2020

Official Selection
Narrative Feature
Iran
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
20 minutes
Director:
Farhad Najafi

REIFF 2020

Like New York, Tokyo، Mumbai and all the big cities around the world, Tehran has also its own night life, mischievous and underground. In a night at Tehran, a 30 yrs girl, running away from her birthday party, looking for happiness, gets into a night cab, unaware of how her life is going to change forever.

Official Selection
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
14 minutes
30 seconds
Director:
Brenna Malloy

REIFF 2020

Left behind in the wake of the Civil War, the women of the homefront have a battle of their own that deems itself equally as desperate, challenging and bloody as the soldiers on the front lines.

Official Selection
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
48 minutes
30 seconds
Director:
Brian C. Miller Richard

REIFF 2020

A first-of-it’s-kind concert that paired New Orleans artists on a Spotify playlist with the fans who were listening to it, live at the hallowed Preservation Hall. Staring Jon Batiste, Irma Thomas, Curren$y, Mannie Fresh, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and more New Orleans legends.

Official Selection
Narrative Feature
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
29 minutes
Director:
Lee Cummings, Mitchell Altieri

REIFF 2020

While skateboarding, a kind hearted teenager, Dylan, crashes into a beautiful young woman who secretly turns out to be the World Famous Popstar, Bebe A. Love. Keeping her identity under wraps, Dylan takes Bebe to his best friend’s house for help. While he and his group of friends try to help this mysterious woman, unexplained events begin to occur within the home. And they only intensify when Bebe’s handler, Anton, shows up at their door and demands the teenagers return her immediately. When Dylan refuses fearing for Bebe’s safety, he unleashes a barrage of dire consequences that turns a fun graduation party into a night of living hell.

2021

Best Narrative Feature, Best of the Fest
Narrative Feature
Germany
Runtime:
1 hour(s)
20 minutes
56 seconds
Director:
Katharina Ludwig

REIFF 2021

Actress Charlotte is struggling with her craft and even more with herself. She has messed up yet another audition and even her self-written apple tree monologue seems to be working against her. Frustrated by the realities of an artistic career and her fear of failing, Charlotte escapes on a camping trip to sunny Croatia with her boyfriend Georg. But the trip’s dynamic changes when their plans of a fun-filled couples vacation misfire: While Georg spends his time at a music festival in the hope of scoring a DJ gig, Charlotte is left stranded in the middle of nowhere. She embarks on a journey of her own, encountering happy campers Benno, a self-proclaimed shaman, and mysterious dropout Tami, to whom Charlotte feels an attraction. Both of them quickly become close companions on Charlotte's journey of self-discovery.

Raw
Best Narrative Short
Narrative Short
United States
Runtime:
10 minutes
29 seconds
Director:
Drake Shannon

REIFF 2021

Past and present are blurred by a horrifying transgression as a female soldier faces the aftermath of a military patrol in the Middle East. RAW exposes military sexual trauma through the eyes of a soldier struggling to readjust to everyday life.

Best Animated Film
Animation
United States
Runtime:
5 minutes
15 seconds
Director:
Jo Meuris

REIFF 2021

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who fell in love with a beautiful horse named Aurora...

Expressively animated in a naive drawing-style that evokes children’s drawings and the texture of storybook illustrations, Aurora is a bittersweet story about love, friendship, and growing up.

Best Experimental Film
Experimental
Turkey
Runtime:
5 minutes
23 seconds
Director:
Ceylan Özgün Özçelik

REIFF 2021

A woman, released from prison, drifts between nightmare and reality.

Best Documentary Short
Documentary Short
United States
Runtime:
30 minutes
9 seconds
Director:
Melissa Armstrong, Jason Pidgeon

REIFF 2021

A film crew follows Amber for one day. During that day, she rescues 19 dogs. Some are dumped on the roadside and left to survive on their own. Others are living in unhealthy conditions at the unregulated and pitifully funded shelters. Watch as one woman saves these homeless animals from certain death.

Amber’s Halfway Home is an exploration of the conditions at government-funded shelters and the consequences of ignoring our country’s homeless animals. But, it’s also a celebration of a woman battling for change in her Southern community, a warrior who saved 2000 dogs in one year.

Best Documentary
Documentary Feature
United States
Runtime:
54 minutes
10 seconds
Director:
Chris Spencer

REIFF 2021

For years, members of the city leadership discredited findings of racial bias while continuously increasing the police budget. Advocating for raising taxes instead of laying off officers, the Vergennes Police Chief singled out a domestic violence victim in front of a packed hall to instill fear. After the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, discussions of police oversight turned personal, forcing the mayor and three city council members to resign; the city was left with no functioning government.

In the end, The Price of Safety stitches together a discussion about the issues facing Vermont’s smallest city through interviews with residents, scholars of race and policing, and elected officials. As conversations surrounding policing and racism evolve nationally, we watch a community reckon with a vital question: what does it mean to be safe?

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