CLEVELAND — That's a wrap. The 45th Cleveland International Film Festival finished its streaming event online on Tuesday after a two-week run.
117 feature films and 182 short films that represented 63 countries were showcased. 46% of the films streamed -- including 49% of feature films -- were directed by female identifying filmmakers.
The CIFF45 Streams audience cumulatively watched 2,316,784 minutes of film with an impressive 51,216 streams throughout the Festival. Based on an average of two individuals watching any given stream, this means that CIFF45 Streams had 102,432 viewers. At this year’s Festival, a stream was counted if at least 70% of the feature or short was viewed.
“We are overwhelmed with gratitude for our community’s support of CIFF45 Streams. And we are incredibly happy for our filmmakers, who were able to share their amazing work with so many film lovers,” said Marcie Goodman, CIFF Executive Director.
Audience votes granted top honors -- the Roxanne T. Muller Audience Choice Award for Best Film, presented with support from the Callahan Foundation -- to the intimate and powerful documentary NOT GOING QUIELTY, directed by Nicholas Bruckman (USA).
Among the top honors for short films were the three films that will qualify for consideration in the Short Films category of the annual Academy Awards®:
- Best Animated Short Award winner: Migrants, directed by Hugo Caby, Antoine Dupriez, Aubin Kubiak, Lucas Lermytte, and Zoé Devise (France). This award was sponsored by MP Star Financial.
- Best Documentary Short Award winner: The Seeker, directed by Lance Edmands (USA). This award was sponsored by Jules and Fran Belkin.
- Best Live Action Short Award winner: Distances, directed by Susan Béjar. This award was sponsored by Anne E. Bloomberg and Alan Gordon Lipson & Judy Harris.
The Cleveland International Film Festival is one of only a few dozen film festivals in the world give entrants the ability to qualify for an Oscar® all three short film categories.
All of the CIFF45 Streams award winners can be found at the link below: https://www.clevelandfilm.org/festival/festival-guide/winners
EDITOR'S NOTE: The video in the player below is from a previous story.