on Sight & Sound’s list of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time. (Fun fact: It partially inspired the 1985 buddy comedy and Madonna vehicle Desperately Seeking Susan.) At 193 minutes long, this movie isn’t for those with short attention spans, but dreamers will definitely fall under its spell and shouldn’t pass up the chance to see it screened at our film Genius Award winner, the Beacon Cinema. (They’ve also got a bunch of other cool stuff scheduled for this month, including Jess Franco’s 1988 Eyes Without a Face remake Faceless, Charlie Kaufman’s debut Synecdoche, New York, and the Bette Davis melodrama The Little Foxes—check it out!) (Beacon Cinema, 6 pm) JULIANNE BELL
Local Sightings Film Festival 2026
Sept 18–27
Local Sightings, Seattle’s most dedicated hyperlocal film festival, is back with a bunch of standout works from local filmmakers you may not have heard of just yet, but absolutely should. One must-see is Marjorie Conrad’s The Joyless Economy, which is making its North American premiere after first screening at the Cannes Film Festival. An experimental documentary about desire, cinema, and a Seattle woman whose life was reshaped by her relationship to the movies, The Joyless Economy is a purposefully challenging, captivating vision. The fest lineup also includes other local gems such as Again Again, Assets & Liabilities, and The Life We Leave, the documentary about local human composting company, Return Home. It proves once more that the Pacific Northwest may often be imitated (eat your heart out, Vancouver), but nobody can replicate the filmmakers themselves. (Northwest Film Forum, times vary) CHASE HUTCHINSON
2026 HUMP! Film Festival: Fall Season
Sept 24–Oct 3
The world was very different when Dan Savage introduced an amateur porn film festival to curious Seattleites in 2005. That same year, George W. Bush began his second term as the President of the United States, North Korea announced they had nuclear weapons, and Hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf Coast. That was also the year the first video was uploaded to YouTube. Online streaming services were distant glimmers of possibility. In fact, all HUMP! submissions that year—Savage remembers receiving about 50 total—were sent to the Stranger offices via mail on VHS tapes, and all evidence was destroyed after the final screening. Now, HUMP! is held twice a year and shown in more than 40 cities around the globe. Participants have upped their production and imagination, and, once COVID-19 hit, they also signed release forms allowing their work to be shown in a streaming library so fans can HUMP! at home. (And yup, they get a cut of the profits.) The 2026 fall lineup, running into October at On the Boards, is all new from anything ever shown before, with films featuring everything from a dim sum table to LEGOs and… Frankenstein’s monster? (On the Boards, times vary) MEGAN SELING
More
Film Series: God Hath Given You One Face and You Make Yourselves Another: Movies Without a Face Through Sept 11, the Beacon, times vary
Film Series: There Is No Need to Build a Labyrinth When the Entire Universe Is One: Infinite Recursion, Ontological Vertigo, and the Territory Yielding to the Map Through Sept 26, Beacon Cinema, times vary
Film Series: Shadowland Through Sept 28, Beacon Cinema, times vary
Truth to Fiction: Baby Doe Sept 3, Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm
SECS Fest Presents: In the Realm of the Senses in 35mm Sept 3, Northwest Film Forum, 7:15 pm
The Room Sept 3, Central Cinema, 8 pm
The Best of Betty Boop! Sept 3 and Sept 10, Northwest Film Forum, 7:30 pm
10 Things I Hate About You Sept 4–9, Central Cinema, times vary
Memento Sept 4–9, Central Cinema, times vary
Pazuzu’s Wings: An Exorcist II Double Feature Sept 5–6, Northwest Film Forum, times vary
Five Minutes to Live! Sept 7, Beacon Cinema, 7:30 pm
Seattle Scare Society Presents: The Craft Sept 7, Central Cinema, 7 pm
Blue Velvet Sept 8, Seattle Public Theater, 7 pm
100 Years of the Uptown: Faust with live music by the Invincible Czars Sept 9, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7 pm
Found Footage Festival: Porcelain VHS Treasures Sept 10, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7 pm
Collide-O-Scope Presents: Once Upon a Time in Seattle Sept 11–12, times vary
Georgetown Super 8 Fest Sept 11–12, Georgetown Steam Plant, 6 pm
The End of Summer Sept 11–13, Northwest Film Forum, times vary
The Brother From Another Planet Sept 11–16, Central Cinema, times vary
SFCS at 10: The History of the Seattle Mariners Sept 13, Northwest Film Forum, 4:30 pm
The Pain and the Power with a live Q&A with Logan Lynn Sept 13, SIFF Film Center, 7 pm
SIFF Movie Club: Serial Mom Sept 14, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6:30 pm
Collide-O-Scope Sept 14 (every second Monday), 8 pm
SEA-Nordic Film Festival Sept 15–19, National Nordic Museum, times vary
WTF with STUFF: Neptune Frost Sept 16, Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm
Nouvelles Femmes: Breathless Sept 16, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7:30 pm
Barbara Forever Sept 16–17, Northwest Film Forum, 7:30 pm
Baron Von Terror Presents: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors Sept 17, Central Cinema, 8 pm
She’s the Man Sept 18–23, Central Cinema, times vary
Tombstone Sept 18–23, Central Cinema, times vary
SECS Fest Presents: The Raspberry Reich Sept 18, Beacon Cinema, 10 pm
Ghostbusters in Concert Sept 19, Paramount Theatre, 8 pm
VHS Über Alles Presents: 1987 Sept 19, Beacon Cinema, 10 pm
Community Screening: North By Northwest Sept 20, SIFF Cinema Downtown, 11 am
Brailled It Sept 20, SIFF Film Center, 4 pm
Samba Traoré Sept 20–24, Beacon Cinema, times vary
Nouvelles Femmes: Jules and Jim in 35mm Sept 23, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7:30 pm
The Grand Illusion Presents: Hundreds of Beavers Sept 24, Central Cinema, 8 pm
Rebels of the Neon God Sept 27, Beacon Cinema, 5 pm
Silent Movie Mondays: Metropolis Sept 28, Paramount Theatre, 7 pm
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love Sept 29, Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm
Nouvelles Femmes: Cléo from 5 to 7 Sept 30, SIFF Cinema Uptown, 7:30 pm
The History of Concrete Oct 1–6, Northwest Film Forum, times vary
Chronovisor Oct 2–6, Northwest Film Forum, times vary
Seattle Film Society’s Film Discussion Group Every second, third, and fourth Wednesday of the month, Northwest Film Forum, 7 pm
Find all these listings and more on our sister site, EverOut Seattle! EverOut.com/Seattle
