Location | Washington, D.C. |
---|---|
Founded | 1999 |
Awards | Kennedy Center and US Department of State |
Website | dciff-indie |
The DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF) is a film festival in Washington, D.C. Launched in 1999, DCIFF exhibits features, animation, shorts and documentaries from around the world, focusing on cutting-edge ideas, new visions and advances in the craft of filmmaking. The festival hosts world premieres, seminars, and workshops, and also sponsors discussions on topics that impact independent filmmakers, in particular the annual "On the Hill" hearing hosted by the Congressional Entertainment Caucus. [1] The festival includes a dedicated POLIDOCS section for documentary films that shed light on human rights, politics and social justice and an international high school film competition started in 2013. The festival also has an oral history collection program Going to the Movies documenting the role of movie-watching in US cultural history.
DCIFF has continued to be an essentially volunteer-run festival. DCIFF has not been a curated festival. With the exception of retrospectives and honorees, all films screened are chosen through the submissions process. As of 2019, the festival has embraced the concept of deep discussion about the film and increased interaction between films, filmmakers and audiences.
The festival was founded by Carol Bidault de L'Isle who was executive director until 2011 when Deirdre Evans-Pritchard assumed the role.
Held at the Arleigh Burke Theater, the 2010 festival hosted the documentary "The Quantum Tamers: Revealing Our Weird and Wired Future and animated short Roue. [2]
The 2012 festival was held between February 29 and March 4 and honored documentarian Les Blank. [3]
The 2014 festival was held between February 19 and 23. DCIFF selected 62 films.
The 19th annual festival was held between February 14 and 19th, 2018 at the Burke and Carnegie Theaters in Washington DC.
The 20th annual festival was held between March 1 and 10th, 2019 at the Miracle and Carnegie Theaters in Washington DC and included a retrospective of the work of Australian director Phillip Noyce.
High school film competition winners:
The 21st annual festival was held between March 4–8, 2020 in Washington DC.
Best High School Films
The 22nd annual festival was DCIFF'S first ever hybrid festival held In March in Washington DC.
High School Film Competition:
The 23rd annual festival was held between March 2 and March 6 in Washington DC.
The Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival is an annual independent film festival held each March in San Jose, California and Redwood City, California. The international festival combines the cinematic arts with Silicon Valley’s innovation. It is produced by Cinequest, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that is also responsible for Picture The Possibilities and the distribution label Cinequest Mavericks Studio LLC. Cinequest awards the annual Maverick Spirit Awards. In addition to over 130 world or U.S. premieres from over 30 countries, the festival hosts writer's events including screenwriting competitions, a shorts program, technology and artistic forums and workshops, student programs, and a silent film accompanied on the theatre organ. Founded in 1990 as the Cinequest Film Festival, the festival was rebranded in 2017 as the Cinequest Film & VR Festival and expanded beyond downtown San Jose to Redwood City. It took its present name in 2019.
The Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) is the largest film festival in England outside London. Founded in 1987, it is held in November at various venues throughout Leeds, West Yorkshire. In 2022, the festival showed 140 films from 78 different countries, shorts and features, both commercial and independent.
The Atlantic International Film Festival is a major international film festival held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1980. AIFF is the largest Canadian film festival east of Montreal, regularly premiering the region's top films of the year, while bringing the best films of the fall festival circuit to Atlantic Canada.
Joanna Priestley is an American contemporary film director, producer, animator and teacher. Her films are in the collections of the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Priestley has had retrospectives at the British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art and Hiroshima International Animation Festival in Japan. Bill Plympton calls her the "Queen of independent animation". Priestley lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
The Fresh Film Fest International Film Festival or Fresh Film Fest is an international student film festival held annually in August in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, first held in 2004.
The Abu Dhabi Film Festival, formerly the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), was an international film festival held in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 2007 to 2015.
The GI Film Festival (GIFF), a 501c3 non-profit organization founded by Army veteran Laura Law-Millett and her husband Brandon Millett, is "dedicated to preserving the stories of American veterans past and present through film, television and live special events."
The Brooklyn Film Festival(BFF), prior to 2011 called the Brooklyn International Film Festival(BiFF) is an independent film festival held every June in Brooklyn, New York. Started by Marco Ursino, Susan Mackell, Abe Schrager, and Mario Pegoraro in 1998, its mission is to “discover, expose, and promote independent filmmakers while drawing worldwide attention to Brooklyn as a center for cinema." Its base is South 4th Street, Williamsburg.
The Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Dallas, Texas. The 2024 edition is scheduled for April 26-May 2, 2024.
The Arlington International Film Festival (AIFF) is an annual nonprofit film festival dedicated to promoting and increasing multicultural awareness and showcases world cinema and independent films in their original language with English subtitles. Independent film producers, directors and actors within the US and abroad are invited to participate in engaging panel discussions and Q&A sessions after the screenings. Each year the festival greets more than 2,000 movie aficionados and shows about fifty films from all over the world with an impressive lineup of premieres. The Arlington International Film Festival also includes a year-round events such as poster contest competitions, pre-festival screenings and art exhibitions with local artists and performances by musicians, singers and dancers.
The Burbank International Film Festival (BIFF) is an annual film festival held since 2009 in Burbank, California, United States. It was founded by Val Tonione, and awards are distributed to filmmakers that have focused on social and environmental issues.
Geoff Marslett is an American film director, writer, producer, animator and actor. His early career started with the animated short Monkey vs. Robot which was distributed internationally by Spike and Mike's Classic Festival of Animation on video and Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation in theatres. More recently he directed several successful narrative feature films including MARS, as well as producing and acting in the experimental documentary Yakona. He appears onscreen in Josephine Decker's Thou Wast Mild and Lovely which was released theatrically in 2014. He currently resides in Austin, Texas and splits his time between filmmaking and teaching at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The South East European Film Festival, also known as SEEfest, is an annual (non-profit) film festival held during the first week of May in various venues throughout Los Angeles, California. The festival presents feature films, documentaries and shorts produced in or thematically related to South East Europe and the Caucasus.
The Anchorage International Film Festival(AIFF) is the largest film festival in Alaska. It is held annually in Anchorage.
Retouch is an Iranian short film directed by Kaveh Mazaheri, which was co-produced by Kaveh Mazaheri and Iranian Youth Cinema Society (IYCS). The film is one of the most successful Iranian short films that won the Best Short Fiction Film Award from the Fajr Film Festival and the best international film festivals such as Tribeca, Krakow, Palm Springs, Stockholm, Ojai, Tirana and Traverse City. Retouch has enjoyed a successful film festival run, winning at three Oscar qualifying film festivals, including: Tribeca Film Festival, Palm Springs Shortfest and the Krakow Film Festival.
Falafel Cart is a 2019 animated family short drama film produced by RoyalTales and directed by Abdullah Al-Wazzan with an original score by Dan Phillipson and sound design by Andrew Vernon. The short blends stop motion animation with traditional and some computer animation. In 2019, the film was submitted for the 2020 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film making it Kuwait's first short film to ever be submitted to the Academy Awards. In 2020 The film earned an official selection at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival in the best of the world program. In 2021 the film won best animated short at the Burbank International Film Festival. In 2019 the film won best international short film at the Los Angeles Animation Festival.
The 16th Mumbai International Film Festival was held from 28 January to 3 February 2020.
The DaVinci International Film Festival(DIFF) is held annually in Los Angeles, California and is produced by the non-profit DaVinci Film Foundation Inc. The festival governs four signature programs including their screenwriting competition series STORYLINE, presented by Final Draft, the DaVinci Film Institute, which honors beurgeoning filmmakers with screenings and scholarships held at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, sponsored by Coca-Cola, and documentaries at DIFFdocs.
The San Francisco Independent Film Festival, known as IndieFest, is an annual film festival, held in January or February, that recognizes contemporary independent film. It is run by SF IndieFest, a nonprofit organization, and based at the Roxie Theater in the Mission District.