The Cleveland International Film Festival

By: Alisha Bains, Brittney Corrado, and Laila Schwin

April 16, 2021

After a rough year, although an ultimately-successful one, the Cleveland International Film Festival is back again in full force with virtual events. The festival began on April 7 and concludes on April 20. The last two years have posed some unique challenges for the film festival as a year ago, the festival went all virtual just weeks before the start of it.   

The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) started in April of 1977, and even in its first year with a limited run, it became an instant success and has continued expanding since then. People wanted more of it and that has not changed since as the festival expands every year with a viewership of over 100,000 people. Their major goal is to both spread the influence of international film and to show the cultural and artistic significance that the films hold.  With the amount of people who attend and value this festival, they have surely spread that influence. 

CIFF has proven itself to be important and also impactful on the viewers for 45 years now, and there are no signs of stopping. They strive to make it connect to viewers with the artists and with the cultures presented in the films.  This allows people to look beyond the mainstream art that they view and toward more diverse horizons from all around the world. CIFF is, above all, about bringing a community together and creating a home for education and diversity, perhaps even inspiring more people to produce art and to create films. 

Mr. Jim Verba, BHS Athletic Director, has been attending the festival for the last 25 years, and on occasion, he has volunteered to work at it. This year, he has already viewed 16 films with the hopes of reaching 25 films before April 20.

BHS teacher Mr. Kevin Meehan has personally attended the Cleveland International Film Festival in previous years as well. According to Meehan, his favorite part of the festival is the sheer variety of foreign and domestic films. He has attended this event for about five years and has many fond memories of it. 

This year, the Cleveland International Film Festival is made up of 116 feature films and 182 short films. Due to the pandemic, people have not had the pleasure to attend major events and festivals like this, but since the festivals are now virtual, viewers are able to visit more often. Last year, the switch to virtual events was quick but ultimately successful. This year, there was much more time for decisions to be made for the virtual events to be streamed and planned, so it will likely be just as great or even better than last year’s festival. 

The “Bring It Home” slogan for the virtual 2021 Cleveland International Film Festival “celebrates the connections we will form – even while we remain physically apart – when viewing the extraordinary on-screen stories created by our CIFF45 Streams filmmakers.”

Overall, this event is important for the spread and understanding of cultural differences for the people and the community. Even with the virtual events, the Cleveland International Film Festival will bring people together and teach them new ideas, and these are certainly wonderful aspects of this event. 

{Editor’s Note: Information for this article was retrieved from Clevelandfilm.org and Cleveland.com.}