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UPCOMING EVENTS
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March  12, 2010
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Monthly at Cinema Paradiso
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March  17, 2010
Senses of Cinema
Monthly reception, film and discussion hosted by Shelly Isaacs
Next
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April  3, 2010
FLIFF's Annual Eggtacular
FREE

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April  4, 2010
Cafe Cinematheque International
This month Golden Globe Winner "White Ribbon"
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April  7, 2010
Cinema A La Mode
Cooking class and a movie!
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April  9, 2010
The Auteur Explosion
A night of local film, art and music
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April  10, 2010
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Now monthy at CInema Paradiso
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May  16, 2010
Diving into Spring
A fundraiser for FLIFF, presented by Entre Nous
 POSTPONED to new date.
» read more
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Archive
Twenty Years of Pure FLIFF
June 3, 1986 The Greater Fort Lauderdale Film Festival was founded to introduce independent cinema to a South Florida audience base of more than four-and-a-half million people.
1987 Festival was named one of seven original Vital Cultural Institutions of the State of Florida by the legislature, the Governor and the Florida Arts Council.
1988 The Fest begins screenings at AMC Coral Ridge. Fest's Opening Party is Doubletree Galleria's opening party too.
1989 Festival named Gregory von Hausch Executive Director. Year-round programming and a membership base begins. Special guests included Michael Moore and Lynn Redgrave.
1990 Fest became a three-week event taking place from Miami to Boca Raton. Martin Scorsese presented our Student Film Awards. Guests included Marlo Thomas and Darren McGavin. Fest honors the career of Natalie Wood with a retrospective. Chuck Workman is also honored.
1991 Festival changes name to Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Launches Lifetime Achievement Awards. Honored Peter Bogdanovich, Mark Rydell, Donald O'Connor, Vincent Price, Van Johnson, Jerry Lewis and Burt Reynolds. Presenters included Charles Durning, and Patrick O'Neal. Guests included Claude Atkins, Alan Rickman, and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Entre Nous the support committee for the Film Festival is formed. In February, Fest hosts first reception at LA's American Film Market and its first Cannes Party at The American Pavilion in May. Both parties become annual events.
1992 Fest presents a special retrospective for honoree Audrey Hepburn, other guests included Jennifer Beals, Alexandre Rockwell, Les Blank and Matthew Harrison. 1992 also marked our first year of screening IMAX film. Other guests that year included Elliot Gould and Edward James Olmos.
1993 Fest's student film competition went national. Students from Yale, USC, North Carolina, NYU, UCLA, Florida State Univ. and Columbia won awards. An Art On Film documentary series was added to the program list as was an Academy Award Documentary series. Guests included Ashley Judd, Elisabeth Shue and Roger Corman who received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
1994 Festival exceeded the cash receipts of the '92 and '93 festivals combined. More than 35,000 people attended the event which proved to be a major coup as Tropical Storm Gordon roared in and remained through the first five days of the festival. Regardless, Fest produced more sell-outs than anytime in its short nine year history and presented six U.S. premieres and one world premiere. Special guests included Treat Williams, Shane Black (Lethal Weapon) and Martin Donovan.
1995 Fest launched the first ever Film Festival in the Sky with Carnival Air Lines (every Lauderdale bound flight included a Festival film). An unprecedented Media Reception at JFK and a press conference held 30,000 feet aboard a special flight made cinema history. Special guests included Michael Caine, Roger Moore, Dany Delany, JT Walsh, Mia Sara, Tim Reid, Jason Connery, Jon Cryer, Robert Wuhl and Gregory Hines.
1996 Fest featured 110 films from 30 countries and drew 57,000 admissions. Guests included: Tony Curtis, Gian Carlo Esposito, Noah Taylor (Shine) and Kevin Spacey. Taylor introduces SHINE at Parker Playhouse in a white undershirt...Fine Line reps take him shopping at Galleria before Opening Party. Spacey draws a crowd on Las Olas after introducing his directorial debut at Amaturo.
1997 Festival honored director Robert Wise (West Side Story, Sound of Music), Arthur Hiller, Ben Gassara, Peter Bogdanovich, Gena Rowlands, Nick Nolte, Leonard Rosenman, Amanda Plummer, Fairuza Balk and Robert Forster. Our first Black Tie Gala on the beach under a crystal clear tent under a full moon...in between two incredibly rainy, blustery days...whew!
1998 Film Society named the fifth inductee as a Broward Major Cultural Institution as designated by the Broward Cultural Affairs Council. The other organizations are Florida Philharmonic, the Florida Grand Opera, the Museum of Discovery and Science and the Museum of Art. Fest broke all records with 62,000 attendees. Special guests included John Frankenheimer, David Arquette, Christina Applegate, Armand Assante and many others. Seventeen world premieres and 120 films from 35 countries were featured in 300 screenings.
1999 Fest attracts over 66,000 attendees and presented over 120 films including world and national premieres. Among those were GREY OWL, a true historical drama starring Pierce Brosnan, and directed by Lord Richard Attenborough. Prior to the film screened Lord Attenborough was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award on-stage at Parker Playhouse. Closing the Festival at our Luminaries Black Tie Gala were special guests Norman Jewison, Eva Marie Saint, Kelly McGillis, Lukas Haas and Tim Roth. Festival moves into year-round home, the former Vinnette Carroll Theatre. The 200-seat horseshoe-shaped auditorium, built as a church and renovated as a live performing arts theatre in '86 needed much repair as well as retro-fitting for film.
2000, FLIFF partners with Convention & Visitors Bureau, presents a four-day celebration for the new millennium with films from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. The 15th Film Festival ran Oct 16 - Nov 12, again the world's longest film festival. Guests included Peter Falk, John Waters, Howard Keel, Rob Morrow and director George Sidney (Bye Bye Birdie, Kiss Me Kate, Showboat, Viva Las Vegas, Annie Get Your Gun). Festival interrupted a bit as Florida mulls over who it will choose as our new President (wanna know weird?...Opening Night Nov. 3 featured Sec of State Katherine Harris a key figure in the infamous vote recount and funnyman John Waters on-stage...4 days before election). 66,000 people attended. A Cultural Facility Grant was funded just under $200,000. FLIFF receives 1st of three grants from Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
2001, Cinema Paradiso officially opened. From January thru August over 350 screenings. In Feb we began a nine week intensive filmmaking course at Northeast High School. In June we launched LOCAL FILMMAKER NIGHT, providing up-and-coming filmmakers with opportunities to screen their movies. In July we began Movies in the Park at DDA Plaza, presenting free films for families. The 16th Film Festival ran Oct 17 - Nov 11 in Miami, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Special guests included Jonathan Silverman, Paul Mazursky, Paul Sorvino, Lorri Bagley, Peter Hewitt, Laura Frasier.
2002 Cinema Paradiso finishes renovation with new seats, seating areas, platter, screen, sound system (Dolby Digital), carpeting, handicap bathroom, painting, and café equipment were installed or constructed. A weekly outdoor movie was launched at Beach Place as was a monthly program at Weston. The 17th Film Festival took place from October 18 - November 24th. Special guests included Matt Damon, Leslie Nielsen, Steve Guttenberg, Irvin Kershner, Maria Bello and more than 150 independent filmmakers around the world.
2003 The 18th Festival ran from October 17 - November 16. A new format of using Cinema Paradiso for Sunshine Celluloid, American Indies, Shorts, and Documentaries; and Parker Playhouse for the World Cinema and Competition screenings. Special guests included Nestor Carbonnell (Star on the Horizon recipient), Jacqueline Bissett and Sir Ben Kingsley (both Career Achievement recipients).
2004 5th consecutive year, FLIFF presents monthly free outdoor screenings of The Maroone Moonlight Movies (May - Oct at Huizenga Plaza downtown Ft Lauderdale and Oct - April at Weston Regional Park). The Asian Pacific sidebar celebrates its 10th year. Cinema Paradiso begins new program with Florida Atlantic University's Latin American Studies Dept, an annual festival dedicated to Latin American Cinema. Inaugural year celebrated Venezuela with 20 films. Nova Southeastern Univ collaborated with Cinema Paradiso to present the Common Ground Film Festival in June. FLIFF created The Perrier French Film Festival which ran for 3 weeks in July and August. The Festival also increased its reach by taking a 4-day film fest to Highlands, North Carolina. The 19th Annual Festival ran Oct 14 through Nov 21. Guests were: Andrew McCarthy, Fred Willard, Christopher McDonald, JoAnn Pflug, Cara Buono plus filmmakers from Nepal, South Korea, India, Sweden, Scotland, France, Croatia, Checkoslavakia, Italy, Spain, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Canada, and throughout the US. Venues and cities included: Weston, Coral Gables, Delray Beach, Sunrise, and Fort Lauderdale. In Dec, FLIFF went on the road again, this time taking 20 films for 4 days to Key West. Also in December we launched the 1st Annual CAN Film Festival for Charity which presented Christmas films with admission two cans of food or one new toy per person. Proceeds benefited The Broward Partnership for the Homeless and The Haitian Relief Effort. We also began a monthly film for The City of Hollywood.
2005 began with our annual presentation of the Director's Guild of America nominees for Best Directed Films (THE AVIATOR, FINDING NEVERLAND, SIDEWAYS, RAY, and MILLION DOLLAR BABY). Our Outreach program took films to Labelle (in Florida's Everglades) and three days to Fort Myers. We also presented two nights of films at The Art Deco Festival in Miami and one night at the Ford Classic at Doral. In March, FAU's Latin Festival at Cinema Paradiso celebrated the films of Colombia. In April we created the first ever, FLIFF Florida High School Competition. Over 150 entries from all over the State came in and for three days we presented the winning films, hosted seminars and handed out awards. The winning films will screen at the Festival in October. In June, Nova's Common Ground Film Festival played for two weeks. In July, FLIFF working with the Broward Creative Industries Council honors the professional videographers with The Best of Florida - Made in Florida. The 2nd Annual Perrier French Film Festival ran July 22 - Aug 7. In August Cinema Paradiso went digital partnering with Emerging Cinemas. In Sept a monthly program began at FAU's DeSantis Center for Motion Picture Industry Studies' screening room. The 20th Annual FLIFF ran Oct 14 - Nov 20, biggest fest ever: 38 days, 200+ films, seminars, student film competition, Sunshine Celluloid and guests director Arthur Penn, Whoopi Goldberg, Juliette Lewis, Joshua Jackson, Cuba Gooding, Jr, James Woods, Veronica Cartwright, Irene Cara, Kellie Martin, and filmmakers from nearly 40 countries. FLIFF receives 3rd grant from The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, 1st time for any Florida film festival. The CAN Film Festival for Charity ran Dec 9-11. The 2nd semi-annual Key West Mini Fest ran Dec 15-18.
Major Accomplishments Over The Past Two Years
2004
- Launched The Key West Mini Fest and have taken three weeks of programming there since 2004.
- Created The CAN Film Festival for Charity.
- Named the top Cultural Tourism Project for Broward County (1996-2005).
- Named the top Major Cultural Institution of Broward County (2003, 2004)
- Retired all capital campaign debt on Phases I, II, & III of Cinema Paradiso
- Began touring to Highlands NC, Seaside Fl
2005
- Took free outdoor cinema to LaBelle, Fort Myers, Weston, Miami Beach, Boca Raton, Davie, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Sunrise, Seaside and Highland NC.
- Won 3rd Major Grant from Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences - only film fest in the South with such a distinction.
- Created The Florida High School Film Competition
- Became a partner with Emerging Cinemas, New York
- Resurrected the Best of Florida - Made in Florida
- Created The Target Family Film Festival.
- Created The BOO-tacular on Las Olas for Families.
- Programs: FAU (Boca), BCC (Davie), Nova Univ (Davie).
- Distributed a film nationally (Perlasca) as opposed to platforming.
- Retained title as Longest Film Festival in the world (Guiness World Records (1999 - 2005)
- Benefits: Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, Haitian Relief, Breast Cancer, Humane Society.
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ATTENTION FILMMAKERS
Call for Entry is now open for the FLIFF2010
For more information or to download a submission formCLICK HERE
 We have to let our elected officials know that they need to "Hold the Line"and not make any more cuts to the arts.

















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