As the Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival kicked off its 29th edition among 1,500 attendees at the Providence Performing Arts Center on Aug. 5, the event’s leadership, alongside some of the state’s most influential figures in film and politics, were on hand to make a pitch to Hollywood amid a disrupted festival circuit and an industry increasingly looking beyond California for production opportunities.
Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, in a brief speech ahead of the RIIFF opening night presentation, championed the state’s “scenic views, historic architecture and talented workforce that make it a choice spot for the film and TV industry.” Added Providence Mayor Brett Smiley: “As a creative capital,
the arts are what we care about, what we invest in.”
A string of major production and industry events around the city and state this summer helped highlight that investment. Among them was the filming of the Jake Gyllenhaal-led and M. Night Shyamalan-directed Remain, a finale screening of The Gilded Age season three with Christine Baranski, and the news of a then-unannounced J.J. Abrams’ project, his new feature Ghostwriter, starring Glenn Powell, Samuel L. Jackson and Jenna Ortega.
Then there was the Oscar and BAFTA-qualifying festival itself, a five-day mix of screenings, panels and parties running Aug. 5-10.
“We’ve always been known as a discovery festival, with all of our films done through submissions. We don’t solicit. We don’t chase titles. We are always trying to highlight new voices that haven’t been seen or celebrated elsewhere,” says RIIFF’s Executive Director Shawn Quirk. “But I feel like we are at an interesting crossroads in the industry as it realizes how much the future lies with our independent voices.”
Among the fest’s high-profile 2025 screenings was an opening night screening of Georges Méliès’ 1902 classic A Trip To the Moon (accompanied by live music), the high-energy world premiere of Verde Productions’ locally filmed, Mickey Rourke and Justin Chatwin-led Roaring Games; the Letitia Wright-directed short Highway to the Moon; the Spike Lee-executive produced short How I Learned to Die; My Kind of People,the 2024 winner of the Russo brothers’ Italian American Filmmaker Forum fellowship competition and The One and Only Fan, a short about OnlyFans “chatters” starring Queen Charlotte’s Sam Clemmett and Freddie Dennis.
“Opening night was amazing. I haven’t been to one that was all shorts, and it’s been really gratifying to see a festival treat shorts in that manner,” says Christopher Tashima, the governor of AMPAS’ short films branch who served on the fest’s shorts competition jury. “The whole experience of the silent film A Trip to the Moon with the live organist — when can you see that on the big screen?”
Alongside its screening slate, RIIFF put the business of Hollywood at the forefront more than ever through its panel programming. Coffee chats with filmmakers, an acting workshop and a fitness class were held alongside a series of discussions designed to demystify corners of the industry, including acting, filmmaking, screenwriting, traditional and web3 financing and navigating one’s career for the long term.
Ericka Atwell-Cardona, director of community engagement and development at RIIFF, tapped into her network from more than a decade in Hollywood and as the owner of RIIFF sponsor EJOYA Productions for intimate and frank dialogues inspired by “the conversations that I could have benefited from and the network that I’ve organically grown working in Hollywood,” she explains.
“I was considered an expert on my panel, but right after, I turned to Beau [Ward, VP at LD Entertainment] and said, ‘Can I chat with you for a little bit because I have some questions?’” recalls Head of Sony Post Production BJ Maier, who worked with Atwell-Cardona on The Goldbergs and is a producer on Segal, a documentary on actor George Segal. “No one’s buying right now, but I do think there are connections here. There’s a large community here in Providence that has come to the festival. I’ve set up meetings already.”
“I’ve got friends on TV shows and movies that are still out of work two years [after the strikes]. So it feels like it’s the independent filmmakers who are going to take their careers into their own hands and make something of this moment, if we put the ladder down, wherever these people are at in their careers.”
For How I Learned to Die director Manya Glassman, who won two awards at this year’s festival and has attended since her teens, that kind of support has come “since I was a kid. They gave me a platform to come here and talk to other creatives, and now people that I met 10 years ago, I’m still in touch with and we’ve collaborated on films.”
For My Kind of People’s team — director Joe Picozzi, producer Lauren Germani and actor Justin Russo — “screening [at RIIFF] was the most important in terms of film festivals.” That’s in part because they filmed the short, which won the first prize for the New England Film Festival Award, in the director and producer’s home state. “It’s an exciting thing out here still to do a movie, and it’s great to know I can always come home to do that. That’s where your power is, where you’re the most rooted,” says Picozzi.
Meanwhile, Pools director Sam Hayes says he not only appreciated the festival’s breadth of awards — for which he took home two — and its summer timing ahead of his Odessa A’zion-starrer’s Sept. 5 release. He also loved its programming of locally filmed titles like My Kind of People with out-of-towners like his own, helping generate more excited audiences around his Circle Collective release. “It’s been really encouraging for me, going into the distribution phase. This is a good way to keep building momentum, testing your film in a different place,” he says.
Leading film and TV execs from Michael Bay’s production banner Platinum Dunes (A Quiet Place, Black Sails), Joe and Anthony Russo’s TV and film outfit, AGBO (The Electric State, Citadel), film studio and sales company LD Entertainment (Judy, Fast Color, Go) and leadership from the Catalina Film Festival (with whom RIIFF is developing a new bicoastal partnership) all attended, as did agency reps from The Arlook Group, Writ Large and the Andrew Wilson Agency. Additional panelists included Tashima; Deborah Aquila, a former head of casting at Paramount; The Gentleman scribe Marn Davies; Vought Rising writer Matt Berns; and Jordan Bayne, filmmaker and host of the Film3 OG and the Next Wave of Cinema podcast.
For Wayfarer Studios president of production & development Andrew Calof, who spoke at the fest and premiered a clip of the studio’s upcoming Michael Chiklis-starrer The Senior, “diversity and not just being in one particular bubble is important” in terms of why he and others in the industry should venture beyond New York and L.A and into places like Rhode Island. “To see all aspects of these film festivals and the body of work that’s out there, it can be inspiring,” he says. “You can make some really cool discoveries in terms of talent and also get access to more about the industry.”
That potential connection is evidenced by the success of RIIFF alumni like Tiffany Kimmel, the recipient of the 2024 George T. Marshall production grant. Kimmel says the team’s early support of her work, including the screening of two of her shorts, led to achievements such as a Vimeo Staff Pick, an IP conference at Film London and an investor in her current production, Heads. The feature is being produced by Simon Quinn (The Adventures of Paddington, Isle of Dogs) and is set to film in the U.K. with stop motion studio Mackinnon & Saunders. “Shawn and the festival’s support gave me the confidence to go to the next level,” she says.
Outside the fest’s hotel conference rooms, VIPs and other industry players sipped festival-themed cocktails at a handful of Providence’s clubs and rooftop bars while filmmakers gathered during the day and evening with audiences to screen inside the city’s historic venues and theaters, its 150-year-old central public library and underneath the stars at a park.
“This festival’s greatest strength is that it makes room for people to interact and have more intimate conversations,” says casting director and RIIFF panelist Donna Morong (Princess Diaries, 10 Things I Hate About You). “There’s also a rich movie culture that already exists. The city is small enough that you can get to every place by foot. To have one show at the historic Avon Cinema and then another at a multiplex in the mall, it’s a great contrast. And on opening night with the Wurlitzer playing, it reminded me of Radio City Music Hall or the El Capitan in Los Angeles. I just love cinema history, and at the festival we’re part of that.”
As RIIFF looks to use the distinctive culture and industry of “Rhodewood” to court more of Hollywood, organizers say its “2.0 evolution” (dubbed by Rhode Island Film & Television Office executive director Steven Feinberg) is already thinking of more ways to build and leverage its relationships to expand the festival’s presence on both coasts. First up is a Sept. 10 panel and screening of RIIFF’s Oscar-qualifying shorts at The Academy Museum.
Says RIIFF advisory board member, panelist and Buried screenwriter Chris Sparling: “This festival has the potential to draw on a lot of great people within the industry. It already has, but with this evolution, it’s continuing to make it a bigger tent. With everything that’s happened in the industry, new opportunities for everything are growing, and that includes an opportunity for a [festival] like this.”
“We’re spilling the secret of Rhode Island’s charm to Hollywood,” adds Atwell-Cardona. “This is a place where you can come and connect with other filmmakers, get inspired, enjoy the programming, and now benefit from industry members who are showing up in a big way.”