RIDGEFIELD INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL (RIFF) has selected 31 films for its 10th Anniversary Edition taking place May 15-18, 2025. The films hail from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Belgium, Croatia, Iran, Israel, Switzerland, Poland, and Spain and include features and shorts, narratives, documentaries, animation, family friendly, and horror. All films will screen at The Prospector Theater from Thursday through Saturday. On Sunday, May 18th RIFF’s 10th Annual Awards Brunch will take place in the Garden House of Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center. In collaboration with the Prospector, for the first time, all RIFF films will be closed captioned and all English language films will also have audio descriptions for blind and low vision persons.
Opening Night will unite the community around the subject of grammar with the feature documentary, “Rebel with a Clause.” Ellen Jovin, a roving grammar guru, takes her pop-up grammar stand on an epic road trip across all 50 U.S. states to spread joy, foster connection and break up Oxford comma fights as she celebrates the power of language to unite us. Jovin and her husband, filmmaker Brandt Johnson will attend the opening reception and screening, and take part in a Q&A with the audience afterwards. Additionally, a book signing, hosted by Books on the Common, will take place in the Prospector lobby as movie goers exit the theater giving them a chance to purchase Jovin’s book of the same title and perhaps ask one more grammar question as they meet the author.
Friday Night is RIFF’s iconic PSYCH NIGHT with the feature length film, “Thanks for the Room” by 2024 RIFF award winners Jason and Brett Butler, a.k.a. The Butler Brothers. A man takes a job as a midnight courier at a pandemic hotel for the unhoused, hoping to scrape together enough cash to keep his family afloat. Running odd and often illicit errands for the hotel’s guests, he starts to realize just how thin the line is between stability and the streets. When a deaf woman he’s befriended suddenly vanishes, and bodies begin quietly disappearing from the hotel, his suspicions spiral into obsession. PSYCH NIGHT also features a shorts program that is not for the faint of heart and is sure to keep you tense with anticipation.
“This year we had too many great films to choose from!” states, RIFF Director, Joanne Hudson, “The selection process was especially tough, but we’ve put together a compelling program in celebration of our 10th anniversary.”
The 31 films are listed here.
Please visit: https://www.riffct.org/ and https://www.prospectortheater.org/
For updates and details.