The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

based in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It is the largest film festival in Ohio. It was first held in 1977, showing eight films over a period of eight weeks at the Cedar Lee Theatre. It has since grown and in 2019 consisted of 213 feature films and 237 short films from 71 countries, and over 105,000 in attendance. 2022 will mark the 46th year for the CIFF.

History

The festival started in 1977 with eight films over eight weeks at the Cedar Lee Theatre in

Cleveland Heights Cleveland Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and one of Cleveland's historical streetcar suburbs. The city's population was 45,312 at the 2020 census. As of the 2010 census, Cleveland Heights was ranked the 8th largest ...

. In 1991, the festival relocated to Tower City Cinemas in downtown Cleveland. Additional programming and events have also been held at other local venues, including the Capitol Theatre on Cleveland's west side, Shaker Cinemas on

Shaker Square Shaker or Shakers may refer to: Religious groups * Shakers, a historically significant Christian sect * Indian Shakers, a smaller Christian denomination Objects and instruments * Shaker (musical instrument), an indirect struck idiophone * Cockt ...

, and the Cedar Lee Theatre. In 2013, the festival extended to

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...

and Oberlin, screening films at the Akron Art Museum, the

Akron-Summit County Public Library The Akron-Summit County Public Library was founded in 1874, and operates Main Library on South High Street and South Main Street in downtown Akron, 18 branch libraries throughout the city of Akron and Summit County, the Akron Art Library (located ...

, and the

Apollo Theatre The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London.

in Oberlin. With this expansion has come an increase in attendance: in 2019, the festival hosted over 105,000 attendees. Starting with CIFF43, in 2018, the Festival began offering CIFF East and CIFF West, held at venues on the east and west sides of Cleveland, respectively. After 30 years at Tower City Cinemas, CIFF announced that it would move to Playhouse Square ahead of the 2021 festival. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the 44th festival, its last at Tower City Cinemas, was canceled. The festival moved to a digital streaming platform for the first time in its history over a two-week period at the end of April 2020. For the 45th festival, with the pandemic continuing through 2020 into 2021, the festival opted to continue with a digital festival, dubbed CIFF45 Streams. 2022 will mark the festival's first time at Playhouse Square for its 46th iteration. Recently, the festival has focused on films that dwell on social issues, including

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks ...

, Jewish and Israeli issues, and

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

issues. The festival also has a focus on family-friendly films and films from Central and Eastern Europe. The Cleveland International Film Festival is sometimes confused with an earlier film festival in Cleveland with a similar name - the 1948 to 1956 Cleveland Film Festival - the first film festival in the country to honor

sponsored films Sponsored film, or ephemeral film, as defined by film archivist Rick Prelinger, is a film made by a particular sponsor for a specific purpose other than as a work of art: the films were designed to serve a specific pragmatic purpose for a limited ...

in all categories. Cleveland (Sponsored) Film Festival, ''Encyclopedia of Cleveland History'', Case Western Reserve University

Awards

The festival offers multiple awards and honors to its films and filmmakers, including for Best Documentary and for Best Central and Eastern European film. In 2006, the festival introduced The Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition, which honors films focused on social justice and activism and is sponsored by

The George Gund Foundation The George Gund Foundation is a charitable foundation established in 1952 to provide grants in the areas of the arts, civic engagement, community development, economic development, environmental policy, and human services, public education, racia ...

in honor of Greg Gund, who died in a plane crash in 2005. Another major award is the Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award for Best Film, which has been awarded annually since 1988 and is named in honor of the late Roxanne Mueller, who was a film advocate and film critic for ''

The Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of Ma ...

''.

Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award for Best Film

* 2022 - ''From the Hood to the Holler'' * 2021 - ''

Ala Kachuu – Take and Run ''Ala Kachuu – Take and Run'' is a 2020 Swiss short film directed by Maria Brendle and produced by Nadine Lüchinger and Flavio Gerber, Filmgerberei. The film is about a Kyrgyz girl who falls victim to bride kidnapping (Kyrgyz: Ala Kachuu). ...

'' * 2020 - ''

Not Going Quietly ''Not Going Quietly'' is a 2021 American documentary film, directed by Nicholas Bruckman and produced by Amanda Roddy, following Ady Barkan, embarking on a national campaign for healthcare reform. Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass and Bradley Whitford s ...

'' * 2019 - ''

Princess of the Row ''Princess of the Row'' is a 2019 American independent drama film directed by Max Carlson, written by A. Shawn Austin and Max Carlson, produced by A. Shawn Austin, produced by Edi Gathegi, and starring Edi Gathegi, Tayler Buck, Ana Ortiz, Jacob ...

'' * 2018 - ''The Drummer and the Keeper'' * 2017 - ''Big Sonia'' * 2016 - ''

Romeo Is Bleeding ''Romeo Is Bleeding'' is a 1993 neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Peter Medak, written and produced by Hilary Henkin, and starring Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis, and Roy Scheider. It follows a psychosexual cat ...

'' * 2015 - ''Becoming Bulletproof'' * 2014 - ''Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine'' * 2013 - ''Good Ol' Freda'' * 2012 - ''Under African Skies'' * 2011 - ''

Vincent Wants to Sea ''Vincent Wants to Sea'' (german: Vincent will Meer, ) is a 2010 German drama film directed by Ralf Huettner. An American remake, '' The Road Within'' was released in 2014. Plot Vincent, a 27-year-old man with Tourette's syndrome, is institut ...

'' * 2010 - ''

Louder Than a Bomb Rooted & Radical Youth Poetry Festival (formerly named Louder Than a Bomb) is an annual youth poetry slam in Chicago every spring. Founded in 2001 by Kevin Coval and Anna West of the nonprofit organization Young Chicago Authors. It is now the la ...

'' * 2009 - ''

Cherry Blossoms A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generall ...

'' * 2008 - ''One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story'' * 2007 - ''

Darius Goes West ''Darius Goes West: The Roll of his Life'' is a documentary film by Logan Smalley about Darius Weems, a teenager living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In the middle of 2005 Weems embarked on a 7,000 mile road trip across the United States fr ...

'' * 2006 - ''

Live and Become ''Live and Become'' (french: Va, vis et deviens) is a 2005 French drama film about an Ethiopian Christian boy who disguises himself as an Ethiopian Jew to escape famine and emigrates to Israel. It was directed by Romanian-born Radu Mihăileanu. It ...

'' * 2005 - ''

Mad Hot Ballroom ''Mad Hot Ballroom'' is a 2005 American documentary film directed and co-produced by Marilyn Agrelo and written and co-produced by Amy Sewell, about a ballroom dance program in the New York City Department of Education, the New York City publ ...

'' * 2004 - ''

Born Into Brothels ''Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids'' is a 2004 Indian-American documentary film about the children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district. The widely acclaimed film, written and directed by Zana Briski and Ross ...

'' * 2003 - '' Spellbound'' * 2002 - ''Autumn Spring'' * 2001 - '' Big Eden'' * 2000 - '' The Butterfly'' * 1999 - '' Return with Honor'' * 1998 - '' Character'' * 1997 - '' Shall We Dance?'' * 1996 - ''Fiddlefest'' * 1995 - '' The Sum of Us'' * 1994 - ''

Backbeat In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a p ...

'' * 1993 - '' Into the West'' * 1992 - '' Enchanted April'' * 1991 - ''Cross My Heart'' * 1990 - '' Cinema Paradiso'' * 1989 - '' The Beast'' * 1988 - '' The Grand Highway''

References

External links

{{commons category
Cleveland Film Society
website Film festivals in Ohio Cinema of Cleveland Film festivals established in 1977 Festivals in Cleveland 1977 establishments in Ohio