Meet our talented team of programmers – the people who work and watch movies all year long to curate the best films possible for the Seattle International Film Festival, celebrating its 49th year from May 11 to 21, 2023. Full program info siff.net/festival.

What are your 10 favorite films ever?
Like a lot of people who watch a lot of movies, I find this question hard to answer but here are ten films (and series) I've watched and liked in the past year:
Triangle of Sadness
Holy Spider
No Bears
Saint Omer
Joyland
Nostalgia
Return to Seoul
RRR
Extraordinary Attorney Woo, season 1
Borgen, season 4

What is one of your favorite festival moments?
I was actually really moved when There Is No Evil recently won the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Film. It’s a terrific film from Iran by acclaimed director Mohammad Rasoulof—but it’s also a long film that is challenging both in form and content (it’s four discrete stories about capital punishment). I just thought it spoke volumes about how great our audience is—how smart, how engaged, how intrepid—that this was their favorite film.

What is your guilty pleasure film?
Volver—no guilt, just pleasure :) 

What's one thing we should know about you that is NOT film related?
I have remarkable luck with parking. I can always find a parking place, and not just any place but a really good place. It works across different cities and countries, and even if I’m just a passenger!  

What do you consider your hometown?
My actual hometown, Berkeley, CA!