Ad Hoc Docs Competition

Audiences at the CIFF love documentaries. Over the past several years almost half of the feature films we have presented have been documentaries, and they have won the Roxanne T. Mueller Award in each of the last six years.

In order to showcase more of these amazing stories than ever before, we’re excited to present this new competition featuring topics, subjects, and stories that go beyond the descriptions of our other competitions.

Based on audience vote, the winner of this competition will be announced at our Closing Night Ceremony and receive a $7,500 cash prize.

Competition Presented by:

Anne E. Bloomberg

American Independents Competition

With big dreams and small budgets, these films represent the finest in contemporary American cinema. Based on audience vote, this year's competition will yield an increased cash prize of $7,500 to the winner announced at the Closing Night Ceremony.

Competition Presented by:

Mike and Nicki Cancelliere

Audience Choice Award for Best Short

Sponsored by Jive City Recordings

Best After Hours Short

Sponsored by Friends of Patrick McFadden

Best Animated Short

sponsored by Reminger Co., L.P.A.

This award winner will quality for consideration in the Shorts Films category of the annual Academy Awards.

Best Comedy Short

sponsored by David K. Ream

Best Documentary Short

sponsored by Jules and Fran Belkin

Best Family Short

Best International Short

sponsored by MP Star Financial

Best LGBT Short

sponsored by Jan and Harold Babbit

Best Live Action Short

sponsored by Anne Bloomberg and Alan Gordon Lipson & Judy Harris

Best Music Video

Sponsored by Ken Robinson

Best Ohio Short

sponsored by Oswald Companies

Best Student Short

sponsored by MP Star Financial

Best Women's Short

sponsored by Jinny and John Johnson

FilmSlam Student Choice Award for Best Feature

sponsored by Overdrive

FilmSlam Student Choice Award for Best Short

sponsored by Overdrive

George Gund III Memorial Central and Eastern European Film Competition

Twenty-eight years ago at the 14th CIFF, we launched a special focus on films from Central and Eastern Europe, the native lands of many Clevelanders. This year the CIFF is proud to present its 16th Central and Eastern European Competition. And, for the sixth year, we are deeply honored to present this competition in loving memory of George Gund III with the support of an endowment from The George Gund Foundation. 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 our Closing Night Ceremony.

Competition Presented by:

Jurors:

Craig Prater – Craig Prater, President of Heartland International Film Festival, joined the 27-year-old organization in 2016. Previously, he served with entertainer Sonny Bono as the Executive Director of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, co-founded the PS International Short Film Festival, and co-founded the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival. After his tenure in Palm Springs, he was hired by the Royal Thai government as the Executive Director of the Bangkok International Film Festival for five years. More recently, and prior to his position at Heartland, he served as the Vice President of Strategic Planning of the San Diego International Film Festival and Executive Director of the San Diego Jewish Film Festival. In addition, Craig launched the Cultural Journey to India (2017) and the new Indy Shorts, both produced by Heartland Film.

Meredith Shea – Meredith Shea is an Associate Director of Membership and Awards at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. She oversees the Animated Feature and Foreign Language Film Oscar categories, along with the Directors, Film Editors, and Writers branches. She is actively involved with The Academy's efforts to increase the international profile and diversity of its membership. Meredith began her career in the arts at The Everett Collection, a Manhattan film archive and photo agency. She is a graduate of St. John's University in New York City. The Academy is a global community of more than 8,000 of the most accomplished artists, filmmakers, and executives working in film, where they celebrate and recognize excellence in filmmaking through The Oscars.

Wieland Speck – Wieland Speck is an advisor for the official program of the Berlin International Film Festival. Previously he was the Director of the Berlin International Film Festival's Panorama section for 25 years and an assistant to the Panorama Director for ten years. He is a lecturer at various institutes, including dffb (German Film and TV Academy), Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, HFF Babelsberg, and Filmakademie Ludwigsburg. Wieland is also a film curator for numerous institutions. He regularly publishes articles on filmmaking, film marketing, and scriptwriting. He studied German literature, theatre arts, and ethnology at Freie Universität Berlin and filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Global Health Competition

The CIFF has always recognized the power of film to change people’s viewpoints about the world. This competition includes films that delve into human health-related issues (both mental and physical) and films about the health of the environment. The films in this competition will introduce our audience to an entire array of health-related issues and encourage us to question the true definition of health as it relates to individuals and the entire planet.

This year the CIFF is proud to present our fifth Global Health Competition. Based on audience vote, the winner of this competition will be announced at our Closing Night Reception and receive a $7,500 cash prize.

Competition Presented by:

Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Competition

In 2005 The George Gund Foundation granted the CIFF with an endowment to create the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Competition as a tribute to Greg Gund. Greg’s friends and family described him as “intensely creative and talented, and wholly without pretension.” For five years Greg lived in Playa Negro near Tamarindo, Costa Rica where he immersed himself by becoming part of the local community. As much as he deeply loved his home there, Greg was also an extensive world traveler with an adventurous spirit and an insatiable curiosity about different cultures and people. He lived by this Mahatma Gandhi quote inscribed in his passport: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Greg died at the age of 32 in a small plane crash off the Pacific Coast on July 16, 2005.

Our Standing Up program includes “films with a conscience.” Standing Up started as a sidebar to focus on films with the mission to change the world and grew into a celebration of activism and the fight for social justice. Many of these films highlight personal stories featuring individuals who set out to teach lessons on how to live a better life. One of the aspects all these films share is the impact they make on viewers long after the credits roll. Through the films, Standing Up honors Greg Gund—as well as others with a different view of the world—and the continual fight to make it better.

Based on audience vote, the winner of this competition will be announced at our Closing Night Ceremony and receive a $7,500 cash prize.

Competition Presented by:

International Narrative Competition

The CIFF is the best way in Cleveland to experience the different cultures, languages, and customs fo the entire world. We are recognized for our well-rounded international program, and this year we're happy to give back to the world with a new competition.

Based on audience vote, the winner of this competition will be announced at our Closing Night Ceremony and recieve a $7,500 cash prize.

Competition Presented by:

Tom Piraino & Barbara McWilliams

Local Heroes Competition

Local Heroes is our annual celebration of films made about Ohio, in Ohio, or by Ohioans. We are honored to once again support these films and filmmakers, hoping to empower the already booming independent film community of Cleveland and Ohio alike. Based on audience vote, this year’s competition will yield a $7,500 cash prize to the winner announced at our Closing Night Ceremony.

Competition Presented by:

Lauren Rich Fine & Gary Giller

Music Movies Competition

At the 30th CIFF we launched our Music Movies Sidebar, which has since grown into a grouping of some of our most popular films each Festival. For the fifth year in a row, we’re happy to showcase these films even more and continue the Music Movies Competition. Comprised of documentaries and narratives, this competition is based on audience vote and awards the winner with a $7,500 cash prize, which willbe announced at our Closing Night Ceremony.

Competition Presented by:

Jules and Fran Belkin

Nesnadny + Schwartz Portrait Documentary Competition

The Nesnadny + Schwartz Portrait Documentary Competition is dedicated to the life and work of our long-time board member and friend Mark Schwartz (1956-2014).

For 14 years, the CIFF has presented the Nesnadny + Schwartz Documentary Competition. Last year, we celebrated the life of Mark Schwartz with a sharper focus on portrait documentaries. We are proud to continue this focus. The subjects in these documentaries are determined, dedicated, and daring. The films themselves are artistic, passionate, and insightful. This competition celebrates people who exemplify the characteristics that were very much the essence of Mark himself.

Nesnadny + Schwartz (www.NSideas.com) is a renown graphic design studio 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.

Portrait documentaries in competition that are screening in the Festival will be viewed by our panel of jurors throughout the week. The winner will be announced at our Closing Night Ceremony, receiving a cash prize of $10,000.

Competition Presented by:

Jurors:

Michael Albright – Michael Albright is the Programming Director for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Michael received his M.A. from UCLA in cinema and media studies and his Ph.D. in film and media studies at UCSB. He teaches film studies and documentary production courses at several colleges in Southern California, including Chapman University. Michael began his career as a documentary filmmaker in New York City as an intern with Albert Maysles. This sparked his interest in hand-held cinematography, which is the subject of his current book project. In addition to his own production company, Moonpix, Michael founded Project Moonshine, a nonprofit organization designed to teach documentary filmmaking to high school students. Project Moonshine's first documentary, "Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake" (2006), received international recognition.

Sandrine Cassidy – Sandrine Faucher Cassidy is Senior Director of Festivals and Distribution at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. She counsels and mentors students and alumni, helping them strategize on how to best show and promote their short films and independent features. She helps build that vital bridge between film school, the festival circuit, and the film industry. USC's catalog of short films stands at more than 3,000 projects and grows in number every year. Sandrine licenses these archived films to theatrical and television outlets around the world. With over 20 years of experience in the film industry and international festivals dating back to her position as a film promoter at Unifrance Film International, Sandrine has made a career specializing in the distribution and exhibition of short and independent films.

Michele Josue – Michele Josue is an award-winning Filipino-American filmmaker from Burtonsville, Maryland and a graduate of Emerson College's film program. Her critically acclaimed feature film debut, "Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine," is the winner of ten Best Documentary and Audience Choice Awards including the Roxanne T. Mueller Award at CIFF38. Michele and the film, which is now available worldwide on Netflix, recently won a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Special Class Special." Michele was selected for the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam's World Documentary Exchange filmmaker program in 2013 and has received The Reel Affirmations' Keith Clark & Barry Becker Filmmaker Award.

New Direction Competition

At the 39th CIFF we premiered our focus on debut directors whose innovative films transform the traditional notions of cinematic storytelling. Thanks to the support of CoverMyMeds, we are proud to present our third New Direction Competition. Screening within this competition are films created by emerging filmmakers who we believe will define the future of filmmaking. Films in competition that are screening in the Festival will be viewed by our panel of jurors throughout the week. The winner will be announced at our Closing Night Ceremony, receiving a cash prize of $10,000.

Competition Presented by:

Jurors:

Opal Bennett – Opal H. Bennett programs for several film festivals. She curates shorts at the Nantucket Film Festival and DOC NYC, and she is a Programmer with Aspen ShortsFest and Athena Film Festival. In addition, she is an Assistant Programmer with Tribeca Film Festival. Opal is also a Programming Consultant for the March on Washington and Over-the-Rhine Film Festivals. She has served on juries for SXSW, NewFest, Leuven ShortsFest, and Queens World Film Festival. She has also served on advisory and grant panels.

Brendan Gallagher – Brendan Gallagher is Executive Vice President of Gravitas Ventures, LLC, where he oversees business and legal affairs, including negotiating the various license agreements among Gravitas and its hundreds of filmmakers and distribution partners. Brendan also serves as part of Gravitas' acquisitions team, attending major film festivals and markets throughout the year, as well as contributing to Gravitas' foreign sales efforts.

Cara Ogburn – Cara Ogburn is the Programming & Education Director for Milwaukee Film, which hosts the annual Milwaukee Film Festival. In 2017 this 15-day film festival boasted an attendance of over 84,000 for 297 films (shorts, features, and VR shorts). This summer the festival will be assuming operation of the historic Oriental Theatre year-round. Cara began working for Milwaukee Film seasonally in 2011 and joined the year-round staff in 2013 to oversee the organization's Education programs for audiences of all ages. She was promoted in 2015 to also direct the Programming Department, guiding the process and team that curates all content presented on- and off-screen during the festival and year-round.

Perspectives Award for Immersive Storytelling

Programmers' Choice Award - In Celebration of the life of Toni Oliverio

In memory of long-time CIFF shorts programmer, Toni Oliverio. The award will be accompanied by a $1,000 cash prize.

ReelWomenDirect Award for Excellence in Directing by a Woman

We are thrilled to once again celebrate female filmmakers at the Cleveland International Film Festival. The ReelWomenDirect Award, based on audience vote, will be presented to a woman director at our Closing Night Ceremony, accompanied by a $10,000 cash prize. In an industry historically dominated by men, we are honored to showcase these women–who make up 37% of our feature filmmakers–and the empowered female perspectives they provide within their films.

Competition Presented by:

Deborah Bachman Ratner

Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award

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 36. 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 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 at our Closing Night Reception. The Callahan Foundation, started in 1968 by Cleveland nuclear engineer, inventor, and businessman Joe Callahan, joins us in celebrating the 28th year of this renowned award with a $15,000 cash prize to the winner.

The Clover and Maggie Award

sponsored by Barbara Hawley and David Goodman

The Spalding and Jackson Award

sponsored by Marcie Goodman and John C. Williams