The 20th Cleveland International Film Festival broke attendance records, sold out 26 films shown during the 11-day event, and named "Fiddlefest" the Festival's best feature film.
"Fiddlefest" was an Academy Award documentary nominee. It won the Cleveland Roxanne T. Mueller Award, voted by Festival patrons. Musician and orchestra conductor Allan Miller directed the story of a teacher's work with children from the New York streets to turn them into a classical string ensemble.
Critics called "Fiddlefest" a joy that can't be missed "even by the tone deaf."
More than 25-thousand people attended the Festival, a 10 percent increase over a year ago and a whopping 81 percent jump from 1991 when the Festival moved its cinematic offerings downtown to the Hoyts Cinemas. Native Clevelander Marc Buckland's "Dead Guy" won the Michael J. Eden Award for best Ohio short film.
The Partners Award for best documentary short went to "Breathing Lessons." Marya Cohn's "Developing" was the winner of the Best Women's short film. Cleveland artist Kevin Jerome Everson won the Georgia Mae Campbell Award for an exploration of black sexuality in his film, "Adult Material." The Best Student Short Film Award went to Laura Harrison's look at a ghost town in the making, "Thurmond, W. VA."
The Festival ended March 31, but extra time was needed to sort through the voting and come up with the winning films.
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