Obsession wins SIFF 2026 Seattle Critics Award

“Obsession” wins SIFF 2026 Seattle Critics Award

The Seattle Film Critics Society (SFCS), in partnership with SIFF, polled accredited media members for their favorite new release feature films screened during the 52nd Seattle International Film Festival. 75 different films appeared on submitted ballots, but there was widespread consensus at the top of the list.

The Seattle Film Critics Society is thrilled to present the 2026 SIFF Seattle Critics Award to …

WINNER
Obsession 
(2025 | USA | 109 minutes | Curry Barker)

HONORABLE MENTIONS (In Voting Order):

• Mārama (2025 | New Zealand | 89 minutes | Taratoa Stappard)
• I Love Boosters (2026 | USA | 115 minutes | Boots Riley) 
• Again Again (2026 | USA | 99 minutes | Mia Moore, Heather Ballish) 
• Silent Friend (2025 | Germany | 146 minutes | Ildikó Enyedi)

Curry Barker’s Obsession joins 2024 recipient I Saw the TV Glow, directed by Jane Schoenbrun, and 2025 recipient Sorry, Baby, directed by Eva Victor, as recipients of the SIFF Seattle Critics Award.

“The SFCS Board of Directors thanks SIFF for its ongoing partnership and for providing accredited media the opportunity to present a critics award as part of the annual festival,” the SFCS Board said in a statement. “The films selected this year reflect deeply personal and, at times, provocative works, with storytelling that left a lasting impact on Seattle-area critics. Curry Barker’s Obsession has emerged as the movie of the moment, captivating audiences with its unpredictable twists, turns, and surprises.”

Voters for this year’s award included (some elected to remain anonymous):

What Seattle critics wrote about our favorite SIFF films

OBSESSION

• “Obsession has moments that are legitimately chilling, moments that are brutally funny, and moments that are just plain nasty in the best possible way.” – Matt Oakes, Silver Screen Riot
• “Obsession possesses a unique quality to give you stomach cramps from laughing so hard, but also put said stomach in your throat with its disquieting crescendo of terror.” – Isaac P. Ale, Film & Froth
• “Curry Baker’s Obsession is an uncompromising bit of nastiness. With a clear, horrific vision and a star-making performance from (Inde) Navarrette, it can be placed up on the shelf … of new and powerful voices in filmmaking. – Bob Foster, Cinema Crazed

AGAIN AGAIN

• “Again Again tasks its characters to live their lives as if today were their last and the unknown possibilities of tomorrow were far from a given. And it wants everyone in the audience to do the same. It’s scary stuff. It’s also beautiful. – Sara Michelle Fetters, Seattle Gay News
• “(Mia) Moore and (Heather) Ballish remind us with Again Again that even with a chance to relive every day, life will never really become everything we want and need it to be. And that is living. And that is okay.” – Mike Ward, Should I See It

I LOVE BOOSTERS

• “Riley’s films are so much fun that you don’t even realize you’re being radicalized until it’s already happened. Boots Riley is here to say you don’t have to dress like a punk to be punk as fuck.” – Jessica Baxter, Hammer to Nail
• “It’s a comically sophisticated fairytale vision of democratic socialism that is entertaining throughout.” – Rick Chung 

MĀRAMA

• Even for those who don’t normally gravitate toward Gothic horror, Mārama is absolutely worth it just to see one woman right several generations’ worth of wrongs with the sheer force of her will. If only it worked that way in real life. – Kathy Fennessy, Seattle Film Blog
• A stunning blend of Gothic horror and historical trauma, Mārama transforms familiar genre tropes into something deeply personal, powerful, and unforgettable. – Kim Douthit, Cinema Crazed

SILENT FRIEND

• I’d like to think that brainwaves (and energy emissions from plants) are as beautiful as the kaleidoscopes of patterns unfurling on the screen. The film makes the argument that they are all really the same, which is a view of the world I can get behind. – Linda Gwilym, MoviePie
• “While humans in the audience will naturally gravitate to the foibles and desires of the academics across the decades depicted in Silent Friend, on a cosmic level it is genuinely funny how Ildikó Enyedi made a nearly three hour movie about truly magnificent old tree that could not care less about anything resembling resolution of any of the mortal stories that played out in its vicinity.” – Josh Bis, The SunBreak

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About SFCS: 

With a membership of area critics, the Seattle Film Critics Society is dedicated to supporting local productions and festivals, enhancing public education, awareness, and appreciation of cinema, and strengthening the bonds of critical dialogue as it pertains to the cinematic arts. SFCS seeks to highlight the best films produced each year–both by major studios and independent filmmakers–and share our love of cinema with Seattle-area residents.