A few more details about SIFF

Now that you know everything there is to know about the SIFF venues, here are a few other tips on navigating the King Kong of festivals ...

Tickets, anyone?

SIFF has one main box office, now open on the second level of Pacific Place at Sixth Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle. Hours are 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, noon-6 p.m. Sundays and Memorial Day. The Eastside ticket office opens May 30 at Lincoln Square Cinema (700 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue) and is open daily 11 a.m.-7 p.m. You can also buy tickets and passes by phone at 206-324-9996 or online — usually the quickest way to get tickets — at www.seattlefilm.org. Exceptions are the Student/Senior Reel Deal discounts and Secret Festival passes, which need to be transacted in person, at either box office. (Not sure what this is? See below.) Telephone and online orders are subject to a $3.50 handling charge per order.

You can pick up Will Call tickets or buy individual tickets at any SIFF theater (it doesn't have to be the theater in which your film will show). Day-of-show tickets can be purchased online or at any SIFF venue; check www.seattlefilm.org to see if a screening has tickets available.

SIFF has numerous options for passes and packages, including the popular Cinematic Six-Packs (six admissions, $57) and Film Buff 20-Packs (20 admissions, $170), both of which offer savings over the usual $10 per-screening price. You'll need to choose shows in advance for these packages; see www.seattlefilm.org for details.

What's my line?

At the theater, there will be three lines, sometimes in a confusing tangle: one for passholders (easily spotted by the laminated passes dangling merrily around people's necks), one for ticket holders and one for rush-ticket hopefuls. If you have neither a pass nor a ticket, stand in the rush ticket line. Nearly all SIFF screenings last year had last-minute rush tickets available five to 10 minutes before the screening (cash only). Get in line early; often only a few rush tickets are available.

Is it true that you have to wait in line forever?

Only if you're attached to getting a particular seat. Ticket holders are guaranteed a seat up to 10 minutes prior to the screening. Those at the front of the line will get the best seats, but everyone gets in. (Things are slightly different for passholders: Seats are not guaranteed, though virtually always available if you're in line 30 minutes before the film.)

Seat-saving: yea or nay?

In theory, you are not allowed to save your seat between screenings; in practice, people seem to get away with it. Leave a coat on the chair at your own risk; SIFF may well carry through on its threat to clear the theaters between screenings.

What's the Secret Festival?

SIFF newcomers are probably most mystified by the Secret Festival, which veteran festgoers tend to shroud in a maddeningly superior "I'd love to tell you about it, but I can't" attitude.

Here's the deal: Movies at the Secret Fest (every SIFF Sunday at 11 a.m., Egyptian) come from a variety of sources: perhaps an early showing of something up-and-coming, a film that's tied up in litigation and can't be shown otherwise, a film that's making its "official" premiere someplace else, or a lost classic. You might be overwhelmed, you might be underwhelmed.

In any case, you have to buy a Secret Festival pass from the SIFF box office ($50 for the four movies; no individual tickets), and sign an Oath of Silence, meaning that you won't tell anyone what you've seen. Hence the maddening vagueness. SIFF is actually quite serious about enforcing it (understandably, as the availability of the movies depends on keeping them a secret), and people have gotten in some trouble for revealing Secret Festival titles, even years later. So, don't go telling.

Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times movie critic