Bainbridge Island Film Festival Returns this Coming Weekend with a Slate of 45 Films, both Features and Shorts, including a Handful with Local Ties!

Looking for a fun diversion from the short days of November and the onslaught of pelting rain? The Bainbridge Island Film Festival (BIFF) may be just the ticket. The third annual – now four-days long – celebration of contemporary films and filmmakers across multiple venues on Bainbridge Island, runs from November 6 to 9.  The 2025 fest is comprised of 20 feature films and 25 shorts in 5 venues.

The BIFF is a community-focused, filmmaker-friendly festival “about bringing together the robust audiences of the region in support of diverse stories and artists,” says Charles Poekel, founder and director of the festival. This year’s slate of films includes fiction and documentary features and shorts, Queston & Answer sessions, and a number of special events. It will be staged at five venues across the island: the Historic Lynwood Theatre, Bainbridge Cinemas, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, the Cynthia Sears Studio at Bainbridge Performing Arts and Side Quest at Rolling Bay Hall.

Of the 20 feature films screenings in the festival, seven have connections to Bainbridge and the greater Seattle region. The other 13 features represent a diverse group of stories and filmmakers from around the world. This year’s festival also includes two animated films, a family-friendly feature, a late-night film, a free screening of Buster Keaton shorts with live piano, and a program of shorts made entirely on and around Bainbridge Island.

The festival will open with Xander Robin’s documentary feature The PYTHON HUNT, chronicling an invasive python removal contest in the Florida Everglades and the colorful characters who participate in it. Every year, the Florida government invites the general public to compete in an invasive python removal contest in the Everglades National Park. For ten nights, an eclectic group of hunters confront the dangerous terrain, nocturnal creatures and their own desires. Robin’s 90-minute film won a Special Jury Award at SxSW 2025 and will open the festival at the Thu, Nov 6th, 7:00 PM @ Lynwood Theatre .  After reviewing the film, Poekel came away thinking maybe the problem isn’t with the Python, but with the people trying to regulate it.

This year’s “Island Spotlight” selection (a film with strong ties to the community) is WTO/99, directed by Ian Bell. Bell’s film uses only archival footage to reconstruct the events of the 1999 WTO protests in downtown Seattle. Bell will be appearing for Q&A’s on Saturday, November 8th, and Sunday November 9th. Poekel says it’s attracting “Oscar buzz” for documentaries.

Other films with local ties include “Pat & Mat in The Move,” a two-minute animated film produced by a Bainbridge dad and son that will air ahead of “Arco,” a full-length animated film produced by actress Natalie Portman and featuring the voices of Portman, Will Ferrell and Mark Ruffalo among others.  Also on tap is “The Story of Frog Rock,” that retells the tale of the 1971 creation of the iconic island symbol by then high school sweethearts Bob and Ellen Green.

The festival will close with the United Kingdom documentary feature “How Deep is Your Love,” directed by Eleanor Mortimer, which takes us for a journey to the depths of the abyssal plains of the Pacific Ocean, in search for life that may or may not be affected by deep-sea mining companies hungry for Manganese Nodules. The deep sea is the last unknown territory on Earth. Here, biologists struggle to study the enigmatic wildlife that looks like something from another planet. But time is running out as deep sea mining threatens the fragile ecosystems. The 97-minute film will be shown Sun, Nov 9th, 6:30 PM @ Lynwood Theatre

Q&A’s are anticipated for all short film programs, as well as for the following feature films: WTO/99, Adult Children, Been There Stay Here, American Theater, Room Temerature, Breaking Waves, State of Firsts, and The Y2K Killers.

Poekel himself is a practicing filmmaker and chair of Film & Media at Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University. He lives on the island with his wife and two sons. He grew up in New Jersey and previously worked in New York City, where he wrote and produced a film titled “Christmas, Again,” which he describes as sort of an “anti-Christmas movie,” railing against the commercialism of the holiday. He said Disney later made a family movie with a similar title called Christmas Again, “with no comma,” he points out.

“I’m not saying they ripped me off, but …,” jokes Poekel, who hit upon the idea of starting the film festival not long after moving to Bainbridge. “I looked around and saw both the incredible support this island gives artists and also the amazing venues we have for exhibition” he recalls. “And I wanted to create an opportunity for local filmmakers to get their work in front of audiences and also meet and interact with filmmakers from around the globe.”

Poekel receives financial support for the fest from Arts and Humanities Bainbridge and from donations. More information on screenings and ticket purchasing can be found here:

https://bifilmfest.org/

Film schedule can be found here

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