We want to thank you all for making the seventh year of the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival so special. Thank you to the volunteers who made this happen. Thank you to Actor / filmmaker Melissa O’Donnell for chairing this years program team and holding the Underground Film Forum court. Thank you to the winners and all of the Official Selections.

This year saw remarkable movement to a more solid and grounded festival. At the top of the list is our first attempt to work with a fiscal sponsor, pifva.org. We are proud to continue our tradition of fitting films to venues by adding  new venues (Clay Studio, Benjamin’s Desk and ImpactHubPhilly.com) and hosting sold out speaking events (Sean McKnights SAG/Aftra discussions) among many other talk back’s (who will forget the National Constitution Center’s lobby discussions?). We are especially proud to continue to host filmmakers from all over the world including Hong Kong, England, Germany, Spain, Japan, France, Canada, LA, NYC, Wisconsin, Atlanta, New Jersey, Delaware, and more.

The festival grew past its roots this year. PIFF Moscow launched to great success. Thank you to Mike Lass and Ksenia. We took Credit Cards for the first time! We used advanced ticket sales for the first time and even worked with a festival consultant (Thom Cardwell). We signed on a Volunteer Coordinator (Dana Michael) and this year our Volunteer team had two training sessions prior to the festival. Do you miss training on the fly? 🙂

We can’t wait to be back for festival #8 already being planned! The festival will be held on June 24 – 28th. Although that might change as we are discussing working with a few events in the city. Stay tuned for that.

Submissions fire back up October 1st, 2013. That’s right around the corner!

Thank you again and we look forward to the next installment of the festival.

Benjamin F. Barnett
Festival Founder / Director

 

Thank you to long time sponsors: Adobe, PhilaActing.com, DahDay.com, Producers Association, mediabureau.com, Plays & Players, and gearstuff.com.