In its 22nd year, Northwest Film Forum’s annual Local Sightings Film Festival evolves to showcase the growing complexity of creative communities in the Pacific Northwest. Featuring a competitive selection of curated shorts and feature film programs, Local Sightings 2019 invites regional artists to experiment, break, and remake popular conceptions around filmmaking and film exhibition. Moving onto FilmFreeway for the first time, Local Sightings will also accept 360 video and VR180 projects this year.

The 2018 edition of Local Sightings featured 75 shorts, features, web series, music videos, and VR projects, incorporating a wide range of stories, perspectives, and approaches to filmmaking, as well as achieving gender parity. Past festival successes have included animated GIF storytelling, interactive site-specific video installations, virtual reality dance films, and educational offerings, including the region’s first-ever Sundance Institute Artist Services Workshop.

Working in conjunction with Pacific Northwest film centers and community partners, Local Sightings will use screenings, panels, workshops, performances and more to encourage critical discourse around the medium, with an eye towards a regional elevation of the industry. 2019’s edition will invite additional expertise from local collaborators, such as: Engauge Experimental Film Festival, who will curate the festival’s experimental programs; Cadence: Video Poetry Festival and Velocity Dance Center’s Strictly Seattle Dance Film Track, with works generated on-site at NWFF; and numerous others to be announced.

NOTE: A limited number of waiver codes are available to those from communities that have historically lacked access or equitable representation in media. Please contact vivian@nwfilmforum.org for details.