2009 NEWPORT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALJune 3 – 7, 2009The 2009 NEWPORT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL announced its Jury; Student & Audience Award winners at an event on Sunday, June 7 in the Filmmaker Lounge at the fest headquarters at Empire Tea & Coffee in Newport.The awards ceremony was kicked off and introduced by Executive Director Jennifer Maizel along with Artistic Director Tom Hall and Programmers Holly Herrick and Andrea van Bueren. The 2009 Newport International Film Festival Narrat...

The 2009 NEWPORT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL will take place June 3-7 in beautiful Newport, Rhode Island. This year’s Festival will present five days and nights of screenings of over 90 U.S. and international feature, documentary and short films; Rhode Island focus, narrative, documentary and audience award competitions; filmmaker panels; events; a free screening in beautiful Ballard Park; the presentation of the prestigious Claiborne Pell Award; and those fabulous Newport parties. There wil...

The Newport International Film Festival has announced an exciting new partnership with The Museum of Modern Art, featuring a special selection of films from the Museum’s annual exhibition To Save and Project: The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation. The announcement was made by NIFF Executive Director, Jennifer Maizel at a NIFF benefit event in Newport on Saturday night (3/7).The NIFF will present its annual Claiborne Pell Tribute Award at the 2009 Festival (Senator Pell of Rhode...

The highly regarded Newport International Film Festival (a local Cannes, according to one travel magazine) has announced that Jennifer Maizel has become the new Executive Director of the Newport International Film Festival. Maizel had a prior stint with NIFF in 2006 as the Director of Guest Services. Most recently, she has served, for the past three years, as Managing Director of the Sarasota Film Festival. “Jen is a superb addition to the NIFF, just the kind of person to take us to the nex...

The Newport International Film Festival (NIFF) will host an exclusive screening of “Young@Heart” at its spring fundraiser on Sunday, April 27th, at the Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center in Newport. This is the final screening before the film’s national release. Following the screening, there will be a live performance by the famed chorus group Young@Heart, fresh from their national promotional tour. Tickets for the screening and performance go on sale Monday, March 31st. Visit www.n...

Ten years ago, in Texas, Esequiel Hernandez, Jr. turned 18. Half a world away, in Afghanistan, a young man named Dilawar did the same.Ten years ago, David Sington was at the BBC, Tony Kaye was shooting two movies in black and white, and Labour crushed the Conservatives ending an 18-year reign.Ten years ago, Eric Rudolph had moved on from the Olympics to abortion clinics, while Teignmouth Electron was marooned in the Caymans, never to move again.Ten years ago, Billy Mitchell was famous, but Bob B...

Ten years ago, in Texas, Esequiel Hernandez, Jr. turned 18. Half a world away, in Afghanistan, a young man named Dilawar did the same.Ten years ago, David Sington was at the BBC, Tony Kaye was shooting two movies in black and white, and Labour crushed the Conservatives ending an 18-year reign.Ten years ago, Eric Rudolph had moved on from the Olympics to abortion clinics, while Teignmouth Electron was marooned in the Caymans, never to move again.Ten years ago, Billy Mitchell was famous, but Bob B...

Friday, October 5--------As the Hamptons, the celebrated resort area on the eastern end of Long Island, moves into arguably its most beautiful season, the 15th edition of the Hamptons International Film Festival will bring a mix of film and glamour to complement the burnt orange and reddish hues of the Fall. The Festival begins on October 17th and runs through October 21st. This is a pivotal year for the event. Its longtime Festival Director Denise Kassel departed after being at the helm for the...

Friday, October 5--------As the Hamptons, the celebrated resort area on the eastern end of Long Island, moves into arguably its most beautiful season, the 15th edition of the Hamptons International Film Festival will bring a mix of film and glamour to complement the burnt orange and reddish hues of the Fall. The Festival begins on October 17th and runs through October 21st. This is a pivotal year for the event. Its longtime Festival Director Denise Kassel departed after being at the helm for the...

The 2007 HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL celebrates its 15th anniversary – a decade and a half of premieres, screenings, programs & events, tucked away amongst the changing leaves and quiet beaches of fall in the East End. The Hamptons is where talent, industry and audiences come together exchanging ideas, experiences and cinema in what has now become one of leading international film festivals of the world. This year’s Hamptons fest runs October 17th through 21st, 2007, in East Hampto...

Looking to grow its exceptional profile and build on its reputation for excellence, one of Southern California’s film festival gems has just added a new executive director. Laurie Kirby is now directing the Ojai Film Festival and fostering its mission of “Enriching the Human Spirit Through Film.” Kirby, former Executive Director of the Newport International Film Festival, has switched coasts as she readies the Ojai Film Festival for this year’s event October 4-7, 2007. The 2007 Ojai Fil...

Laurie B. Kirbie, the executive director of the Newport International Film Festivals (NIFF) has left after a four-year reign and moved on to helm the California based Ojai Film Festival. Thus reflections about changes and repositioning the festival have set in after its ten editions. On the surface the festival has delivered. In 2007 there were more than 800 submissions. Thirty five feature films and documentaries as well as numerous shorts and children’s films were featured in the program ...

The previous articles provided the context for the growing film festival tourism phenomenon.  In this last installment, more specific information is provided about the participants in festival tourism, the services  provided by the few agencies in this new niche market, and the characteristics of the film festivals that would most likely benefit from film festival tourism.As noted before, comprehensive Canadian research on US festival tourism enthusiasts, including those groups who reported 60...

The previous articles provided the context for the growing film festival tourism phenomenon. In this last installment, more specific information is provided about the participants in festival tourism, the services provided by the few agencies in this new niche market, and the characteristics of the film festivals that would most likely benefit from film festival tourism.As noted before, comprehensive Canadian research on US festival tourism enthusiasts, including those groups who reported 600,...

Established in 1998, and now in its ninth year, The Newport International Film Festival NIFF has grown into one of America's leading regional film festivals. The Festival, which critics have called a "low key Cannes," has distinguished itself as one where, according to Vanity Fair "art ranks before commerce". Over 10,000 filmmakers, celebrities, journalists, and film enthusiasts of all kinds attend drawn by the less frenzied, less commercial, and more intimate environment that the Newport fe...

The 2005 Newport International Film Festival, the 8th Annual event, will get underway Tuesday, June 7th – 12th, 2005, and run for six glorious days and nights of entertaining films, informative symposiums, and, of course, those glamorous Newport parties. The Festival atmosphere is relaxed, yet filled with all the enchantment, energy, and excitement of Hollywood. The Newport International Film Festival draws filmmakers and celebrities from around the world. This year the festival will honor wri...

The 2005 Newport International Film Festival, the 8th Annual event, will get underway Tuesday, June 7th – 12th, 2005, and run for six days and nights of entertaining films, informative symposiums, and, of course, those glamorous Newport parties. The Festival atmosphere is relaxed, yet filled with all the enchantment, energy, and excitement of Hollywood. This year the festival will honor writer/director/actor/musician Michael McKean with the annual Claiborne Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement....