Cleveland International Film Festival

39th Cleveland International Film Festival Winners Announced, Including Debra Granik's 'Stray Dog'

Zack Sharf — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 18:47:41 GMT

READ MORE: LAFF Review: Debra Granik's Doc 'Stray Dog' A Sensitive Portrait of Memory, Trauma, and Biker Culture

Showcasing 196 feature films and 234 short subjects from 60 countries, the 39th Cleveland International Film Festival offered local and global perspectives on a vast array of topics over its 12 days of programming. The CIFF welcomed 100,204 attendees, including Indiewire's Managing Editor Nigel M. Smith, who served on the Documentary Competition Jury, to its 500+ screenings, which were held in Tower City Cinemas in downtown Cleveland and 11 other neighborhood locations. The winners of the competitions and awards were announced at the Closing Night Ceremony last night, and they include:

Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award For Best Film
Sponsored by the Callahan Foundation
"Becoming Bulletproof," directed by Michael Barnett (USA)
$10,000 cash prize

George Gund III Memorial Central and Eastern European Competition
Presented with generous support from The George Gund Foundation
"The Fool," Directed by Yury Byko (Russia)
$10,000 cash prize

Nesnadny + Schwartz Documentary Competition
Sponsored by Nesnadny + Schwartz
"Stray Dog," Directed by Debra Granik (USA, Mexico)
$7,500 cash prize

Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Competition
Presented with generous support from The George Gund Foundation
"Limited Partnership," Directed by Thomas G. Miller (USA)
$5,000 cash prize

American Independents Competition
Presented with the generous support of Lauren Rich Fine and Gary Giller
"The Young Kieslowski," Directed by Kerem Sanga (USA)
$5,000 cash prize

Local Heroes Competition
Presented with the generous support of Mike and Nicki Cancelliere
"Forced Perspective," Directed by Nick Cavalier (USA)
$5,000 cash prize

Global Health Competition
Sponsored by Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine
"Becoming Bulletproof," directed by Michael Barnett (USA)
$5,000 cash prize

Music Movies Competition
Presented with the generous support of Jules and Fran Belkin
"Take Me to the River," Directed by Martin Shore (USA)
$5,000 cash prize

ReelWomenDirect Award for Excellence in Directing by a Woman
Presented with the generous support of Deborah Bachman RatnerAlexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli (for "Frame By Frame," Afghanistan)
$10,000 cash prize

FilmSlam Student Choice Award for Best Feature Film
"Becoming Bulletproof," Directed by Michael Barnett (USA)
$1,000 Cash Prize

Audience Choice Award for Best Short Subject
"Till Then," Directed by Benjamin Wolff (Germany, USA)
$1,000 Cash Prize

Best Animated Short Award
Sponsored by Reminger Co., L.P.A
"Bear Story," Directed by Pato Escala (Chile)
$1,000 cash prize

Best Live Action Short Award
Sponsored by Anne Bloomberg and Alan Gordon Lipson & Judy Harris
"Till Then," Directed by Benjamin Wolff (Germany, USA)
$1,000 cash prize

FilmSlam Student Choice Award for Best Short Film
"Super Pimp," Directed by John Jivan, Dustin Lee, Terry Geer, Ledion Isufaj, and Eric Schilling (USA)
$1,000 Cash Prize

Click here for a full list of short subject film award winners

READ MORE: Debra Granik on Following Up 'Winter's Bone' With a Documentary and Possibly Reuniting With Jennifer Lawrence

Sundance Favorite 'I'll See You In My Dreams' to Play Cleveland International Film Festival; Full Lineup Announced

Jena Keahon — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 17:40:01 GMT

The Cleveland International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its upcoming event, which takes place March 18-29 at Tower City Cinemas in Downtown Cleveland. CIFF will screen a record number of 193 feature films and 234 short films.

Opening the festival is "I'll See You In My Dreams," directed by Brett Haley and starring Blyth Danner, while Dan Fogelman's Pacino led "Danny Collins" will close the festival.

The 39th Cleveland International Film Festival Includes:

Features:

"The Incident"

"The Incredible Adventures of JoJo"

"Labyrinthus"

"Listening"

"Love Land"

"The Midnight Swim"

"Now We're Alive"

"Placebo"

"The Tribe"

"Violet"

Documentaries:

"20 Years of Madness"

"Alfred & Jakobine"

"Almost There"

"Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World"

"Big Moccasin"

"Don't Leave Me"

"Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon"

"An Honest Liar"

"I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story"

"In Country"

"Meet the Hitlers"

"Sam Klemke's Time Machine"

"Stray Dog"

"Sunshine Superman"

"Tab Hunter Confidential"

To see the full line up, visit the Cleveland International Film Festival website.

Cleveland International Film Festival Announces Winners of 38th Edition

Emerson Gordon — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 16:08:19 GMT

Celebrating record breaking crowds, the Cleveland International Film Festival welcomed 97,804 attendees to its 475+ screenings this year. Showcasing, 186 feature films and 168 shorts from 68 countries, the festival announced the winners of the competitions and awards at Sunday's Closing Night ceremony. They are all listed below:

Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award For Best Film:
"Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine" Directed by Michele Josue
$5,000 cash prize

George Gund III Memorial Central and Eastern Competition:
"Life Feels Good" Directed by Maciej Pieprzyca (Poland)
$10,000 cash prize

Nesnadny + Schwartz Documentary Competition:
"The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies" Directed by Wiktor Ericsson
$7,500 cash prize

Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Competition:
"Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine" Directed by Michele Josue
$5,000 cash prize

American Independents Competition:
"A Birder's Guide to Everything" Directed by Rob Meyer
$5,000 cash prize

Local Heroes Competition:
"The Sax Man" Directed by Joe Siebert
$5,000 cash prize

Global Health Competition:
"The Starfish Throwers" Directed by Jesse Roesler
$5,000 cash prize

Music Movies Competition:
"The Winding Stream" Directed by Beth Harrington
$5,000 cash prize

ReelWomenDirect Award for Excellence in Directing by a Woman:
Claudia Pinto Emperador (for "The Longest Distance")
$7,500 cash prize

Audience Choice Award for Best Short Subject:
"Fool's Day" Directed by Cody Blue Snider
$1,000 Cash Prize

*Best Animated Short Award:
"The Numberlys" Directed by Brandon Oldenburg & William Joyce
$1,000 cash prize

*Best Live Action Short Award:
"For the Birds" Directed by Tara Atashgah
$1,000 cash prize

The two asterisked shorts will qualify for consideration in the Short Films category at the Academy Awards.

35th Annual Cleveland Film Fest Breaks Records, Awards "Letterman" and More

Bryce J. Renninger — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:55:56 GMT

At the end of the 35th annual Cleveland Film Festival, the fest's Executive Director Marcie Goodman and Artistic Director Bill Guentzler celebrated with other staff members and the greater Cleveland community. The festival took over ten theaters in a multiplex in downtown Cleveland and experienced record-breaking attendance numbers.

Commenting on the record-breaking year, Guentzler noted, "Once again, the audience of the Cleveland International Film Festival has astounded the staff. With close to a 10% increase this year we have realized that our audience has embraced the very thing we are trying to accomplish. By embedding ourselves within our community by outreach allows us to program challenging films that sell as much as the typical 'crowd-pleasers.' There are no words to describe what this means to us as a staff, our aim is to make Cleveland a better place to live, and to watch it actually happen is amazing."

The complete list of winners at the festival is below... Read more about the fest and the winners here.

Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award for Best Film Winner
"Vincent Wants to Sea," Ralf Huettner (Germany)

Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition Winner
"Dying to Do Letterman," Joke Fincioen & Biagio Messina (USA)

Central & Eastern European Film Competition Winner
"If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle," Florin Serban (Romania)

Central & Eastern European Film Competition Special Mention for Cinematography
"Venice," Jan Jakub Kolski (Poland)

Central & Eastern European Film Competition Jury Mention
"The Ugly Duckling," Garri Bardin (Russia)

Nesnadny + Schwartz Documentary Competition Winner
"Steam of Life," Joonas Berghall & Mika Hotakainen (Finland)

Nesnadny + Schwartz Documentary Competition Jury Mention
"Eleanore & The Timekeeper," Danièle Wilmouth (USA)

Best American Independent Award
"Hamill," Oren Kaplan (USA)

Cleveland State University Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film
"Carjack," Jeremiah Jones (USA)

Best Animated Short Film
"The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore," William Joyce & Brandon Oldenburg (USA)

Best Live Action Short Film
"Carjack," Jeremiah Jones (USA)

Best Documentary Short Film
"Save the Farm," Michael Kuehnert (USA)

Best International Short Film
"Drop Dead!," Ame Toonen (Netherlands)

Best LGBT Short Film
"Same Difference," Catherine Opie & Lisa Udelson (USA)

Best Ohio Short Film
"Girlfriends Club," Dale Omori & Diane Suchetka (USA)

Best Student Short Film
"11 Weeks," Dipesh Jain (India/USA)

Best Women’s Short Film
"Secret Friend," Flavio Alves (Brazil/USA)

Rice Hershey Memorial Award for Originality
"Moving Day," Jason Wingrove (Australia)

The Clover & Maggie Award (In Celebration of Life)
"Na Wewe," Ivan Goldschmidt (Belgium)

The Spalding and Jackson Award (In Celebration of Joy)
"God of Love," Luke Matheny (USA)

"Blossoms" Wins Cleveland's Audience Award

Peter Knegt — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:15:12 GMT

The 33rd Cleveland International Film Festival, which ran March 19-29, has announced its festival winners. The festival, which saw a 27% increase in attendance over last year featured 68 sold-out screenings from 143 feature films.

Audience Choice Awards:

The 2009 Cleveland Magazine Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award for Best Film:
Cherry Blossoms Directed by Doris Doerie, Germany

Runners-Up:
The Way We Get By Directed by Aron Gaudet (USA)
Sin By Silence Directed by Olivia Klaus (USA)
Herb and Dorothy Directed by Megumi Sasaki (USA)
Forgotten Transports: To Estonia Directed by Lukas Pribyl (Czech Republic)
Prom Night in Mississippi Directed by Paul Saltzman (USA)

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 and the establishment of an endowment in memory of Greg Gund, Standing Up and its $5,000 cash prize will remain a permanent part of the Cleveland International Film Festival.

Determined by audience vote, the 2009 Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition Award went to:
The Way We Get By Directed by Aron Gaudet (USA)

American Independent Award

The winner of the $2,500 cash prize for the 2009 American Independent Film Competition as determined by audience vote was:
Prince of Broadway Directed by Sean Baker (USA)

Central and Eastern European Film Competition:

The winner of the $10,000 cash prize for the Central and Eastern European Film Competition was:
The Investigator Directed by Attila Gigor (Hungary)

Nesnady + Schwartz Documentary Film Competition:

The winner of the $5,000 cash prize for the 2009 Nesnadny + Schwartz Documentary Film Competition was:
Trinidad Directed by PJ Raval & Jay Hodges (USA)

Independent Shorts Jury Awards Program:

Best Animated Short Film Award:
Hungu - Winner Directed by Nicolas Brault (Canada)

Best Documentary Short Film Award:
Down Here - Winner Directed by Charles Wilkenson (Canada)

Best International Short Film Award:
Surprise! - WInner Directed by Barrice Marucar (France)

Best LGBT Short Film:
Second Guessing Grandma Directed by Bob Giraldi (USA)

Best Live Action Short Film Award:
Gilles - Winner Directed by Constant Mentzas (Canada)

Best Student Short Film Award:
Kwame Directed by Edward Osei-Gyimah (USA)

Best Women's Short Film Award:
Love, Sadie Directed Naiti Gamez (USA)

The Clover and Maggie Award: In Celebration of Life
Forget-Me-Not Directed by Katia Grivot (France)

Jesse Epstein Humanitarian Award
Crossing Midnight Directed by Kim Synder (USA)

Kodak Best Ohio Short Film Award
Operation Falcon Directed by Tim O'Hara (USA)

The Spalding Award: In Celebration of Joy
Bronx Balletomane Directed by Jeremy Joffee (USA)

The 2009 Cleveland State University Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film
Toyland Directed by Jochen Alexander Freydank (Germany)

Check out indieWIRE's New Guide to Film Festivals (listings will be updated throughout the year):
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