‘Tel Aviv on Fire,’ ‘We Are the Radical Monarchs’ Win Seattle Film Festival Awards

By Pat Saperstein

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The Seattle Film Festival wrapped Sunday with top Golden Space Needle audience awards going to “Tel Aviv on Fire” for best film and “We Are the Radical Monarchs” for best documentary.

Ulaa Salim won best director for “Sons of Denmark,” while Damla Sonmez won best actress for “Sibel” and Julius Weckauf won best actor for “All About Me.” Best short film went to “Stepdaddy.”

Juried award winners included “House of Hummingbird” for the official competition, “The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia” for New Directors; “The Awakening of the Ants” for the Ibero-American Competition, “International Falls” for the New American Cinema competition and “Q Ball” for documentary.

The largest festival in the United States, it featured more than 400 films from 86 countries including 12 feature premieres.

“It’s been an incredible 25 days full of important stories from around the world. We’re incredibly proud to showcase women in comedy, from jump starting the festival with a lot of laughs during the screening of local filmmaker Lynn Shelton’s newest film ​’Sword of Trust,’ to honoring the incredible talent of Regina Hall with the festival’s award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema before a screening of​ ‘Support the Girls,’ one of her latest films, on June 2, showcasing the hilarious Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson’s ​’Late Night​’ as our Centerpiece, and closing this year’s festival with Lulu Wang’s​ ‘The Farewell,’” said Artistic Director Beth Barrett.

“In addition to celebrating women’s voices, we hosted one-of-a-kind experiences like the third SIFF New Works-in-Progress forum that brings audiences and industry into the filmmaking creative process to critique and inspire direction to filmmakers while their films are being made,” Barrett continued.

More than 82,000 ballots were submitted for this year’s audience awards.