I honestly feel like the SIFF NW Connections programming gets better every single year! The 40^thSeattle International Film Festival has an impressive roster of documentaries and features with local directors, actors, writers, and locations. ALL of this makes me incredibly happy! Let’s take a look at what’s happening this year.

My first thought when I spied the new Megan Griffiths film in this year’s line-up was, “AWESOME!”  And awesome it is. Lucky Them stars Toni Collette as a Seattle music journalist (for fictional magazineSTAX) who’s never quite gotten over her famous and handsome musician beau’s disappearance. It’s packed with great acting from Collette and her co-stars, lots of recognizable Seattle scenery, and more introspection than you usually get from a “dramedy.” GO SEE IT! It’s great. {Screens 5/22, 7pm at the Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center, and again 5/23, 9:15pm at The Egyptian}

 Raging grannies seems like a thing I’d like, so I’m planning to check out Two Raging Grannies, a documentary about Seattle residents and best friends Shirley & Hinda, who ride around on their scooters with megaphones shouting suggestions about solving the global economic crisis. I LOVE IT. {Screens 5/28, 7pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown, 5/29, 4pm at Lincoln Square Cinemas, and again 5/30, 1:30pm at AMC Pacific Place}

And this one should be … funny? Maybe? Local director Brett Fetzer’s first feature My Last Year with the Nuns involves Seattle monologist Matt Smith’s 8th-grade coming-of-age story set in 1966 … with Smith playing ALL the roles. Whoa. {Screens 5/21, 6:30pm and 6/26, 11am at The Egyptian}

Desert Cathedral is a spooky tale based on the real-life disappearance of Seattle real-estate developer Peter Collins in 1992, and was filmed in Central Washington (which stands in for the Nevada desert). Even spookier: some of Peter’s actual VHS footage is integrated into this semi-fictional retelling. Yikes! {Screens 5/17, 9pm and again 5/18, 1:30pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown}

Ever hear of “The Barefoot Bandit?” The journey of teenage fugitive Colton Moore – from Camano Island – is chronicled in the partly animated documentary Fly Colt Fly: The Legend of the Barefoot Bandit. I bet his 90,000+ fans are pretty psyched. {Screens 5/29, 6:30pm & 6/8, 11am at SIFF Cinema Uptown, and 5/31, 11am at The Egyptian}

Seattle filmmaker Sean Telford turns the camera on four mismatched misfits stuck in a small town with limited options, who will do ANYTHING to escape in BFE. Wait a second! This sounds a little too familiar … Hmm. I don’t want to name any names, JK! I totally will. Hey, Everett? Is that you? {Screens 6/2, 9pm at and again 6/3, 4pm at The Harvard Exit}

Environmentalists have a few striking documentaries to choose from this year, including DamNation (Dam! Dam-dam!), which talks about dam removal and its impact on everything from wildlife populations to landscapes – including Elwha Dams on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula{Screens 5/18, 4pm at The Egyptian, 5/19, 4:30pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown, and again 5/28, 7pm at Lincoln Square Cinemas}

And a few more films with connections to our dear PNW: Seattle Supersonic Shorts on ShortsFest weekend {5/25 at SIFF Cinema Uptown}; 4 Minute Mile, in which a Seattle high school student makes a connection with an unlikely mentor (Richard Jenkins, I love you!) {6/5 & 6/6 at SIFF Cinema Uptown}; you can learn all kinds of things about wild salmon in The Breach {6/4 at SIFF Cinema Uptown, 6/7 at AMC Pacific Place}; fans of Old Goats should see its companion piece Burkholder {5/17 & 5/18 at the Harvard Exit, 5/22 at Lincoln Square}; Obama Mama is about, well, Obama’s Mama, obviously, who grew up on Mercer Island {5/31 at Kirkland Perf. Center & 6/1 at The Harvard Exit}; Oil & Water explores the struggle of two people trying to save an Ecuadorian ecosystem {6/3 & 6/4 at AMC Pacific Place}; and ancient mysticism and sound collide inSong of the New Earth {5/16 & 5/17 at AMC Pacific Place}.

{Films with NW Connections that are previewed in the Face the Music program: Big in Japan, Strictly Sacred: the Story of Girl Trouble, andRazing the Bar}

Tell us what you’ll be lining up for!