SIFF Cinema Downtown is a landmark movie theater located in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It features a mix of blockbuster studio films, specialty festivals and events, and first-run arthouse cinema and offers reserved seating and premium concessions such as local craft beer and chocolate popcorn.
The theater opened in 1963 at the Seattle Cinerama Theater and was renovated in the 1990s after its acquisition by Paul Allen. The original Cinerama was closed in May 2020. At the time of its 2020 closure, it was one of only three movie theaters in the world capable of showing three-panel Cinerama films on its epic 97-foot curved screen consisting of 2,000 vertical strips.
In 2023, the theater was purchased by the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and reopened on December 14, 2023 as SIFF Cinema Downtown due to trademark issues with the “Cinerama” name. The announcement of this purchase prompted an uproar of cheers and applause at Opening Night of the 49th Seattle International Film Festival on May 11, 2023.