The 570 seats of Capitol Hill’s historic Egyptian Theater have been empty since last fall. News of layoffs and financial issues at SIFF are making its path to reopening even more uncertain.

The Seattle International Film Festival says the E Pine theater will remain shuttered for the indefinite future as it has announced it is laying off nine full-time employees — around a fifth of its administrative staff — and more cutbacks.

“SIFF is downsizing and restructuring in order to remain open and continue to deliver on its mission,” the announcement reads. “SIFF has continued to struggle financially post-pandemic and revenue has not kept up with our expenses, specifically fixed costs, including staffing, rent and mortgage payments, insurance, and ongoing maintenance.”

The Egyptian’s struggles stem from another category — terrible luck. Last November, a devastating water leak in the building’s fourth floor mainline damaged several floors of the five-story, 110-year-old structure which houses the former Masonic Temple where SIFF Cinema Egyptian operates.

In March, CHS reported hopefully on progress by building owner Seattle Central College to make repairs and allow the theater to reopen. While school officials were optimistic, the cinema nonprofit was less sanguine headed into its annual film festival, telling CHS while it was “eager to reopen this beloved venue as soon as possible,” it did not have a timeline for when it would have the staff and resources lined up to light up the E Pine screen again.

Three months later, the uncertainty has only increased.

“The closure of SIFF Cinema Egyptian was not driven by our financial sustainability challenges nor was it a result of them,” SIFF says about the Egyptian’s place in its current downsizing effort. “It is unclear at this time how these reductions will impact the path to reopening, as SIFF will have less capacity overall to manage the reopening project.”

(Image: SIFF)

Meanwhile, SIFF says that while the Egyptian’s closure cut into revenue, the theater could not have helped it overcome the financial hole it had fallen into, saying “the non-affordability challenges that SIFF is addressing with these staffing reductions” are “of a much larger scope than Egyptian revenue would have been able to address or resolve.”

SIFF’s challenges have come after a period of growth starting with the acquisition of the Egyptian a decade ago and including the organization’s adoption of the former Cinerama where it now operates SIFF Cinema Downtown.

SIFF only last year re-upped its Capitol Hill commitment. In 2014, SIFF signed a 10-year lease with Seattle Central to operate the theater. That lease was extended for five years in October 2024.

Meanwhile, the organization is also saddled with other major expenses including executive director Tom Mara’s $238,000 a year salary.

SIFF says it “exhausted all options” to reduce fixed costs before exploring staffing reductions.

“This will be a challenging period for SIFF to continue its mission-driven work, and we will do our best to sustain the experiences that movie-goers come to SIFF for, and potential impacts to movie-goers in our cinemas is undetermined at this time,” the cutback announcement reads.

SIFF is asking its audiences — and those hopeful for the return of the Egyptian — for patience.

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