When the 25th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival opens Tuesday at the Rustic Tri-View Drive In, patrons might see a new short film headed to the Academy Awards.
Last year, six RIIFF entries were nominated for Oscars, and two won: “Colette,” about a now 90-year-old former French Resistance fighter, honored as Best Documentary, and “If Anything Happens I Love You,” named Best Animation Short.
RIIFF is a qualifying festival in Oscar short-film categories of live action, documentary and animation, and over the past 25 years, there have been 77 Oscar nominees and 13 winners. Festival organizer George T. Marshall says there should be more this year among the 400 films – chosen from 6,843 submissions from around the world – that will be screened in-person and online during the festival, Aug. 9-15.
With the pandemic still creating its own drama, the Rustic, 1195 Eddie Dowling Highway, North Smithfield, offers a safe location for live screenings, providing plenty of outdoor space for social distancing as well as indoor space in cars. Melony Forcier, director of operations for Your Neighborhood Theatres, which includes the Rustic, says, “We had a lot of people looking to drive-ins for things like graduations and high school senior nights,” during COVID lockdowns, but welcomed the festival last year and this as a perfect fit because, after all, “We are a movie venue.”
If there is an up-side in coping with a pandemic, online screenings – and the wide audience they attract – may be it. Last year, more than 47,000 people around the world were able to watch RIIFF films via the festival’s streaming platform, according to Marshall, executive director of Flickers, the Newport Film Society and Arts Collaborative, creator of the RIIFF. Moreover, most of the online events can be accessed for free.
But live events at sites across the state still are the signature of the RIIFF, starting with a Preview Night by the Beach on Monday, Aug. 9, at the Misquamicut Drive-In, 316 Atlantic Ave., Westerly. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. and vehicle positioning is first-come, first-served.
The official Opening Night Celebration at the Rustic on Tuesday, Aug. 10, is a showcase for domestic and international short films – the ones open to Oscar nominations -- followed by a feature-length film.
The Rustic also is the location for a Local Filmmakers Night on Thursday, Aug. 12, billed as a salute to filmmakers from throughout New England. For all these drive-in events, tickets are $20 per car and must be ordered online in advance.
More screenings will take place Monday, Aug. 9, through Wednesday, Aug. 11, at the Rooftop at the Providence G, 100 Dorrance St., Providence, where animated shorts and locally produced feature-length films are on tap, along with an evening devoted to Quebecois cinema presented in partnership with the Quebec Delegation of Boston, the Rhode Island Historical Society and Woonsocket’s Museum of Work and Culture, which has been involved since the early days of the RIIFF.
Art house films are among those featured Thursday and Friday, Aug. 12 and 13, on an outdoor screen at the WaterFire Arts Center. 475 Valley St., Providence, thanks to sponsorship from the Sony Corporation.
Finally, Motif Magazine partners with RIIFF for the Providence Underground Film Festival on Wednesday, Aug. 11, at Dusk Lounge, 301 Harris Ave., billed as a showcase for local filmmakers and their work.
In 25 years, a lot has changed about the RIIFF, Marshall observes, including its size and reach.
“The first year, I had to sell the idea of film as an art form,” Marshall notes. He was amazed, however, when the call for entries for the newbie event attracted 400 submissions.
Back then, the RIIFF accepted 35mm or 16mm film, which required bulky production equipment and projectors. Today, “Everything comes on thumb drives,” he says, and projectors are digital.
Accessible technology also has opened filmmaking to virtually anyone with a smartphone, anywhere in the world. This year’s entries came from 103 countries, from Afghanistan to Vietnam, and from 34 of the United States.
In addition to attracting film fans, RIIFF always has presented events geared to filmmakers, screenwriters and people in the industry. This year’s lineup includes online webinars, industry workshops, the ScriptBiz seminar, plus a screenplay and teleplay competition to give writers well deserved recognition.
Industry experience is why students sign up to be RIIFF interns, and this year’s group of 32 come from colleges and universities throughout New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Marshall notes that former intern Amelia Allwarden of New Hampshire went on to become an editor on the HBO series “Westworld.”
The full schedule of events could fill many paper pages, but once again, technology comes to the rescue with a detailed and evolving list available online at the Festival Online Program Guide at http://prog.tsharp.xyz/en/riiff/39/.
As noted, most online programming is free, except for several world premiere titles which come with a $2 fee. Drive-in events cost $20 per vehicle, and advance tickets must be ordered online at www.rifilmfest.org or at the Festival Online Program Guide noted above.
Information is available at www.rifilmfest.org, by calling (401) 861-4445, sending email to info@film-festival.org, or regular mail to RIIFF, 83 Park St., Suite 5, Providence, RI 02903.
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