R.I. International Film Festival names award winners

Rhode Island International Film Festival
ROGER WILLIAMS University partnered with Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival to present a spring edition of the Roving Eye Film Festival – the RWU Jewish Experience Series, focusing on the global Jewish experience through film, scholarship and storytelling.

PROVIDENCE – The Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival on Wednesday announced the award winners from its 19th festival.
Winners were recognized on Aug. 9 at the annual awards ceremony at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum downtown.
Winners of the “Best Short Film” and “Best Documentary” grand prizes will become the festival’s nominees for Academy Award consideration, according to a news release from the film festival.
“Picnic,” directed by Jure Pavlovi? from Croatia that takes place in Sarajevo during rush hour, won the grand prize for best short film. The story is about Emir, who is on his way to meet his father for a weekend picnic at Igman, a semi-open penitentiary, but is late due to heavy traffic.
The “The House is Innocent,” directed by Nicholas Coles, won the grand prize for best documentary, a film about a couple’s new home with a macabre history.
The festival, which was held from Aug. 4 to 9, featured films at venues throughout the state, from Newport to Woonsocket, with Providence serving as the hub for activities.
“Thanks to Steven Feinberg, the R.I. Film & Television Office, Kristen Adamo at the Providence/Warwick CVB, and Lynne McCormack with the city of Providence, we knocked the ball out of the park, raising the bar for the future and next year’s 20th anniversary edition of the festival,” George T. Marshall, the film festival’s executive director, said in a statement.
Shawn Quirk, the film festival’s program director, said the festival had “a spectacular lineup of provocative and engaging new films.”
Altogether, the festival screened 265 feature-length, documentary and short films from 54 countries and 34 states across the nation.
Films were selected from a record entry base of 5,713 submissions, according to RIIFF.
Lynne McCormack of Providence’s Art, Culture + Tourism department received the George M. Cohan Ambassador Award, which is presented semi-annually to an outstanding artist.
Chris Sparling also received the Robert Burgess Aldrich Award, given semi-annually to an outstanding Rhode Island artist. The award is presented jointly in collaboration with the R.I. Film & Television Office.

And, George Billard of New York won the RIIFF grand prize screenplay award for “Dispossessed.”
Receiving Producer’s Circle Awards were:

  • Barbara Barnes, R.I. Historical Society
  • Pamela Kimel, RISD Museum
  • Ellen Loconto, Just Ellen’s Catering and Event Planning
  • Louise Moulton, Providence Public Library

Among the top categories, “Picnic” won the grand prize for “Best Short Film,” while “Monstre” (Monster), directed by Delphine Girard of Belgium took first prize.
In the “Best Documentary Short” category, “The House is Innocent” took the grand prize, while two films tied for first prize, “We Live This,” directed by James Burns, and “The Beauty of Barbara Allen,” directed by Jackson Anthony. All three filmmakers are from the U.S.
Other award winners can be found HERE.

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