Film festival

A film festival is the presentation or showcasing of film in one or more movie theater or screening venues. The films are usually of a recent date and, depending upon the focus of the individual festival, can include major international releases as well as those made outside a country's established film industry. Sometimes there is a focus on a specific genre (e.g. film noir) or subject (e.g. gay and lesbian film festivals). Film Festivals are typically annual events. The world's first major...

The Tombstone Western Film Festival and Symposium founded in 2001 is held in July in Tombstone, Arizona, an historic western mining town (and later ghost town) in the USA celebrated in western film as the site of the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral between Wyatt Earp and the Clantons and McLaurys. The program in the first year was devoted to retellings of tales from Tombstone, the second year to classic TV Western.

The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington, is purported to be the largest film festival in the United States, and among the top film festivals in the world. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. SIFF runs for more than three weeks (24 days) and features a diverse assortment of predominantly independent and foreign film and, in recent years, a strong contingent of documentaries. The 2006 festival ran May 25–June 18,...

The Toronto International Teen Movie Festival (ITMF) was a Canadian film festival that showcased the works of talented youth from Canada and around the world. The festival was held twice - in 2001 and 2002. YoungCuts Inc. acquired the festival in late 2004 and held the 2005 edition October 24 to 30, 2005 in Toronto. The festival has been renamed the "YoungCuts Film Festival". Submissions are currently being accepted. Call (514) 287-1062 for further info. ITMF past sponsors included Levis,...

The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan (the Republic of China) since 1962. The awards ceremony is usually held in November/December in Taipei, though the venue has been shifted around the island in recent times. The Golden Horse Film Awards are modelled after the Academy Awards and major film festival worldwide. The awards, contested by submitted Taiwan, Hong Kong, PRC films and from elsewhere, are generally thought to be the...

The VCU French Film Festival, an annual festival created by Drs. Peter S. Kirkpatrick and Françoise Ravaux-Kirkpatrick at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1993, is the largest festival of French film in the United States. Since 1993, it has welcomed a delegation totaling 160 directors, producers, actors, film scholars, critics, and French government officials. The festival usually takes place the last weekend of March, during which the entire city of Richmond, Virginia is filled with French...

The Biberach Independent Film Festival (B.I.F.F.) is a film festival that premiered in November 2004 in the southwestern German town of Biberach an der Riß, which is situated just south of Ulm. The festival is for a German audience and presents recent German and international shorts and documentaries. B.I.F.F. runs parallel to a local festival of German movies - the "Filmfest Biberach" - which focuses mainly on feature films. B.I.F.F. will again take place from October 29 to November 2, 2008....

The $100 Film Festival runs each March in Calgary. Created in 1992 by the Calgary Society of Independent Film Makers, the $100 film festival has always encouraged local film production. The festival showcases the work of local and regional independent artists working with traditional film. Spanning three days, it showcases the work of local, national and international filmmakers. The festival started as a challenge for filmmakers to a make low budget movie (with Super 8 film) for under $100....

The Sydney Film Festival is a non-competitive film festival that began in 1954. The festival runs for two weeks each year in June and showcases Australia, international and alternative films. The original committee to organise the film festival in Sydney comprised Alan Stout, Professor of Philosophy at Sydney University, as chair, John Heyer, John Kingsford Smith and Sydney University Film Group President David Donaldson. The first festival opened on June 11, 1954 and screened in four halls...

Cinéfest is an annual film festival in Sudbury, Ontario. It is the fourth largest film festival in Canada. First held in 1989, Cinéfest quickly became a popular destination for Canadian filmmakers. Unlike the larger film festivals in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, Cinéfest offered filmmakers a chance to gain exposure among more typical film audiences in a city with no regular venues for screening independent and non-mainstream films. Cinéfest presents an annual programme of over 100 films...

The Istanbul International Film Festival is the first and oldest international film festival in Turkey, organised by the Istanbul Foundation of Culture and Arts (IKSV), a non-profit organisation. It is held every year in April in movie theaters in Istanbul, Turkey. As mentioned in its regulations, the festival aims to encourage the development of cinema in Turkey and to promote films of quality in the Turkish cinema market. The Istanbul International Film Festival was first organized in 1982,...

The Deauville American Film Festival is a yearly film festival devoted to American cinema, taking place since 1975 in Deauville, France. It was established by Lionel Chouchan and André Halimi.Although not competitive at its origin, the festival began to award prizes in 1995, for feature film, and 1998 for short film.

The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival began in 1982 and is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society, a provincially-registered non-profit and federally-registered charitable organization. The festival shows both Canadian and international films, and has established a reputation as a stepping stone for many young Asia filmmakers. In 2004,...

The Slamdance Film Festival takes place each year in Utah at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival, competing with Sundance to provide what its supporters consider a truer representation of independent film-making. It champions beginning directors with no or limited budgets. The festival began in 1995. Other affiliated Slamdance film festivals have since been created internationally, in countries like China and Poland. Known as a festival "by filmmakers for filmmakers," Slamdance was...

The Ignite Film Festival is a Christian short film festival held annually in Sydney Town Hall. Film-makers were encouraged to make films based on parts of the bible that include water. Love Thy Neighbour - Directed by James Cogswell & Will Mitchell won the Anne Bladon Gospel Award for best film. Film-makers were encouraged to make films based on parables that Jesus told in the New Testament of the bible. Tim Andrews's film, The Great Feast won the Anne Bladon Gospel Award for best film.