Oscar Hopeful

One of the highlights of the summer, particularly for film buffs, is the Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF). Now in its 16th season, the festival kicks off Tuesday, August 7 with a six-day celebration of independent cinema and film arts across the state. This is a special year for the fest as it is also the 30th anniversary of Flickers, the non-profit creator of RIIFF. With a wide following of filmmakers from around the globe, this is New England’s largest film festival and is also one of only 65 worldwide that are accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As matter of fact, 27 films that premiered at this festival have gone on to receive Oscar nominations, with six winning the award including last year’s The Shore, directed by Terry George, and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, directed by William Joyce.

This year should be no less exciting. “This has been a tremendous year for the festival,” says RIIFF Executive Director George T. Marshall. “Not only have entries been up significantly, but with the celebration of Flickers 30th anniversary, it allows us to look back at some of our older programming models and reintroduce them to new audiences.” It takes an army to narrow down the pool of entrants. “We have a team of adjudicators from across the globe,” he says, “[including] many former winners and filmmakers plus local committees of educators, members and film fans.”

Over 200-feature length, documentary and short films from 62 countries and 35 US states (including the festival’s home state of Rhode Island), will be screened at locations throughout the state, including Barrington. In the mix are several films presented by Rhode Island filmmakers including Breakfast with Curtis, directed by Laura Colella, Funeral Kings, directed by Kevin McManus and Matthew McManus and A Girl Like Her, directed by Ann Fessler, to name a few.

The Barrington Public Library has participated for the past two years with RIIFF and is one of the venues for this year’s festival. Deborah Barchi, Library Director, says, “The library enjoys participating in the outreach efforts of the Rhode Island International Film Festival and helps because it is a unique and creative program that has a lot of cache among Rhode Island filmmakers.” She continues to say that the library is behind the idea of creativity and lifelong learning.

In addition, the film festival will present International Cinematographer Guild’s honorees from the 15th Annual Emerging Cinematographer Awards at the Barrington Library. The tentative date and time for the film showing is August 11 at 2 pm.

In addition to its programs associated with RIIFF, the library programming includes an extensive film series and classes in filmmaking. Marshall says that Flickers and the film festival have been working with Barrington Library for the past five years to promote programs year–round.