Local Sightings 2026 – Life Lines (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!
Visiting Artist
*Filmmakers in-attendance for Q&A!*
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
(73min TRT)
These films will take you back to shared dinner tables and family movie nights and flash you forward to therapists’ offices and learning new facts about your mobster grandpa. Family is complicated.
Header photo credit: Long-Term Extramarital Affair, dir. Neely Goniodsky
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:
Long-Term Extramarital Affair
(Neely Goniodsky, 2025, 4min, in English)
Long-Term Extramarital Affair is a short, animated film that explores the absurd reality of being trapped in two unfulfilling relationships at once. A husband and his long-time mistress decide to attend couples’ therapy. By the end all characters emerge with more self-awareness, and a touch of acceptance.
To Dress a Wound
(Jenna Michelle Hanchard, Seattle, 2026, 4min, in English)
To Dress a Wound is a poetry-driven experimental short exploring Black girl grief, rage, and daydreams, examining the emotional weight Black women and femmes carry under racial capitalism and patriarchy, and tracing how these histories live within the body across generations. The film explores a diasporic understanding of memory, including language. In moments of ancestral dialogue, Haitian Kreyol, Twi, and Lingala emerge. Subtitles remain in their original languages as an intentional choice.
Once, a Second Time
(Sarah Rae Franklin, United States, 8min, in English)
Lump is a reclusive 20-something, trying to enjoy her fragile life with her lone friend, Jar. What little stability she has is shattered when her past finally catches up to her and she throws up a salmon in a dingy bar bathroom. To begin to thrive, she must decide if she can embrace vulnerability and open up not only to herself but to those who wish to help her.
Three Sisters
(Anasuya Basu, Seattle, 2026, 1min, in Bengali with English subtitles )
When a plate of freshly fried fish is served, three sisters fall into a never-ending cycle of bickering and manipulation as the endlessly hungry middle sister schemes to eat everyone else’s share.
Waking Up From a Nap on a Long Day of Doing Nothing
(Thom Hilton, Portland, 2026, 29min, in English)
With the guidance of his best friend and mystical grandfather, a young painter – anxiously awaiting his first gallery show – embarks on a surreal skateboard odyssey through Portland to discover the true value of his art.
If Tears Were Gold
(Adam Patrick Sweeney, 2025, 27min, in English)
A young punk musician returns home to rural Washington State to help care for their aging Nana Sally who is troubled by music no one else can hear. As Sally’s dementia deepens, a new song materializes uniting the family with a very unexpected and unlikely collaboration.
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.