Rome Independent Film Festival

Less than two weeks after returning from the Director's View Film Festival in Connecticut I was off to the ROME INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL www.RIFF.it At last a European festival had selected my movie and I was able to take full advantage of the ‘eternal city’. Again, this illustrates the importance of film festivals in that I was able to experience the art and culture of Rome thanks to my film and reach an entirely new audience.

The trip was made even more special because my interest is the Romans and I enjoyed wondering around Rome and discovering the Colloseum. The only real drawback was that the hotel the festival were putting me up in seemed to be as far outside of Rome as you could possibly get!

The visit was made extra special as I was able to visit relatives. My Uncle and Aunt have lived in Rome since the 1950’s and I was able to see them and visit my cousins. My cousin Mark took me up to the highest hill in Rome to look over the city.

Jonathan with his aunt and uncle in Rome

My whole Italian family came to the screening of the film at the Cinema Pasquino on Saboto 01.03 at 20:15. Considering the film was presented in English, with no Italian subtitles, it went down surprisingly well. As always I was grateful to my companion for her skill at keeping my nerves under control before a screening.

At the weekend Carina and her husband Nicci took us for a tour around Rome, shooting around on their scooters was fantastic. After visiting the Vatican it was time for the awards ceremony at the RIPA HOTEL.

Jonathan picking up the Audience Award for Best Film

One of the festival assistants told me that Summer Rain hadn't won an award, I became quite miserable as I was tired from my day's sight seeing and I had a bit of a stroppy fit at Eimear when she suggested that we just go back to the hotel. Whatever my companion said would have resulted in me having a stroppy fit, I was in that kind of mood. So, I made her stay - which was just as well as the festival assistant had purposely mislead me,I was extremely surprised when Summer Rain was announced in Italian. I didn't quite believe it and I almost had to be shoved up front to and pulled in front of the Paparazzi to accept the ROMA INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL AUDIENCE AWARD. It was presented by the City newspaper following a market research of the audiences for the most popular film.

Unfortunately the Rome film festival clashed exactly with two other film festivals that had invited me to attend. I was very excited to have been selected for the prestigious 9th ANNUAL SEDONA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL www.sedonafilmfestival.com in Arizona and simultaneously the D.C INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL in Washington D.C – www.dciff.org .