After poring through about 150 entries for this year's Three Minute Masterpiece digital-film contest, The Seattle Times and Seattle International Film Festival have selected 11 winners.

Check this blog daily to see the other 10 winners (we're rolling out one per day) -- and help us select a people's choice award winner by participating in the poll below.

The people's choice winner will be announced at a public screening at SIFF on Saturday, May 19. We'll also name a grand prize winner at that event and grant a special J. Michael Rima youth award for a film made by a director under 18. You're invited! Details here.

Today's 3 Minute Masterpiece describes a family ordeal. It's called "Kickstarter Kidnap," written and directed by Trish Harnetiaux and Jacob A. Ware.

Voting in the poll below will help us determine the people's choice award.

After poring through about 150 entries for this year's Three Minute Masterpiece digital-film contest, The Seattle Times and Seattle International Film Festival have selected 11 winners.

Check this blog daily to see the other 10 winners (we're rolling out one per day) -- and help us select a people's choice award winner by participating in the poll below.

The people's choice winner will be announced at a public screening at SIFF on Saturday, May 19. We'll also name a grand prize winner at that event and grant a special J. Michael Rima youth award for a film made by a director under 18. You're invited! Details here.

Today's 3 Minute Masterpiece focuses on the struggles of adjusting to life in a new country. It's called "Immigrant Sheep," by Mai Schrock-Manabe.

Voting in the poll below will help us determine the people's choice award.

After poring through about 150 entries for this year's Three Minute Masterpiece digital-film contest, The Seattle Times and Seattle International Film Festival have selected 11 winners.

Check this blog daily to see the other 10 winners (we're rolling out one per day) -- and help us select a people's choice award winner by participating in the poll below.

The people's choice winner will be announced at a public screening at SIFF on Saturday, May 19. We'll also name a grand prize winner at that event and grant a special J. Michael Rima youth award for a film made by a director under 18. You're invited! Details here.

Today's 3 Minute Masterpiece examines the circle of life. It's called "Hula Hoop," by Tess Martin.

Voting in the poll below will help us determine the people's choice award.

A 26-foot statue of Anubis, the jackal-headed god, recently hitched a ride during the Opening Day boat parade, and he'll be at King Street Station at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Anubis, normally associated with mummification and the afterlife, is expanding his resume as an ambassador for "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharoahs." The exhibition of items from King Tut's tomb and other important Egyptian sites opens May 24 at Pacific Science Center in Seattle; get tickets here.

Another important Anubis task: he manned the scale at the entrance to the afterlife, where he weighed the deceased's heart against the feather of Ma'at. If your heart was lighter than the feather, off you traipsed to live forever. If your heart was heavier? It was eaten by Ammit the Destroyer. Just something to ponder on your commute.

After poring through about 150 entries for this year's Three Minute Masterpiece digital-film contest, The Seattle Times and Seattle International Film Festival have selected 11 winners.

Check this blog daily to see the other 10 winners (we're rolling out one per day) -- and help us select a people's choice award winner by participating in the poll below.

The people's choice winner will be announced at a public screening at SIFF on May 19. We'll also name a grand prize winner at that event and grant a special J. Michael Rima youth award for a film made by a director under 18. You're invited! Details here.

Today's 3 Minute Masterpiece shows what a little brainpower and imagination can do for you. It's called "Have a Day," by Sho Schrock-Manabe.

Voting in the poll below will help us determine the people's choice award.

After poring through about 150 entries for this year's Three Minute Masterpiece digital-film contest, The Seattle Times and Seattle International Film Festival have selected 11 winners.

Check this blog daily to see the other 10 winners (we're rolling out one per day) -- and help us select a people's choice award winner by participating in the poll below.

The people's choice winner will be announced at a public screening at SIFF on May 19. We'll also name a grand prize winner at that event and grant a special J. Michael Rima youth award for a film made by a director under 18. You're invited! Details here.

Today's 3 Minute Masterpiece teaches a lesson about sharing. It's called "Godlizza," by Chad Perkins and family.

Voting in the poll below will help us determine the people's choice award.

After poring through about 150 entries for this year's Three Minute Masterpiece digital-film contest, The Seattle Times and Seattle International Film Festival have selected 11 winners.

Check this blog daily to see the other 10 winners (we're rolling out one per day) -- and help us select a people's choice award winner by participating in the poll below.

The people's choice winner will be announced at a public screening at SIFF on May 19. We'll also name a grand prize winner at that event and grant a special J. Michael Rima youth award for a film made by a director under 18. You're invited! Details here.

Today's 3 Minute Masterpiece features cute penguins and an unfortunate attack on a shark. It's called "Construction/Deconstruction," by Bradley D. Skiff.

Voting in the poll below will help us determine the people's choice award.

As I write this weekend preview, the Seattle Maritime Festival is looking like a very good bet, indeed. Temperatures are supposed to be in the 70s on Saturday -- just the right setting for tugboat races, free harbor tours, a chowder cook-off, wooden-boat building for kids and all the rest. It takes place Saturday at Pier 66 on the Seattle waterfront. (Photo of a slide at last year's Maritime Fest by Alan Berner/Seattle Times.)

Saturday is also a big day for birders: International Migratory Bird Day, to be specific, with events at Discovery Park, Magnuson Park, Seward Park and Juanita Bay Park. Learn more here from Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes ... and don't forget to bring your own binoculars.

The Pike Place Market Flower Festival takes place both Saturday and Sunday. Do we have to mention that this would be a good place to take your mom or mom-substitute? Sunday is Mother's Day, after all. Other good options along the same lines are the Bellevue Botanical Garden Native Plant Society Sale, Saturday and Sunday, and Mother's Day at the Arboretum, Sunday only. Here's a big ol' list of these sorts of events, if you're so inclined. (Pike Place flowers photographed by Chris Joseph Taylor/Seattle Times.)

If your mom is anything like mine, however, you may be looking for a less-conventional outdoor activity. How's this? A site-specific performance of "The Miraculous Mandarin," presented by Spectrum Dance Theatre. Arts writer Michael Upchurch reports that the show will take place in the windows of the old Hanil Garden Restaurant overlooking Hing Hay Park, where the audience, voyeurlike, will be sitting or standing (reserve seats here). Note that "The Miraculous Mandarin" is based on Bela Bartok and Menyhert Lengyel's 1926 pantomime, and it's a tale of three drug addicts and a hooker that takes a supernatural twist -- we recommend leaving the kids at home. It runs 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, May 17-26, and it's free.

Finally: It's Seattle. So rain is always still a possibility. The big movie opening this weekend is "Dark Shadows," starring Johnny Depp. It's one odd monster-mashup, says movie critic Moira Macdonald -- your own sense of humor may determine whether you like it or not. If you're iffy on that, "The Avengers" is still packing in the crowds at the multiplex. (Did you miss our summer movie preview? Find it here.)