Abstract
The RIFF Awards - Rome Independent Film Festival, is an international independent film festival whose main goal is to promote contemporary cinema. The festival takes place in Rome in November over several days and showcases about 100 premieres of both Italian and international films which are distributed over 13 sections: first and second feature films, documentaries, short films, experimental films and animations, scripts and screenplays that stood out for their contents and techniques' originality.
An international jury made up of qualified experts will assess the works in competition. The RIFF, alongside the works in competition, will promote a series of events to encourage the cultural exchange between different artistic expressions and enhance the comparison with other countries.
The programme's wide nature includes not only live performances, video artists, live music, and readings but also round tables and workshops, in order to promote audience's professionalisation, to encouraging it to be more an active contributor to the Italian and foreign cultural life. Since the first edition in 2000, the RIFF has progressively become a regular event followed with interest in Rome, and a reference point for filmmakers from all over the world.
As a matter of fact, every year RIFF receives over 2,000 submits from all the 5 continents, thus representing a careful witness to indie cinema's growth. Markéta Magidová's film Releasing Spell was amongst 10 semifinalist in the Animation Short Competition.
It was European premiere of the Releasing Spell.