PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

Providence Backlot
RIIFF 2001 will turn the Festival's host city into the "Providence Backlot" where a plethora of activities will enchant, entertain and enthrall filmmakers and filmgoers alike. The Festival has created a synergy with local businesses that will cover a multitude of elements that make up the world of film. For the time of the Festival in August, Providence will indeed be the backlot for filmmakers and filmgoers.

Filmmakers are Special
* Filmmakers attending will have a number of new activities and opportunities for RIIFF 2001. First, all attending filmmakers whose films are being screened at the Festival will be interviewed for Internet-casting (video streaming). These taped interviews will be available on the RIIFF Web site and also be made available to regional media. Second, a special media center will be established at the Festival's host hotel, which will allow for private viewing on tape of films the attendees have not been able to see. Visiting directors from other international festivals will be present along with producers and exhibitors providing an ideal marketing and networking opportunity.

* The RIIFF Web site will feature trailers for films being screened at the Festival. Additionally, an online Festival will take place during RIIFF 2001 featuring shorts and experimental films. Festival sponsor partners will also carry this programming internationally.

* This year, RIIFF 2001 will provide a "Cinema Cafe" venue at Sikar in Providence for local filmmakers to have an open screening of their work. These will be films that are not in competition nor entered into the Festival. Filmmakers must register in advance to book times for use of the facilities to screen their work. Critics, audiences and visiting filmmakers will be invited to these screenings. This is part of the Providence Film Festival and our "Homegrown Project."

Awards
* RIIFF presented its first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 to Academy-Award Award winning actress, Patricia Neal. A Scholarship Fund was also established in Ms. Neal's name.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is now an annual event at RIIFF and the 2001 Award recipient, Hollywood Director Blake Edwards, will be presented with the honor at the Festival's Opening Gala.

* In 2000, RIIFF presented its first Artistic Vision Award. The recipient was Elaine Lorillard, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival. This award will now be an annual event and will be presented at RIIFF's Closing Gala.

SPECIAL PROGRAMMING

Jubile Franco-Americain:
from the north country: perspectives from Quebec & France
* A new sidebar for the Festival will be a full day at a main theatre dedicated to films from Quebec and France. Coupled with the film screenings will be food tie-ins, entertainment such as an outdoor concert and a marketplace of goods from the Quebec Province.

NO LONGER A MINORITY: WOMEN IN CINEMA
* Women filmmakers have created a major voice for themselves in the industry. To celebrate their accomplishments, RIIFF will present a special focus on Women in Film for its 2001 festival. Women filmmakers and women writers are vocal and active participants in the social forces that shape our culture. They portray women as three-dimensional, complex human beings and thus defy the demeaning and pervasive stereotypes perpetuated by the mainstream media. With this focus, we seek to inspire and invigorate this creative potential of women to perceive, conceptualize, and produce their works for the benefit of the world society.

Our objective is to promote and encourage women screenwriters, playwrights, short-story writers and women who make independent films, and the best work by women, in any genre of feature films, animation, documentaries, short films, stage plays and short stories.

This sidebar will be an evolving one with presentations and workshops not just at the Festival, but throughout the year.

Diversity and stereotypes: gay & Lesbian issues
* With an eye on diversity and provoking dialogue, RIIFF will be creating an exclusive one-day cinema focus that addresses gay and lesbian concerns. The sidebar, called "Part of the Family," will feature an open pubic colloquium entitled "Is Playing Gay Being Gay?" film screenings and a "Meet the Director" forum.

CINEMA RHODE ISLAND
* For the first time ever, the Festival will close with Best of Fest screenings at the Opera House in Newport. Top films from 2001 will also be shown throughout the month of August at the Courthouse Center for the Arts in South County.

Educational Programs
* The KidsEye(TM) Summer Camp for kids ages 8-17 has been expanded due to demand to a week-long program. It takes place July 30-August 3rd. It will be located in Newport, RI

* The KidsEye(TM) Summer Camp will culminate in the KidsEye(TM) International Film Festival. To take place in venues throughout Newport, this one-day event will feature films made by kids for kids and films made for kids by professionals.

* RIIFF will present a week-long series of morning coffee talks during the Festival called "Between Takes." These forums are open to the public ($5, includes continental breakfast) and will address topical issues and concerns for those in the film business
including women in film, Internet and technology, and a special forum led by visiting Director Blake Edwards.