The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) is an annual film festival based in Cleveland, Ohio. Inaugurated in 1977, it's the largest film festival in Ohio and among the longest-running in the United States. The festival is held at Playhouse Square, the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York City.
In 2023, MovieMaker named it one of the "25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World". CIFF is also an Academy Award-qualifying festival for short films.
History The CIFF had its inaugural festival in 1977 with seven feature films over eight weeks at the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights. In 1991, the festival relocated to Tower City Cinemas in Downtown Cleveland. At points during its nearly five-decade run, the festival has also put on additional programming and events at other local venues, including the Akron Art Museum, the Akron-Summit County Public Library, the Apollo Theatre in Oberlin, the Capitol Theatre on Cleveland's west side, and Shaker Cinemas on Shaker Square.
After 30 years at Tower City Cinemas, CIFF announced that it would move to Playhouse Square ahead of the 2021 festival. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the 44th festival, its last at Tower City Cinemas, was canceled. The festival moved to a digital streaming platform for the first time in its history over two weeks at the end of April 2020. For the 45th festival, with the pandemic continuing through 2020 into 2021, the festival opted to continue with a digital festival dubbed CIFF45 Streams. 2022 was the festival's first time at Playhouse Square during CIFF46.
Recently, the festival has focused on films that dwell on social issues, including feminism, environmentalism, Jewish and Israeli issues, and LGBT issues. The festival also has a focus on family-friendly films and films from Central and Eastern Europe.
From 2022-24, average in-person attendance was 32,799. CIFF estimated that they hosted about 30,000 viewers in 2025, the average, from 2017-19, was 105,999. The organizations endowment has shrunk from $3 million to $1 million.
Throughout its history, CIFF has experienced tremendous growth in submissions. Its 49th festival in 2025 was curated from over 3,500 submissions from 60 countries.
Awards The Cleveland International Film Festival offers multiple awards and honors to its films and filmmakers, including for Best Documentary and for Best Central and Eastern European film. In 2006, the festival introduced The Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition, which honors films focused on social justice and activism and is sponsored by The George Gund Foundation in honor of Greg Gund, who died in a plane crash in 2005. Another major award is the Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award for Best Film, which has been awarded annually since 1988 and is named in honor of the late Roxanne Mueller, who was a film advocate and film critic for The Plain Dealer.
Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award 2026 Jane Elliott Against the World - Best Documentary Feature A Simple Machine - Best Narrative Feature 2025 - Come See Me in the Good Light 2024 - American Delivery 2023 - 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture 2022 - From the Hood to the Holler 2021 - Not Going Quietly 2019 - Princess of the Row 2018 - The Drummer and the Keeper 2017 - Big Sonia 2016 - Romeo Is Bleeding 2015 - Becoming Bulletproof 2014 - Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine 2013 - Good Ol' Freda 2012 - Under African Skies 2011 - Vincent Wants to Sea 2010 - Louder Than a Bomb 2009 - Cherry Blossoms 2008 - One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story 2007 - Darius Goes West 2006 - Live and Become 2005 - Mad Hot Ballroom 2004 - Born Into Brothels 2003 - Spellbound 2002 - Autumn Spring 2001 - Big Eden 2000 - The Butterfly 1999 - Return with Honor 1998 - Character 1997 - Shall We Dance? 1996 - Fiddlefest 1995 - The Sum of Us 1994 - Backbeat 1993 - Into the West 1992 - Enchanted April 1991 - Cross My Heart 1990 - Cinema Paradiso 1989 - The Beast 1988 - The Grand Highway
Notes An earlier film festival by the same name, the Cleveland Film Festival, was first held in 1948 and ran through 1956. That festival awarded winning 16 mm films of all types with "Oscars" and set off a trend that dominated the sponsored film category for over 20 years.
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