Ad Hoc Docs Competition

Audience at the CIFF love documentaries.

Over the past several years, almost half of the feature films we have presented have been documentaries, which have won the Roxanne T. Mueller Award six of the past seven years. We’re excited to once again present this 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. BloombergTom and Anita Cook

American Independents Competition

With big dreams and small budgets, these films represent the finest in contemporary American cinema.

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:

Mike and Nicki Cancelliere

George Gund III Memorial Central and Eastern European Competition

Thirty 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 18th Central and Eastern European Competition. And, for the eighth year, we are deeply honored to showcase this competition in loving memory of George Gund III with the support of an endowment from The George Gund Foundation.

As determined by our jury, the winnner of this competition will be announced at our Closingn Night Ceremony and receive a $10,000 cash prize.

Competition Presented by:

Jurors:

Ryan Keating-Lambert – Ryan Keating-Lambert is a screen studies and journalism student from Australia, who's been working as a film journalist and blogger in Prague, Czechia for the last ten years. He primarily writes for his blog, Movie Barf, regularly attends screenings and festivals, and has a fierce passion for European cinema and horror. On top of that, he regularly presents and organizes screenings and debates of foreign films at the new Edison Filmhub in downtown Prague. He also recently published his first short film screenplay in the international literary journal, armorolla, and will start a podcast later this year called Kino Vino, focusing exclusively
on the faces of the Czech film industry.

Dagmar Raduam – Dagmar Raudam was born in Estonia. She worked in The Estonian National Drama Theatre for 17 years as the sound master and project manager. She obtained her bachelor degree in Foreign Relations and worked in The Estonian Foreign Ministry for several years, during which time she was also posted in Georgia, Tbilisi, where she was responsible for cultural affairs. She is the author of several books: bestseller My Georgia (2010), Catwalk (2014), and My New York (2016). She has also been a co-writer for the Estonian TV show, Mägede Varjud (2013), translated an Italian play to Estonian for the theater, and written several screenplays and numerous film reviews to different outlets. Ten years ago she joined Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia as a programmer and the head of the film guests department.

Daniel Vadocky – Daniel Vadocky has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Trnava and in Film Studies from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. He has lectured on philosophy and aesthetics and has published articles on world cinema, film history, and theory in various magazines and newspapers. He is a Programmer of the short film competitive and non- competitive feature film section, "American Indies," at the Art Film Fest in Slovakia. Daniel worked as Head of Sales at The National Film Archive in Prague and has been a member of international juries in Tallinn, Budapest, Uppsala, and Malmö, among others. Currently, he works
as a Sales and Festival Agent for Negativ Film Productions.

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 selections in this competition will encourage viewers to question the true definition of health as it relates to individuals and the planet.

This year the CIFF is proud to present our seventh Global Health Competition.

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:

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 in 2005.

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. Our Standing Up Competition includes “films with a conscience.” 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 a great way for Clevelanders to experience the different cultures, languages, and customs of the entire world.

We are recognized for our well-rounded international program, and we’re happy to showcase films from around the globe in the third year of this competition. 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:

Tom Piraino & Barbara McWilliams

International Narrative Films sponsored by:

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

Competition Presented by:

Lauren Rich Fine

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 seventh year in a row, we’re happy to showcase these films as we continue the Music Movies Competition, which is comprised of documentaries and narratives. 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:

Jules and Fran Belkin

Nesnadny + Schwartz Portrait Documentary Competition

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

For more than 15 years, N+S has sponsored the CIFF Documentary Competition. Four years ago, we focused more exclusively on portrait documentaries. Like Mark himself, the subjects in these documentaries are determined, dedicated, and daring. The same qualities define the best of what art can achieve in all mediums, including graphic design.

The films are artistic and passionate, telling stories with insight, power, and revelation. Never a man to back down from controversy, this genre of filmmaking exemplifies the way Mark led his life and ran his design firm. Since his death, the firm has continued to honor his vision. Their work is big and bold, grounded in logic, and informed by research.

Portrait documentaries in competition that are screening in the Festival will be viewed by our panel of jurors throughout the week.

As determined by our jury, the winner of this competition will be announced at our Closing Night Ceremony and receive a $10,000 cash prize.

Competition Presented by:

Jurors:

Mara Bresnahan – Mara Bresnahan currently serves as the Accessibility Consultant for the Netflix documentary, "Crip Camp," (Sundance 2020 Audience Award) and was the Festival Director for the Boston ReelAbilities Disability Film Festival from 2015-2019. In addition, she is the Artist Programs Manager for Camden International Film Festival and Short Documentary Programmer for the Brooklyn Film Festival. She has served as a documentary feature juror for IFFBoston and was a lead programmer for the 2018 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. An avid fan and creator of nonfiction storytelling, she is in post-production on the documentary, "Vulterville," and the podcast, The Hardest Thing.

Lela Meadow-Conner – Lela Meadow-Conner was a founder of the Tallgrass Film Festival and served in leadership roles within that organization for 15 years. She has worked as a consultant for the Woods Hole Film Festival and the Bentonville Film Festival for the last three years and has served as the Executive Director of the Film Festival Alliance (FFA), a non-profit networking and professionals organization for film festivals and the people who run them. In 2019 Lela began her own award-winning screening series, mamafilm, that unites nurturers of all kinds, ignites conversation, reflects upon our shared human experience, and supports the work of creators who are also nurturers and caregivers.

Greg Sorvig – Greg Sorvig leads the artistic vision and film programming department for Heartland Film and its Academy Award®-qualifying Indy Shorts International Film Festival and Heartland International Film Festival events in Indianapolis. Greg is also a member of the Tribeca Film Festival shorts screening team and recently served as an Arts Works II 2019 grants panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts.

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 fifth 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.

As determined by our jury, the winner of this competition will be announced at our Closing Night Ceremony and receive a $10,000 cash prize.

Competition Presented by:

Jurors:

Dominic Davis – Dominic Davis is the Senior Programmer at Rooftop Films, the country's largest outdoor showcase for independent cinema. Dominic has a degree in mass media studies and political science from the University of Kentucky. In 2011 he took a job with the film office of the Sundance Film Festival, where he discovered film programming as a profession. He has previously programmed films for the American Museum of Natural History and the Tribeca Film Festival, served on grant juries for Catapult Film Fund and Creative Capital, and served on advisory panels and film juries across the globe. When not watching movies, he goes on very long runs.

Lauren Jane Holland – Lauren Jane Holland is an executive in scripted television at Creative Artists Agency. Lauren began her career working on Capitol Hill and subsequently in higher education policy. Concurrently, Lauren started working with BlackStar Film Festival, first managing corporate partnerships and then programming. She was also a programmer for Outfest 2019. She is a fellow of the third annual Industry Academy at Film Society of Lincoln Center. And she is a proud graduate of Howard University.

RJ Millard – RJ Millard has worked in the entertainment industry for over 25 years. He currently runs his own marketing, publicity, and sales agency, Obscured Pictures. Clients include Bleecker Street, Amazon Studios, Focus Features, IMAX, Roadside Attractions, A24, IFC Films, and Broad Green Pictures. He has overseen campaigns for top filmmakers from Steven Soderbergh ("The Laundromat") to Jim Jarmusch ("Dead Don't Die"). And he has run awards campaigns for multiple Academy Award®- nominated films. He previously held top positions at Focus Features, Samuel Goldwyn Films/Roadside Attractions, and the Sundance Film Festival.

ReelWomenDirect Award for Excellence in Directing by a Woman

We are thrilled to once again celebrate female filmmakers at the CIFF.

In an industry historically dominated by men, we are honored to showcase these women–who make up nearly 39% of our feature filmmakers–and the empowered female perspectives they provide within their films.

Based on audience vote, the winning director of this award will be announced at our Closing Night Ceremony and receive a $10,000 cash prize.

Competition Presented by:

Deborah Bachman Ratner