NIFF will celebrate the Art of the Short Film with an Opening Night presentation of shorts and will close with Back to the Future accompanied live by the Naples Philharmonic
Jonathan Keijser’s Peace by Chocolate, Christopher Kahunahana’s Waikiki and Lissette Feliciano’s
Women Is Losers compete for the Narrative Feature Juried Prize, with Christopher Chambers’ A Fire Within, Bernadette Wegenstein’s The Conductor and Justin Monroe’s Holy Frit vying for the Documentary Feature Juried Prize
Naples, FL (September 30, 2021) – Artis—Naples announced today the film lineup for the 13th annual Naples International Film Festival (NIFF) to be held October 21-24, 2021, featuring a return to in-person screenings. A central theme of this year’s edition of NIFF will be a celebration of the art of making the short film, including the first time the festival has showcased a specially curated shorts program for its Opening Night Film experience. The film festival will close with a special presentation of Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future featuring a live performance of John Williams’ classic score by the Naples Philharmonic, conducted by Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly.
On Friday and Saturday night, Artis—Naples will present “Screenings Under the Stars” in Norris Garden on Artis─Naples’ Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson Cultural Campus, with two films that are part of this year’s juried competition. The documentary feature Holy Frit will screen on Friday night, and the narrative feature Women Is Losers will screen on Saturday night.
The festival will include 67 films (12 narrative features, 11 documentary features, 44 short films) from 20 countries. All screenings will be in-person, marking a return to Hayes Hall, Daniels Pavilion, Norris Garden and Silverspot Cinema. The highest priority of Artis—Naples is the health and safety of patrons, staff, filmmakers and the community at large. In order to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone, Artis─Naples COVID protocols will be observed for all NIFF events. Current safety protocol details can be found here.
Artis─Naples CEO and President Kathleen van Bergen said, “We are so pleased to return to theaters as well as viewing films together, and we very much look forward to welcoming filmmakers back safely to our cinema-loving community here in Naples and Southwest Florida. The Naples International Film Festival is an important part of our multidisciplinary cultural offerings each season, and we are thrilled to be able to share these films.
“This year’s edition of the Naples International Film Festival will have another outstanding lineup of incredible films from all over the world, including a variety of dynamic and thought-provoking short films that we are delighted to highlight on opening night and throughout the program,” said Festival Producer Shannon Franklin. “We pride ourselves on having something for everyone and can’t wait to enjoy all of these films on the big screen together with our wonderful Naples audiences.”
On Thursday, October 21, the Opening Night shorts program at Hayes Hall (5833 Pelican Bay Blvd) will feature: Anton Dyakov’s Russian short Boxbalet, about a fortuitous meeting between a delicate ballerina and a rough, surly boxer; Annie St-Pierre’s Canadian short Like the Ones I Used to Know, about a Christmas filled with tension and anticipation in 1983; Cheri Gaulke’s short documentary Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color, about Alma W. Thomas, a Black woman artist who broke color barriers on and off the canvas; Dava Whisenant’s comedy Photo Op, about the perils of trusting a stranger with your phone; and Tom Berkeley and Ross White’s British short Roy, about a reclusive widower who accidentally calls an adult hotline worker.
Hayes Hall will also be the location for the special presentation of Zemeckis’ classic crowd pleaser Back to the Future (1985) on Sunday, October 24. The Naples Philharmonic, led by Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly, will perform Alan Silvestri’s classic score live with the film.
Films in the Naples International Film Festival’s competition categories will be vying for more than $10,000 in prizes, including the Audience Awards for Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best Short as well as the Focus on the Arts Award, given to a Narrative or Documentary film with an emphasis on one or more of the visual or performing arts. For the third year in a row, there will also be juried awards in the Narrative and Documentary features categories.
The Narrative Features Juried Competition slate includes the Florida Premiere of Jonathan Keijser’s Peace by Chocolate, about a young Syrian refugee who struggles to settle into small- town life in Nova Scotia, Canada, after his family’s chocolate factory is destroyed during the war. Christopher Kahunahana’s Waikiki is a cinematic allegory of love and loss, where a hula dancer fights for survival—and her sanity—in the shadows of Waikiki, and Lissette Feliciano’s award- winning Women Is Losers tells the story of bright and talented Catholic schoolgirl Celina Guerrera in the ’60s, who survives a difficult home life by following the rules, until an act of indiscretion creates a series of devastating consequences.
The three titles making up NIFF’s Documentary Features Juried Competition include the East Coast Premiere of Christopher Chambers’ A Fire Within, about three Ethiopian women who flee to the U.S. after surviving torture in their home country only to discover that the man responsible for their torture now lives in America and works at the same hotel as one of them. Bernadette Wegenstein’s The Conductor takes audiences into the heart of classical music and into the soul of one of its top artists, internationally renowned conductor Marin Alsop. Justin Monroe’s Holy Frit focuses on talented yet unknown L.A. artist Tim Carey, who bluffs his way into winning the commission to create the largest stained-glass window of its kind. The problem is: He doesn’t know how to make it. However, he might just be saved after he finds a famous glass maestro by the name of Narcissus Quagliata.
Additional highlights among the narrative feature selections include the North American Premiere of Martin Copping’s Australian drama, The Dunes, in which a renowned journalist returns to his beachside hometown to investigate the disappearance of the tenant in his childhood home. Three films making their Florida premieres are Roshan Sethi’s romantic comedy 7 Days, about an Indian couple—set up on a date by their traditional Indian parents—who are forced to live together for a week, which in turn forces them to learn some things about each other; Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe’s The Beta Test, about a soon-to-be married Hollywood agent whose life is turned upside down after accepting a mysterious invitation for an anonymous sexual encounter with a secret admirer; and Josef Kubota Wladyka’s Catch the Fair One, about a Native American boxer struggling to pick up the pieces of her life while staying in a women’s shelter, until she takes on the human trafficking network responsible for abducting her younger sister two years ago.
Additional documentary feature highlights include the East Coast Premiere of Robin Hauser’s $avvy, which investigates women and money, questioning why women often take a backseat to managing their finances. Two films making their Florida premieres include Douglas Tirola’s Bernstein’s Wall, a portrait of famed composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein; and Scott Gawlik’s Set! which focuses on a group of highly competitive table setters as they vie for the Best of Show ribbon at “The Olympics of table setting.”
Themes for the curated short film programs include Growing Pains, Family Affair, True Stories, Discoveries, Around the World, Florida Films and the Student Filmmaker Showcase.
Through a special collaboration with Avow, a local non-profit that provides hospice, palliative care and grief support, the Naples International Film Festival will also showcase a special world premiere screening of Renee Stoll and Joel Collazo’s Avow Presents: Life Lessons Learned in the Military on Saturday, October 23 in Daniels Pavilion. The film features stories and interviews with several Southwest Florida’s military veterans from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Marines. Though the veterans come from different backgrounds and served in different situations as part of different generations, the film shows the commonality of their experiences and the lessons that have stayed with each of them to this day.
In addition to the remarkable film lineup, there will also be two Panel Discussions at Silverspot Cinema moderated by renowned book and film critic Elaine Newton. On Friday, October 22 Newton and five filmmakers will discuss The Importance of Independent Film, while on Saturday, October 23, Newton will lead a conversation about Artists Through the Lens that will focus on films that examine the lives and works of visual and performing artists.
Tickets for all screenings and activities at Silverspot Cinema and Daniels Pavilion go on sale September 30. Tickets for the Opening Night Film and Party, the Closing Night Awards Ceremony, Film and Wrap Party and Back to the Future in Concert are currently on sale. For more information, visit artisnaples.org/niff.
Festival Presenting Sponsors are Dr. Richard Lublin and Christine Stahl, with generous support also provided by the Collier County Tourist Development Council. Special thanks also to Rebecca Lambert and Jonathan Sonne, Bobbi and David Drobis, Entech, Stan and Sarann Kraushaar and media sponsors Gulfshore Life and Naples Daily News.
The 2021 Naples International Film Festival (NIFF) official selections:
