Rhode Island International Film Festival - No longer Oscar-Qualifying
- Brandon MacMurray
- Jul 26
- 4 min read
Here at ShortStick we try to keep things light and positive. However, when there is injustice to film makers we feel the need to call it out where we see it.
In preparation of our Oscar Shortlist Predictions, I was looking through the list of qualifying festivals for the 98th Academy Awards to see if anything had been added. To my shock I noticed Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) was not included. This felt odd as I had always considered RIIFF to be one of the "Big 5" summer short film festivals (along with Tribeca, Palm Springs, Hollyshorts and LA Shorts). I did a deep dive and what I found was extremely disappointing.
The first article (and only article by a major trade) that popped up was from before they lost their status. It was an article posted by The Hollywood Reporter last year titled "How Rhode Island's Biggest Showcase became the "Fyre of Film Festivals""
To quote the entire article below:
"A slew of moviemakers has been telling Rambling Reporter that the six-day August event in Providence — which serves as a qualifying event for a bunch of Academy Awards short categories — was an unmitigated mess this year. “The Fyre Festival of film festivals” is how one of them describes it. According to on-the-ground reports, there were a bunch of technical snafus including films not filling up screens and one initially playing with sound and no picture. There’s been some disappointment over audience attendance, as well. “There were seven people in my screening,” sighs one filmmaker. “Two of them were drunk and left.” Most maddening to participants, though, was the chaotic planning and communication, with the official schedule posting just days before the opening, leaving film teams scrambling to make travel plans. Multiple participating filmmakers griped to THR — which, full disclosure, was an official partner of this year’s festival — that they received no response from RIIFF to their many inquiring emails and calls about their screenings, forcing some to reach out for information over social media. “To be honest,” says one, “I don’t know if my film would have ever been put on the schedule unless I had posted publicly.” Several filmmakers say they are writing to the Academy complaining about their experiences. RIIFF executive director Shawn Quirk admits to problems but notes that the festival is “in transition” after the 2022 death of its founder, George T. Marshall, and is still getting back on its feet after COVID. He says submissions for 2025 are up 20 percent and promises next year’s festival will be “our best year yet.” — Katie Kilkenny"
Looking through Reddit, the stories from film makers (and even RIIFF interns) are numerous:
Pictures above from:
A technical snafu or so is bound to happen occasionally at festivals. But on top of short films playing without video and films not fitting the screens, to ignore your film makers invited to your fest and have them introduce themselves and run their own Q+A is utterly unbelievable and unprofessional. Nevermind the chaos of accepting films and then not giving them a clear idea of when their films are playing. When it comes down to it, film makers spend months, sometimes years making their short films. A world premiere is an exciting event for them to finally show their hard work to the world. I feel horrible for the film makers who had to go through this nightmare for their shorts.
What's worse is RIIFF hasn't even publicly acknowledged any of their shortcomings. We have seen problems in the past with fests like Hot Docs or awards bodies like the Golden Globes. In my opinion, they did right by admitting their mistakes and creating an open plan on how they were going to fix them. Hot Docs decided to cut costs and run a smaller festival this year. The Golden Globes decided to expand their voting body and create a plan. They both released statements and maybe RIIFF should take note.
I had really hoped this one a one year thing for RIIFF but it feels like it has been long in the making and this year already feels disorganized from some posts I have seen. Especially in responses like these in a thread about RIIFF losing its Academy Award Qualifying status:
A lack of a statement is sure to cause confusion among those accepted to this fest. RIIFF is not necessarily advertising that they are Oscar-qualified but due to its previous reputation many film makers still believe it is one. Scrolling through Instagram this week I have seen many shorts claim to be screening at the "Academy Award Qualifying Rhode Island International Film Festival". RIIFF may not be lying but it feels deceptive. RIIFF doesn't need to take any advice from me, nor do I think they will read this (they don't even seem to have time to reply to their own film makers). But if I were them I would do right by the film makers and issue a public statement and a plan on how things will be turned right so a once previous acclaimed festival can be made once more.
-Brandon MacMurray
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