Today, the Seattle International Film Festival  unveiled its full lineup for this year’s festival. As this will be my first year covering it (and my first time covering any festival of this pedigree), I anxiously anticipated what the organizers had in store and the answers are pretty exciting. Running from May 16-June 9, SIFF has more to offer than ever before.

SIFF officially launches with Joss Whedon‘s Much Ado About Nothing at its Opening Night Gala. Famously filmed in a mere 12 days, this modernized Shakespeare adaptation tells the tale of love unacquainted and unrequited. Whedon is expected to attend alongside stars Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion, and Clark Gregg.

Other notable entries to the festival include:

• Blackfish
  Blackfish documents the much-publicized 2010 killing of an orca whale trainer at SeaWorld. It premiered at this year’s Sundance Festival, posing poignant questions about the tactics and ethics of this multinational but predominantly corporate aquarium.

• Byzantium
  From the director of Interview With A Vampire, Neil Jordan‘s Byzantium is a mystery thriller that features (you guessed it) vampires. Starring Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton, Byzantium has been called a stylish and seductive film that mixes up the familiar vampiric tropes.

•  Decoding Annie Parker
  Decoding Annie Parker is based on the true story of geneticist Mary-Claire King, who, faced with colleague ridicule and disbelief, proved that breast cancer is born of heredity rather than chance. Featuring a strong cast with Helen Hunt, Aaron Paul, Samantha Morton, Bradley Whitford, Maggie Grace, Alice Eve and Rashida Jones, this film charters how cancer was just almost cured.

• Epic
  From Dreamworks Studios comes this animated feature about the smaller things, er, people in life. Much like Ferngully, Epic takes us to a microscopic level where little people battle malevolent animals in order to save the forest that they love so dearly.

• Frances Ha
  Following up on a pair of sobering and darkly comical critical darlings, Greenberg and The Squid and The Whale, Noah Baumbach takes his distinctive touch to Frances Ha, a “quirky romantic comedy” set to the backdrop of New York City which is already winning the critics over in droves.

• Monsters University
  Rewinding time back to when monsters Sulley and Mike met at college, this prequel is Pixar‘s latest offering. After a string of misses, Monsters University has a chance to bring the heart and charm back to a studio once renown for just that. 

• The Way, Way Back
  Starring Liam James (The Killing), Toni Collette (United States of Tara), Steve Carell (The Office) and Sam Rockwell (Moon), The Way, Way Back is a coming of age story about a circular kid trying to fit into a square hole who finds an unlikely friend at a water park.

• Twenty Feet From Stardom
  A documentary by Morgan Neville, Twenty Feet From Stardom aims the spotlight at the oft-unnoticed backup singers for some of the world’s best talent. The film will feature interviews by Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger, Sheryl Crowe and Bette Midler as they talk about these unsung stars living in the periphery of stardom.Seattle International Film Festival
  May 16- June 9, 2013

• V/H/S 2 
  While last year’s cult hit V/H/S hardly reinvented the wheel with its found footage montage premise, it made waves in the horror genre for doing what horror movies should — scaring the pants off people. This structureless compilation follows almost exactly in the footsteps of its predecessor with five short horrifying segments that lack a strong central thread tying them together. Brendan Walsh of Screen Crave praised it, saying: “This time around, it feels like every filmmaker is right in their wheelhouse, presenting a polished, terrifying vision.”

As there are over 400 films playing at this years festival, there are countless others including a selection of short films and a slew of documentaries. Representing 85 countries and featuring 49 world premieres, 47 North American premieres and 18 U.S. premieres, this is sure to be one of the greatest years in SIFF history.

Before you go, check out the awesome little trailers for SIFF 2013 that’s rife with movie references and some cool little claymation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFLQ8oCNu0s

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