Tonight’s opening shorts program in the Seattle True Independent Film Festival (aka STIFF) is sold out, and that’s a good thing both for the fest and its main venue this year, the Grand Illusion. (There are also three days of programming at the Varsity and Central Cinema.) Since 2005, STIFF has been itinerant (both on the calendar and the map), with various ancillary bar-hopping events on its roster. But the GI is ideally suited for an intimate seating for 70 filmgoers, with a cafe next door to discuss the movies. Since SIFF just announced its schedule last week, here’s a chance to see more than a dozen features and docs whose directors might insist—possibly with good reason—that their movies have been unfairly overlooked. BRIAN MILLER

Fri., May 4, 6 p.m.; May 5-12, 2012