The 25-day Seattle International Film Festival is a marathon, and like any marathon, we festival-goers who do it seriously get the cinematic equivalent of a runner’s high. With over 250 feature films, it’s brilliantly designed to be impossible to completely master. With all the overlapping screenings, it’s physically not possible to see every film. But that doesn’t stop hundreds of avid film fans from trying to get as close to completion as they possibly can. Sleep deprivation, weight loss, and enormous dark circles (or bags) under the eyes are the hallmarks of the many full series pass holders who see over a hundred films. Compensating for all the hardships is the month-long adrenaline rush that accompanies the festival-goers on their appointed rounds.

What we’ll try to do at MyNorthwest.com this year is replicate that kind of festival-going experience for those of you who can’t “do” the Festival, and also serve as your one-stop guide to the Festival for those of you who want to join in on the run, but would rather do short bursts than long-distance. A marathon festival deserves marathon coverage and that’s what we’re promising here at MyNorthwest.com. I’ve been privileged to cover SIFF on KIRO Radio for over a decade now, and thanks to our website’s new SIFF design, this year’s coverage promises to be the best we’ve ever had.

What’s new? First off, I’ve come up with my best guesses for the Top Ten most popular films of the Festival. For each of those ten movies thus deemed “buzzworthy,” we’ve found posters and trailers. We’ve also done the same for the ten films I personally am most interested in seeing. All 20 of those films are featured on the front “page” of our SIFF coverage. (That list of 20 will adjusted as the Festival proceeds.)

Perhaps even more helpfully, we have also catalogued every single SIFF film, with plot descriptions, mini-reviews, show dates and times, and designated theatres. And since I’m only one guy, and I have yet to perfect the cloning process, I’ve corralled a number of dependable full-series passholders to join me in writing quick evaluations of any and all the films they see as soon as they see them. Those will be posted right along with the film descriptions on our website. We’ll be adding these mini-reviews throughout the duration of the Festival. The more we see, the more we’ll post, and the more there will be to read. Think of it as Citizen Journalism for the arts.

The video component of our website will be in full swing for the Festival as well. Any interviews I do will be recorded and posted on the website, along with any other visually compelling aspects of the Festival. For instance, for this opening weekend alone, I’ll be interviewing a trio of the cast members of tonight’s Opening Night Gala film, IN THE LOOP. That video will then be posted long before the film even screens. Then on Friday, I’ll be talking to the debonair movie host of TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES, Robert Osbourne. (He’s here showcasing four of his favorite classic films this weekend – THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, SUNSET BOULEVARD, DODSWORTH, and THE THIRD MAN.) That too will be posted by Friday afternoon. And then on Saturday, we’ll be videotaping the gathering of 100 Morris Dancers, all dressed in full regalia. They will be performing in front of the SIFF Cinema at the Seattle Center to celebrate the screening of MORRIS: A LIFE WITH BELLS ON. You can bet we’ll get that posted ASAP.

Okay, that’s it for the promises, and I have miles to go before I sleep.

Right now I’m dead tired and have a splitting headache. I must be getting into Festival mode.

Opening Night is just a few hours away.