Ashland Independent Film Festival
Location	Ashland, Oregon
Hosted by	Southern Oregon Film Society
Language	International
Official website

The Ashland Independent Film Festival is a film festival that has been presented by the Southern Oregon Film Society (a non-profit organization) since 2001. Held each spring over 5 days at the Varsity Theatre in downtown Ashland, Oregon, the festival presents international and domestic shorts and features in almost every genre: documentary, animation, dramatic, experimental, etc.

The 9th Annual Ashland Independent Film Festival is scheduled for April 8-12, 2010. Most of the 90 high quality independent films play at the art-deco Varsity Theatre located in the heart of historic downtown Ashland, the Washington Post called “a dream you’ll never want to leave." Special events are held at the Historic Ashland Armory nearby. Films showings begin from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day. Over 6000 cinema lovers gather each year and filmmakers of the documentaries, features and shorts come from around the world come to engage with the audience. The AIFF features filmmaker Q/A after screenings, festival parties and the nightly afterLOUNGE at a local pub.

Special guests have included Helen Hunt, Albert Maysles, Bruce Campbell and more. Last April, the 8th annual event was the largest ever with over 6,000 filmgoers purchasing 16,000 tickets and featured an appearance by the Academy Award winning actress Hunt. She wrote and acted in her directorial debut “Then She Found Me.”

The festival continues to gain national attention as a high quality regional film festival. Ernest Hardy of the LA Weekly said the festival is “well on its way to being on of my favorite American film festivals, period. It’s the almost-perfect blend of programming, audience and location.” Shawn Levy, of The Oregonian newspaper, said the AIFF "offers movie lovers that same sense of being in a magical place...Southern Oregon doesn't have anything else like it -- nor, in fact, do most places on Earth.” The Ashland Independent Film Festival includes a gala Opening Night Bash, Thursday, April 8. The event is held at the Ashland Springs Hotel and features “Savor the Rogue,” a specialty food and wine tasting presented by the Rogue Creamery with regional gourmet offerings including the Creamery’s award winning cheeses, area chocolates, meats and more as well as Southern Oregon’s internationally famous wines and ales. Sunday evening, April 11, juried and Audience Awards will be presented at the annual Awards Celebration party and dinner at the Historic Armory. Ashland Independent Film Festival passes are available now. Individual tickets go on sale to all AIFF members by early March at www.ashlandfilm.org and at the AIFF box office on the plaza in Ashland.

The 8th annual festival, held April 2 to April 6, 2009, featured 94 films and included a retrospective and presentation of the Artistic Achievement Award to award winning animator Bill Plympton and a ROGUE award to entertainment critic Elvis Mitchell.

On October 25, 2007 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented the AIFF with a $20,000 grant to help bring more filmmakers, actors and subjects of documentaries to the festival.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Lathrios Film Festival Database - the Lathrios listing for the Ashland Independent Film Festival including a film list and analysis for the event.

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