Happy to support our friends from Seatle who sent us this message.

Dear SIFF Community,
 
We announced just over a week ago that due to the coronavirus crisis, we closed the cinemas and canceled the 46^th Seattle International Film Festival(planned May 14 - June 7, 2020). There is no way to sugarcoat the fact that we also had to lay off all employees, with the exception of a small cadre who will be working reduced hours. We thank our employees for their excellent service and dedication to SIFF. This is sad news and we expect our news will improve with time. For now, we are dark, but we are working towards the light.

 
During this dark period, we have a dedicated team of board directors and employees who are already working to determine how to make our year-round cinemas more financially sustainable and how to more efficiently run the film festival. Many of you will be hearing from us during this process, as we want to know what you think makes SIFF, well … SIFF. We don’t want to lose the essence of SIFF as we make progress.
 
Our skeleton crew of employees will be taking care of SIFF’s assets and planning for the eventual reopening of SIFF. They won’t be in a position to answer calls and emails during this time. It won’t be non-profit business as usual at the office.
 
SIFF is down but not out. We will be back in the short term in some way TBD. We will be back in the longer term. Our timing will depend on the length of the public gathering bans and our ability to raise revenue and recoup losses during this dark period. I would not be doing my job as a board director if I didn’t include a pitch for donations from those of you in a position to help us out. You can donate to SIFF http://siff.net/donate. Gift Certificates are available online here if you scroll down to the bottom of the page. Your donation will help us get our doors opened again sooner rather than later.
 
Thank you for your support of SIFF over the years. You will be hearing from us again soon.
 
Sincerely,
Lynn Hubbard
President
SIFF Board of Directors
 
P.S. Thank you to all of our patrons who had passes or tickets and have turned them into donations to SIFF or have graciously agreed to roll purchases to a future festival.