Nesnadny + Schwartz
Documentary Film Competition
The CIFF is excited to present the sixth Nesnadny + Schwartz Documentary Film Competition. In 2005, after CIFF attendees voted documentaries as the winners of its audience choice award for three consecutive years, we decided to highlight these films since they hold such enormous interest for our attendees.

Nesnadny + Schwartz is a preeminent international visual communications consultancy committed to providing clients what they least expect. Nesnadny + Schwartz is very proud to continue their support of the Cleveland International Film Festival and to sponsor a program that has such social, artistic, and popular appeal.

Cash & Marry (AUSTRIA, CROATIA, MACEDONIA)
Charlie Haden: Rambling Boy (SWITZERLAND, USA)
Colony (IRELAND, USA)
Cooking History (AUSTRIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA)
The Desert of Forbidden Art (RUSSIA, USA, UZBEKISTAN)
Do It Again (USA)
Forgetting Dad (GERMANY, USA)
The Great Contemporary Art Bubble (UNITED KINGDOM)
Last Train Home (CANADA, CHINA)
Marwencol (USA)
P-Star Rising (USA)
Racing Dreams (USA)

Our esteemed jurors this year are:

Aron Gaudet made his feature directorial debut with the award-winning documentary, THE WAY WE GET BY, a heartfelt story about three senior citizens finding purpose in their life. The film had its world premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) and won the Special Jury Award. THE WAY WE GET BY has won 16 festival awards to date, including the Audience Award at the Full Frame Film Festival, the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition Award at the 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival, and Best Documentary at the Atlanta, Little Rock, Phoenix, Naples, and Newport International Film Festivals.

Ryan Harrington is the Director of Documentary Programs at the Tribeca Film Insititute where he runs the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund and develops other initiatives and programs that support non-fiction filmmaking. Independently he has produced the films "21 Below," "Entre Nos," and the upcoming "Hungry in America," "Radio Unnameable," and "The Chameleon." Ryan managed production for A&E IndieFilms, the theatrical documentary arm of the A&E Network, for four years. Throughout his time there he championed the Oscar®-nominated films "Murderball" and "Jesus Camp" and the Sundance hits "My Kid Could Paint That" and "American Teen." Other films include Barbara Kopple's "Bearing Witness," "The End of America," and "Alexis Arquette She's My Brother."

Debra Zimmerman has been the Executive Director of Women Make Movies, a nonprofit New York based film organization that supports women filmmakers, since 1983. During her tenure it has grown into the largest distributor of films by and about women in the world. She has moderated panels and given master classes at the Sundance Film Festival, MIPDOC, and Reel Screen, as well as film festivals in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. She is also a member of numerous Advisory Boards for media and film organizations, including: the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC); the True/False Film Festival; Cinema Tropical, NY; Arts Afrika, Kenya; and the International Female Film Festival Malmo, Sweden.

Central and Eastern European Film Competiton
21 years ago, the Cleveland International Film Festival launched a special focus on films from Central and Eastern Europe, the native lands of many Clevelanders. When we began our series, the world was a very different place: the Berlin Wall was still standing, the U.S.S.R. was still one country, and the Cold War was chilling out. Throughout these past two decades, the films from Central and Eastern Europe have changed dramatically due to filmmakers exerting their rights to make films without government involvement and censorship. We now see films from a plethora of genres, including colorful comedies, slice-of-life sketches, and unusual love stories. The results provide us with a rare and unique look inside the lives of the ordinary as well as the extraordinary.

One thing that has remained the same for the past 20 years is our commitment to bringing some of the most sought-after films from this area of the world to Cleveland. This year the CIFF is proud to present the eighth Central and Eastern European Film Competition. This competition not only gives recognition to the films coming to us from Central and Eastern Europe, but it also awards one filmmaker a $10,000 cash prize that will be announced at the Closing Night Reception.

Alive! (ALBANIA, AUSTRIA, FRANCE )
A Call Girl (CROATIA, GERMANY, SLOVENIA, SERBIA)
Chameleon (HUNGARY)
December Heat (ESTONIA)
The Happiest Girl in the World (ROMANIA, NETHERLANDS )
Hipsters (RUSSIA)
Honeymoons (SERBIA, ALBANIA)
Lost Times (HUGARY)
Ordinary People (SERBIA)
Protektor (CZECH REPUBLIC)
A Room and a Half, or a Sentimental Journey to the Homeland (RUSSIA)
Splinters (POLAND)
Ward No. 6 (RUSSIA)
Will Not Stop There (CROATIA, SERBIA)

We are honored to have these remarkable jurors join us this year:

Russ Collins has served as Executive Director of the Michigan Theater since 1982. He is the Co-chair of the Sundance Institute's Art House Project. He is also the National Conference Director of the Art House Convergence. Russ teaches film studies and arts administration at Eastern Michigan University. He is the host of Cinema Chat on National Public Radio affiliate WEMU and appears regularly as a film commentator on Ann Arbor radio station 107one.

Peter Knegt is the Associate Editor of New York-based online magazine indieWIRE, where he has been working since 2006. He holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Toronto, and a Master's degree in Media Studies from Concordia University in Montreal. He has contributed as a writer to several publications including Variety, Xtra!, Exclaim, Cannes Market News, HitFix, ION Magazine, and Playback. Additionally he has worked for the Reel Asian International Film Festival, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Image+Nation Montreal Gay and Lesbian Film and Video Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and co-programmed the inaugural year of the Reel Out Film Festival.

Harun Mehmedinovic spent most of his childhood in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Upon the conclusion of the Bosnian war in 1996, he moved to the United States and began working as a freelance designer, winning several international awards in Web and graphic design, including recognition from the U.S. Senate in 1998. Harun earned a Bachelor's degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied screenwriting and theater directing. In 2007, he received a Master's degree in Film Directing from the American Film Institute. His film "In the Name of the Son" won over 30 international awards, including Best Student Short Film at the 32nd CIFF.

Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition
The selections included in Standing Up are "films with a conscience." Standing Up celebrates social justice and activism by presenting films with messages that cannot and should not be ignored. Thanks to the generosity of The George Gund Foundation, Standing Up will remain as a permanent piece of our festival programming. An endowment grant in memory of Greg Gund has secured not only the permanence of the Standing Up section, but also a $5,000 cash prize associated with Standing Up (the winner to be determined by audience vote). Standing Up honors those with a different view of the world we live in and the continual fight to make it a better world. Standing Up honors the memory of Greg Gund.

Sponsored by:
The George Gund Foundation
Baker Hostetler

8: The Mormon Proposition (USA)
9000 Needles (USA, CHINA)
9500 Liberty (USA)
The Athlete (ETHIOPIA, USA)
Bananas!* (SWEDEN, USA, NICARAGUA)
Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride (CANADA)
City of Borders (ISRAEL, PALESTINE, USA )
Disco & Atomic War (ESTONIA, FINLAND)
The Elephant In the Living Room (USA)
Enemies of the People (UNITED KINGDOM, CAMBODIA)
Fire In the Heartland: Kent State, May 4th, and Student Protest in America (USA)
For the Life of Me (USA)
Garbo: The Spy (SPAIN)
Good Fortune (KENYA, USA)
Ingredients (USA)
Inside Hana's Suitcase (CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC)
Journey From Zanskar (USA, CHINA)
The Lottery (USA)
Louder Than a Bomb (USA)
No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson (USA)
No. 4 Street of Our Lady (USA)
Quest For Honor (IRAQI, USA)
Rachel Is (USA)
Soundtrack For A Revolution (USA)
Speaking in Tongues (USA)
Stolen (ALGERIA, MOROCCO, MAURITANIA, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, USA )
Warrior Champions (CHINA/USA)
What's On Your Plate? (USA)
Youngstown: Still Standing (USA)

The Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award for Best Film
Roxanne T. Mueller served as the film critic at the Plain Dealer from 1983 until 1988, when she lost a six-month battle with cancer at the age of 35. Mueller was a strong supporter of the Festival and through her writing helped to raise the general level of film appreciation in Cleveland. She was an exceptionally engaging writer who managed to weave personal insights into her film reviews, whether she was covering popular Hollywood fare or sophisticated foreign cinema. In its 12th year, the CIFF established The Plain Dealer Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award for Best Film to help bring this important festival friend back into focus a bit each year. Festival patrons rate each film they see and the most popular film is announced shortly after the Festival closes.