After months of discussions and soul searching, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2025 edition of Make Believe Seattle. Due to an underperforming 2024, and the unexpected loss of funding, we have been struggling to get everyone paid from that edition, and are still in the process of doing so. With that, it doesn’t feel proper for us to be putting on a new edition of the festival until everyone has been paid. We are in-talks with local cinephiles in Seattle about taking the festival over in 2026, once the festival is in the black, and we look forward to keeping those conversations alive. If you are a filmmaker who submitted to the 2025 festival, you will receive a refund via FilmFreeway before the end of the week. We want to thank everyone who made the first two years of Make Believe so special, and we hope to be able to report later this year that some new, young blood has taken over the festival moving forward.
-Make Believe Seattle