The 39th Cleveland International Film Festival kicks off next week, with over 400 films from around the world. CIFF Artistic Director Bill Guentzler previews five of his favorite festival films.
While Bill Guentzler previews most of the films at the Cleveland International film festival, his boss, Executive Director Marcie Goodman, rarely gets to see any films at all. Goodman joined the festival staff in 2003; she was profiled in a short film herself, as a 2011 recipient of the Robert P. Bergman Award from the Cleveland Arts Prize.
With more than 400 films, the 39th Cleveland International Film Festival is nothing at all like the inaugural festival, which consisted of 8 films that were shown over an 8 week period. Festival Founder and the owner of Cleveland Cinema Jonathan Forman takes us back to April 13, 1977.
Premiering at this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival is a project that filmmaker Ted Sikora began as an 8 minute short that grew into a feature film about the Near West Theater titled "Move On!" He reveals the compelling reasons for lengthening the film and how he managed not to break the bank.Bill Guentzler, Cleveland International Film Festival
Jonathan Forman, Cleveland International Film Festival Founder
Marcie Goodman, Exec. Dir., Cleveland International Film Festival
Ted Sikora, Filmmaker