The RIFF Awards – Rome Independent Film Festival, is an international independent film festival whose main goal is to promote contemporary cinema. The festival takes place in Rome in November over 7 days and showcases about 100 premieres of both Italian and international films which are distributed over 13 sections: first and second feature films, documentaries, short films, experimental films and animations, scripts and screenplays that stood out for their contents and techniques’ originality.
An international jury made up of qualified experts will assess the works in competition, and will, ultimately, assign prizes for a total value of 20 thousand Euros.
The RIFF, alongside the works in competition, will promote a series of events to encourage the cultural exchange between different artistic expressions and enhance the comparison with other countries. The programme’s wide nature includes not only live performances, video artists, live music, and readings but also roundtables and workshops, in order to promote audience’s professionalization, to encouraging it to be more an active contributor to the Italian and foreign cultural life.
Since the first edition in 2000, the RIFF has progressively become a regular event followed with interest in Rome, and a reference point for filmmakers from all over the world. As a matter of fact, every year RIFF receives over 2,000 submits from all the 5 continents, thus representing a careful witness to indie cinema’s growth.
Numerous prizes have been awarded and many are the guests who have joined the past editions such as Sandy Powell (Oscar winner), Phedon Papamichael (Oscar nomination), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Bruno Coppola, Gianni Minà, Valeria Golino, Anna Falchi, Valeria Solarino, Paolo Sorrentino, Valerio Mastandrea, Nicolas Vaporidis, Amos Gitai, Renzo Martinelli, Gabriele Muccino, Enrico Lo Verso, Max Gazzè, Sabrina Impacciatore, Valentina Cervi, Vladimir Luxuria, Massimiliano Varrese, Valentina Melis, Luciana De Falco, Daniele Ciprì, Riccardo De Filippis, I Manetti Bros, Tiromancino, Roberto Herlitzka, Leo Gullotta, Alessandro Haber, Franco Battiato, Edoardo Leo, Nino Frassica, Andres Gil and the Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Maria Pérez Esquivel.