SIFF 2025 Round-Up: 8 Movies To Keep Your Eye On

by Karenna Blomberg

The 51st Annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) came to a close on May 25, and after a whirlwind 10 days of movie-watching, I’m here to report on my favorites of the festival. These are my biggest recommendations to watch out for once they hit streaming (or a theater near you): 

Summer’s Camera

Divine Sung’s film and its sophisticated portrait of teenagerhood has been living rent-free in my heart and my head since I watched it—and since it won SIFF’s “Wavemaker Award” (with winners chosen by a youth jury), it seems to be that I’m not the only one. Taking on concepts of grief, self-discovery, loneliness, and sexuality with a buoyant overtone and a dreamlike sheen, Summer’s Camera follows Summer, a teen who recently lost her father, as she explores both her growing interest in film photography and her growing crush on a female classmate. At the same time, she finds her life beginning to echo that of her deceased father's, after discovering old photographs that lead to the ex-boyfriend Summer never knew he had.  

Mongrels

This intense, beautiful, dark, and at times disquieting story is told in three acts, with each one following a different member of the Lee family. After recently losing his wife, packing up, and moving to Canada from Korea, Sonny Lee takes a job catching the wild dogs that roam in woods and prairies, causing nuisance for the local farmers. As both literal and metaphorical foreigners to this environment, Sonny, his teenage son Ha-joon and his young daughter Hana all have different ways of coping with loss and seeing their new world. Composed like a jumble of memories stitched together into a winding narrative, Mongrels is a cutting allegory for the Asian diasporic experience in the West that plays out like an engrossing, old-fashioned fable. 

Invention

Impressively tightroping between the lines of documentary and autobiographical fiction, Invention is a mysterious, contemplative reflection on the people close to us that we never really knew through the eyes of the people who did. Loosely based on writer and star Callie Hernandez’s own experience after the death of her father, Invention follows a young woman as she tries to make sense of the only thing she was left in her dad's estate: the patent to a “miraculous” energy healing machine that doesn’t even work. 

Cloud

The long-awaited return to thrillers by director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Cloud is a breezy black comedy about an internet scalper/scammer who finds himself targeted by a group of his disgruntled victims. Clever, funny, and tense without even trying, Cloud is entertaining enough to recommend on “vibes” alone. However, it also features a compelling analysis of capitalism in the digital age, and the increasing lack of humanity online marketplaces seem to afford sellers and consumers alike.  

Remaining Native

This deeply touching, necessary documentary follows Kutoven "Ku" Stevens, a Paiute Native high schooler, cross country runner (now a collegiate athlete at the University of Oregon), and activist. As he makes his way through his senior year of high school, Stevens weighs his desire to stay true to and honor his native heritage against his desire to leave the Nevada reservation he was raised on to go to a college with an elite track and field program. Ku’s skill at running clearly comes from his own diligence, but his dedication to the sport can be partially traced back to his connection with his grandfather, who survived a Native American boarding school at age 8 by escaping and running over 50 miles to return home. In her feature documentary debut, director Paige Bethmann seamlessly intertwines many topics into one: the typical “leaving the nest” narrative, a sports documentary, and a story of coming to terms with the deep, unhealed wounds of generational community trauma, all while bringing attention to the decades of horrors committed against Native American children at these so-called "schools." 

The Balconettes

The Balconettes, written, directed by, and starring Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)’s Noémie Merlant, is a moody, colorful celebration of womanhood and female sexuality, with spearlike pricks of its overarching narrative dealing with rape culture and misogyny. You will fall in love with its titular trio of confident, self-actualized women, each confronting the horrors of sexual assault and abusive men. Prepare both to empathize and to laugh a little harder than feels right as Ruby, Elise, and Nicole stumble, panic, and agonize their way through the coverup of the accidental murder of one of their assaulters.

She’s the He

A quirky satire disguised as a Y2K teen comedy, this film follows two high schoolers who pretend to be transgender to get closer to their crushes—only for one of them to realize that they actually are trans. With a majority LGBTQIA+ cast and crew, and featuring a standout comedic performance by Nico Carney, She’s the He is a peer of Bottoms (2024) in how it unabashedly turns queer stereotypes delightfully onto their heads.

Souleymane’s Story

A breathtaking, honest performance from Abou Sangaré takes this striking drama from good to excellent. Souleymane is a Guinean immigrant in Paris trying to make enough money to get by, while also looking to fabricate a backstory for himself that seems both heroic and believable enough that the French government will grant him political asylum. Director Boris Lojkine has crafted a tense, touching film that perceptively communicates the real stakes of something as seemingly mundane as a single asylum interview. In addition to being an excellent character study, Souleymane is an unforgiving glance at the logistical gauntlet immigrants often have to run, and the unnecessary punishments they must endure only to make it to the first step to residency.