As part of SFCS’s annual awards highlighting the best in film, the Seattle Film Critics Society presents the John Hartl Pacific Northwest Spotlight to honor the outstanding work of a person with local ties to the region. Named in honor of John Hartl, the late Seattle Times film critic whose legacy remains a beacon in the region and beyond, prior recipients have included Lily Gladstone and Kyle MacLachlan.
In 2025, the SFCS Board of Directors selected director, photographer, and poet Sky Hopinka as the third recipient of the Hartl Spotlight Award. Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) was born and raised in Ferndale, Washington, and spent a number of years in Palm Springs and Riverside, CA, Portland, OR, and Milwaukee, WI. In Portland, he studied and taught Chinuk Wawa, a language indigenous to the Lower Columbia River Basin. His video, photo, and text work centers around personal positions of Indigenous homeland and landscape–designs of language as containers of culture expressed through personal and non-fictional forms of media.
In addition to the Sundance, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals, Sky’s moving-image work has played at everywhere from the Whitney Biennial to Seattle’s very own Frye Art Museum. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Grant, a Guggenheim Fellow, and is an Associate Professor at Harvard University’s Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies. Hopinka has directed a wide range of acclaimed films, such as Jáaji Approx.; Dislocation Blues; Fainting Spells, Małni: Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore; Kicking the Clouds; Sunflower Siege Engine; and the upcoming locally shot feature-length documentary Powwow People.
An Evening With Sky Hopinka
On Friday, May 15th, in collaboration with Northwest Film Forum, SFCS hosted “An Evening with Sky Hopinka” that featured seven of his short films curated by SFCS Trustee Eric Zhu, remarks from the director, followed by a discussion and reception.
Presentation of Hartl Spotlight
Later that weekend, the SFCS formally presented the John Hartl Pacific Northwest Spotlight Award to Hopinka at the Seattle International Film Festival alongside a presentation of Powwow People and a Q&A.
Additional photos from the weekend at NWFF and SIFF
