Local Sightings 2026 – Ways of Seeing (Shorts)
In-person tickets >
$15 General Admission
$10 Student/Child/Senior
$7 Member
$35 General Admission
$25 Student/Child/Senior
$17 Member
Weekend Passes
$80 General Admission
$50 Student/Child/Senior
$35 Member
Full Festival Pass
$150 General Admission
$100 Student/Child/Senior
$75 Member
Dual Full Festival Pass
$250 General Admission
$150 Student/Child/Senior
$125 Member
Full Festival Passes and Individual Tickets are available!
Ticketing, concessions, cinemas, restrooms, and our public edit lab are located on Northwest Film Forum’s ground floor, which is wheelchair accessible. All doors in Northwest Film Forum are non-motorized, and may require staff assistance to open. Our upstairs workshop room is not wheelchair accessible.
The majority of seats in our main cinema are 21″ wide from armrest to armrest; some seats are 19″ wide. We are working on creating the option of removable armrests!
We have a limited number of assistive listening devices available for programs hosted in our larger theater, Cinema 1. These devices are maintained by the Technical Director, and can be requested at the ticketing and concessions counter. Also available at the front desk is a Sensory Kit you can borrow, which includes a Communication Card, noise-reducing headphones, and fidget toys.
The Forum does NOT have assistive devices for the visually impaired, and is not (yet) a scent-free venue. Our commitment to increasing access for our audiences is ongoing, and we welcome all public input on the subject!
If you have additional specific questions about accessibility at our venue, please contact our Patron Services Manager at rajah@nwfilmforum.org. Our phone number (206-329-2629) is voicemail-only, but we check it often.
Made possible due to a grant from Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, in partnership with Sensory Access, our Sensory Access document presents a visual and descriptive walk-through of the NWFF space. View it in advance of attending an in-person event at bit.ly/nwffsocialnarrativepdf, in order to prepare yourself for the experience.
As of August 2024, NWFF has adjusted its mask policy from universally required to strongly encouraged at the majority of screenings. Occasional exceptions will be noted on each event’s page.
Disposable masks are available at the door for those who need them.
Read more about NWFF’s policies responding to the present pandemic here.
About
(105 min TRT)
As an artist, how do you protect your art from the elements? Get the general public to appreciate your unique perspective? Oh–and make enough sales to cover this month’s rent? It’s hard to be an artist. Join us for an exploration of what it means to continue making art in a world that’s increasingly more hostile to it.
Header photo credit: Augenblick: On the Edge of the Moment, dir. Juliet McMains
BUY TICKETS HERE
- This year’s festival will be in-person only! In the past, we have been proud to offer the festival as a hybrid virtual-and-in-person experience, but due to staff capacity, we cannot do this for the 2026 fest.
- Purchase your ticket through Eventive; come to the show!
- You can also purchase a ticket on the day of the screening at Northwest Film Forum’s box office (1515 12th Ave, Seattle).
- Pass-holders, we will be able to look you up using the name you purchased under.
Films in this program:
Burnt Orange
(Nicholas Brown, Portland, 2026, 7min, in English)
When a wildfire threatens their home, a struggling artist and his more conventional partner are forced to confront their feelings about security, creativity, and each other.
Late Shift
(Britta Johnson, Seattle, 2026, 8min, in English)
A flustered potter (Tanya) arrives at her studio late at night to find her young apprentice (Grace) trimming pots. Tanya offers to take over, but Grace stays, excited to chat with her mentor. Tanya is preoccupied; they share a strained exchange, and Grace carefully exits. Tanya clears off a loveseat in the corner, removes her wedding band, and goes to sleep.
Mallworld
(Misty Shipman, Newport, 2026, 17min, in English)
A cynical filmmaker hired to produce infomercials for a group devoted to the mythical “Mallworld” becomes captivated by their lonely dream of finding a place where they truly belong.
Facing The Sun
(Mathew Cerf, Seattle, 2025, 12min, in English and Spanish with English Subtitles)
An enigmatic, unhoused man spends his days giving free haircuts to the homeless – offering a lesson in love, and a window into the complex human dynamics at the center of America’s housing crisis.
Sound Again
(Carlos R Correa, Poulsbo, 2026, 12min, in English)
Sound Again is about a boy with degenerative hearing loss who decides, at the age of 12, to get cochlear implants. The procedure renders him technically deaf without the appliance (hearing devices), but leads to a new kind of “hearing.” Almost as a joke, he takes a high school music engineering class and discovers an unexpected talent for music. Incredibly, he becomes a talented, charismatic musician.
Augenblick: On the Edge of the Moment
(Juliet McMains, Seattle, 2025, 10min, no dialogue)
Passing through multiple layers of transformation on their journey from oceanic blue to blood red, two dancers navigate the complexity of a relationship evolving over time. Augenblick is a series of three short films featuring two dancers (Carlos Osantinsky and Fernando Pelliccoli) with an uncanny ability to remain permeable to each other’s provocations without losing their own individuality. The German word “Augenblick,” which might be translated to “blink of an eye,” invokes both the moment and its ephemerality. Once you are aware of being in the moment, it is already over. Partners for over 20 years, Carlos Osantinsky and Fernando Pelliccoli are Argentine dancers living in Berlin who offer improvisation workshops through their company espaciopropio.augenblick. These tenderly playful duets, filmed in Berlin by American filmmaker Juliet McMains, offer insights from their decades-long practice of embodied exploration about the world through the body’s mutable boundaries.
Luxuries
(Joaquin Rodriguez, New York, 2026, 14min, in English)
Kim, a fashion-obsessed woman on the brink of homelessness, must choose between selling the last of her clothes or eviction.
The Carport
(Ian Clark, Oregon, 2026, 25 min, in English)
A documentary-tinged, meta-fiction bonanza about art, life, and the nature of performance. Simultaneously, a comedic love letter to Los Angeles: as a place, an idea, and a reluctant dream that the filmmaker investigates through gestures both intimate and antagonistic.
Festival Directory
Presented by Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum, the 29th Annual Local Sightings Film Festival is a showcase of creative communities from throughout the Pacific Northwest. The 2026 program, which runs from September 18–27, features a competitive selection of curated short film programs and feature films, inviting regional artists to experiment, break, and remake popular conceptions around filmmaking and film exhibition.
Local Sightings champions emerging and established talent, supports the regional film industry, and promotes diverse media as a critical tool for public engagement.