ID: A dark blue starry banner with an orange pink octopus with a helmet with text: “Seattle Deaf Film Festival, April 2026” from the left edge with flying popcorns scattered throughout the banner. Text on right: “April 10-12, 2026, Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, WA. Streaming: April 13-26, 2026”.
For 8th biennial Seattle Deaf Film Festival, we have premiered 38 films from 12 countries with English subtitles at Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, WA from April 10-12, 2026 and stream amazing films online from April 13-26, 2026 through Eventive.
ID: Film poster for “SIREN” overlaid on the SDFF poster with “Seattle Deaf Film Festival 2026: Best Documentary Feature” with laurels stamp on top.
ID: Film poster for “TURN UP THE BASS” overlaid on the SDFF poster with “Seattle Deaf Film Festival 2026: Best Documentary Short” with laurels stamp on top.
ID: Film poster for “OKTHANKSBYE” overlaid on the SDFF poster with “Seattle Deaf Film Festival 2026: Best Narrative Feature” with laurels stamp on top.
ID: Film poster for “RÉSILIENCE” overlaid on the SDFF poster with “Seattle Deaf Film Festival 2026: Best Narrative Short” with laurels stamp on top.
Congrats to SDFF 2026 Winners
We are excited to announce the following films as the winners in their specific categories:
Best Documentary Feature - SIREN: The Voices of Shelley Beattie by Irene Taylor, United States
Best Documentary Short - TURN UP THE BASS by Ted Evans, United Kingdom
Best Narrative Feature - OKTHANKSBYE by Nicole van Kilsdonk, Netherlands
Best Narrative Short - RÉSILIENCE by Julien Bourges, United Kingdom
A heartfelt congratulations to the winners!
FESTIVAL COMMITTEE
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MJ Kiego
FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
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Michael Anthony
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
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Buddy Elledge
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
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Anna Mansell Karagiannis
ACCESS LEAD
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Patty Liang
LOGISTICS
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Danica Metlay
VOLUNTEER LEAD
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Andrea Passafiume
SCREENING COMMITTEE LEAD & PROGRAMMING LEAD
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Julie Spigner
HOSPITALITY
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Napal Tesfai
HOSPITALITY
FESTIVAL SPONSORS
ID: 4Culture Logo - a white background with a green logo with a shadow: "4" and CULTURE without shadow.
ID: Artsfund Logo -a white background with orange "A" with two leaves sprouting from left and black capitalized text: ARTS (bold) FUND.
ID: ArtsWA Logo - a Washington shaped icon with geometric triangles in different colors: teal, orange, red, yellow and dark green with white capitalized text: ARTS (BOLD) and WA (thin) inside the state. Teal capitalized text: Washington State Arts Commission.
ID: Final Draft logo- a large black text across the center, "Final Draft". Smaller text undreneath, slightly off to the side: "A Cast & Crew Company". Three overlapping yellow triangles border the edge of the large text, suggestigng the top corner of a sheaf of pages being flipped through.
ID: diagonal blue cursive font: molly moon’s
ID: Seattle Office of Arts and Culture Logo - a white background with blue logo "C" over "A&" and text: Office of Arts & Culture with a line over SEATTLE.
ID: Logo for Silver Cloud Inn. Grey letters "S" and "C" connected with "I" behind "C", a leafed plant growing out of "I." Underneath is grey text: "Silver Cloud Hotel. Seattle - Broadway."
ID: Stoup Brewing Logo- a hexagon with a light rail train in front of a city skyline across the top, with “Stoup” in orange text below, and “Capitol Hill” in dark text on bottom, matching the color of the border around the hexagon.
ID: Tulalip Tribes Logo - Native art of black and white orca with red text: "Tulalip Tribes" above. Website: TulalipCares.org
ID: a black and white group photo of SDFF 2016 Committee.
SDFF ARCHIVES
Deaf Spotlight believes in bringing authentic stories by Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing creatives to the screen. Please browse through our past festivals.