Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival

Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival

Location	Hollywood, USA
Founded	2003
Language	International
Website	Official Website

The Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival (commonly abbreviated as "HRIFF"^[1]) is a film festival with a special focus on independent films.^[2] It is held annually in Hollywood at the New Beverly Cinema and other screening venues. Past winners included Gérard Depardieu, Peter O'Toole, Frances Fisher and Tinto Brass.^[3] Other notable winners / attendants in the past years include Jon Polito,^[4] John Heard,^[5] Rick Shapiro,^[6] Hilary Duff, Danny Masterson and Tyler Blackburn.^[7]

History

The festival was established in 2003^[8] with a focus on independent films.^[9] It is a competitive event, annually^[10] screening films in competition and awarding the best films in its program in various categories^[11] during a red-carpet award show.^[12][13]

Award of Excellence

Each year, as part of its award-show, the festival awards the "Award of Excellence" to one or multiple people whose work in film is considered highly influential, and whose work is shown in the festival. In recent years the recipients were:

• 2011 - Gérard Depardieu, "for his work in Grenouille d'hiver"^[14]
• 2012 - Tinto Brass, "for innovations in cinematic language from his films in the 1960s and 1970s".^[15][16]
• 2012 - Frances Fisher, "for exceptional contributions to the art of acting, of a consistently distinguished career"^[17][18]
• 2013 - Peter O'Toole, "for exceptional contributions to art of acting in a consistently distinguished career"^[19]
• 2015 - Hugo Niebeling, for "artistic innovation".^[20]

Notable films in competition

• The Act of Killing, which received the "Best Picture" award at the 2013 event^[21] was nominated for an Academy Award in 2014.^[22]
• Bridegroom, for which director Linda Bloodworth-Thomason won "Best Director" at the 2013 event,^[23] was crowd-funded using kickstarter and broke the record for the most highly funded film on kickstarter in 2012.^[24]

Retrospectives / Special Events

• 2012, the festival did a retrospective on the early, experimental films by Tinto Brass. It included the world premieres of restored versions of Nerosubianco as well as Dropout (1970 film) and La Vacanza, both starring Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero.^[25][26]
• 2012, Uwe Boll premiered his film Assault on Wall Street at the festival, attending it in person together with principal cast members.^[27][28]
• 2012, the festival premiered the newly restored HD version of Manos: The Hands of Fate. Cast-Member Jackey Raye Neyman-Jones attended the event.^[29]
• 2015, the festival does a retrospective of Hugo Niebeling's films.^[30]

Reception

Alexander Tuschinski in 2015

• LA Weekly added the 2012 festival on its weekly "Movie To-Do list."^[31]
• Tinto Brass: "I am very honored of receiving the award at [...] Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, and it makes me really joyful."^[32]
• Alexander Tuschinski: "One of the best festivals you can think of!"^[33]
• Hello! Hollywood, a Chinese TV-show broadcast in 45 statios in China^[34] dedicated an episode to the festival^[35]

References

1. "Official Facebook-Site of the festival - gallery for the awards show. Pleas note that the festival is often abbreviated "HRIFF" here, as well as in many other online-sources, both connected and independent of the festival.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
2. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: Official Website". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
3. See list of awards and sources below
4. "HRIFF-Tumblr: Jon Polito and Frances Fisher on the red carpet of Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
5. "HRIFF Tumblr: Photo of John Heard arriving at the festival.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
6. "HRIFF: Press Release about a comedy-set done by Rick Shapiro during the 2012 event." (PDF). Retrieved 29 August 2014.
7. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: Celebrities at the festival - Gallery on official facebook-page.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
8. "Official facebook-page of the festival, mentioning 2003 as the founding date.". Retrieved 30 August 2014.
9. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: Official Website ("About")". Retrieved 1 September 2014.
10. "Press-Release, stating that the 2012 event is the 9th festival. Given that the festival started im 2003, this shows that it was held annually since then, since 2003 + 9 = 2012.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
11. "HRIFF official website: List of 2012 awards winners as an example of the categories.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
12. "Bizjournals: Program of the 2012 event, featuring the awards-show.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
13. "Facebook Gallery: Pictures from 2012 awards show, held at New Beverly Cinema.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
14. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: 2011 Award Winners". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
15. "Tinto Brass talks about his award on HRIFF. (Video)". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
16. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: List of 2012 Award Winners". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
17. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: List of 2012 Award Winners". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
18. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival Tumblr: Photo of Frances Fisher and Jon Polito at the event.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
19. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: List of Awards.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
20. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: List of Awards 2015.". Retrieved 18 January 2015.
21. "IMDB: List of 2013 winners at Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
22. "Official Academy Award Website: Entry for "The Act Of Killing"". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
23. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival official website: List of 2013 winners". Retrieved 1 September 2014.
24. "GLAAD: Account of Bridegroom's success on kickstarter.". Retrieved 1 September 2014.
25. "Films in Review: Article about Nerosubianco, and about the retrospective.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
26. The restorations were done by Alexander Tuschinski in collaborations with Tinto Brass.
27. "LA Confidential Magazine: Article about the 2012 event.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
28. "Official Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival Tumblr - Photo from the post-screening Q&A.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
29. "Blog of Jackey Raye Neyman-Jones, describing the screening.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
30. "Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival: Announcement of the retrospective on the main site of the festival's homepage.". Retrieved 19 September 2014.
31. "LA Weekly: "Movie To-Do list for December 2012". Retrieved 29 August 2014..
32. "Tinto Brass talks about his award on HRIFF. (Video)". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
33. "Video: Alexander Tuschinski on Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival". Retrieved 13 November 2014.
34. "Eric Zuley: Blog-entry about "Hello! Hollywood"". Retrieved 29 August 2014.
35. "IMDB-page of the "Hello! Hollywood" Episode.". Retrieved 29 August 2014.

External links

• Official Website: Hollywood Reel Independent Film Fesvial
• Official Facebook-Page of the festival