When: April 14 at 4:30 p.m. and April 15 at 2:00 p.m.
Where: Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts
FREE ADMISSION
The 4th annual Centrally Isolated Film Festival (CIFF) will showcase short films created by students from the central and upstate New York region. This year’s festival will be held April 14 and 15 at Cornell’s Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Founded in 2013, the festival aims to highlight the achievements of local student filmmakers while providing them with feedback from industry professionals.
The festival is being organized by Naomi Hill ‘17 and a group of Cornell undergraduates, with the guidance of Department of (PMA) associate professor Sabine Haenni. When asked what sets this year’s festival apart from previous years, Hill said, “CIFF is finally starting to get word-of-mouth recognition among other upstate New York schools. This year we have an especially enthusiastic and committed group of students helping to organize the festival.”
This year, the festival received submissions from undergraduate and graduate students from Binghamton University, University at Buffalo, City College of New York, Cornell University, Ithaca College, RIT, and Syracuse University. All of the short films are under twenty minutes long and among the wide variety of submissions are several short animations, according to Hill.
Both screenings will be followed by a reception, and the Saturday screening will be followed by a feedback and Q&A session with the judges. The winner of each category (narrative, documentary, experimental, and audience-choice) will receive a $200 cash prize. This year’s panel of judges includes filmmaker and RIT associate professor Jack Beck, filmmaker Hugo Genes, and PMA assistant professor Dehanza Rogers.
“CIFF is a great opportunity for people to see student work,” Hill said. “Students rarely have the opportunity to screen their own work or watch the work of their peers. CIFF provides a venue for students to celebrate both of those things.”
The Centrally Isolated Film Festival will be held on Friday, April 14, at 4:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 15, at 2:00 p.m. in the Schwartz Center’s Film Forum. Admission is free. The Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts is located at 430 College Avenue in Ithaca.
Julian Robison '20 is a communications assistant for the Department of .
