About The Pensacola International Film Festival
The Pensacola International Film Festival was founded in 2003 by area film commissioner Tom Roush, Dee Dee Ritchie and several other film fans and area boosters. Right out of the gate, the film festival was able to attract great films and film artists to the area with such guests as boxing legend George Forman, Tony Shalhoub (TV’s “Monk”) and “3rd Rock From The Sun” star John D’Aquino.
Since then, the festival has shown hundreds of award winning feature films (Oscar winning “Nowhere In Africa” and Oscar winning “City of God” we’re exclusive to the area with the Pensacola Film Festival), documentaries, and student works at venues across the area, from the Rave Motion Pictures to a giant screen mounted to the front of the TT Wentworth Museum. Other guests have included Mike Bettes from The Weather Channel, Pensacola native and Oscar winner Anthony LaMolinara, and Oscar nominated documentary filmmaker Heidi Ewing.
The 2006 film festival also marked the first year that the event began awarding scholarships to area students. The Film Festival gave a $2000 scholarship to UWF student Heath Carroll, which was matched by the university to make a $2000 contribution to a local student’s media education.
The 2007 Film Festival is the 5th annual, and will open with the powerful locally produced documentary film “Lillie and Leander” which opened at the Tribeca Film Festival and is playing the other major festival around the world. Other films and guests are being lined up for the event which will take place October 26 through the 28.
