Executive Producer for the Naperville Independent Film Festival starting April 14th 2007.
Coverage of all the Events for 2008-2009-2010-2011-2012-2013
The Naperville Independent Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Naperville, Illinois which features the work of independent filmmakers. Actress Karen Black helped open inaugurate the festival in 2008. In 2009, film critic Roger Ebert
The Naperville Independent Film Festival was founded by Edmond Coisson and Glessna Coisson and Gary Pradel. Their goal was to help filmmakers improve their filmdirecting. Pradel, chairman of the festival, explains that "usually when you enter a film you either hear that you won or you didn't, but there's no explanation of why. That's what’s going to make us a little bit different." Says Edmond Coisson, "our mission is for filmmakers to come back next year and to be even more successful. Features two panels of judges. One panel assigns awards. The other panel critiques films and provides feedback to the filmmakers on areas such as lighting.
Actress Karen Black helped open the inaugural Naperville Independent Film Festival on September 24–27, 2008. Twenty-five films from local and international filmakers were screened. Among the award-winners were Hanieh Jodat for Best Actress, Jon Bernthal for Best Actor and Myles Price for Best Director. Actor David Proval attended. In addition to the films presented, the festival held screenwriting workshops and panels. Second annual Naperville Independent Film Festival ran from September 19, 2009 to September 26, 2009. The festival featured 80 movies selected from about 130 submissions by filmmakers from around the world. Filmmakers competed for 10 awards including best feature film, short subject, animation, foreign language and screenplay.
The 12-person jury consisted primarily of local newspaper critics. The event began with a "Ghostbusters" Tribute Bash in honor of the film's 25th anniversary and concluded with an Awards Gala. Actor Rodney Lee Conover lead a panel discussion and Dan Decker ran a workshop on screenwriting. Musician Jim Peterik, known for hit songs such as "Hold on Loosely" and "Eye of the Tiger" performed. Actress Karen Allen from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" appeared.
A separate competition for children ages 13 and under was held with Naperville Mayor George Pradel presenting awards to the young filmmakers on Family Day. Film critic Roger Ebert presented the award for best student film to Brooke Hanson for her movie "Borderless
Movie buffs rejoice! The Naperville Independent Film Festival (NIFF), an 8-day event, begins Saturday, September 17 and runs through the following Saturday, September 24th.
This is the 4 Annual Event! " A SALUTE TO OUR TROOPS"
The film festival features independent films submitted from all-around the world. This is the third year for NIFF, which was founded by Edmond Coisson (also Executive Director), Glessna Coisson (also Executive Director) and Gary Pradel ( Prsident & CEO of the Arthur Ray Foundation in 2007. The event has grown over the past couple of years. In its first year, the festival had 150 attendees; this year upwards of 3000 attendees are expected.
http://www.NaperFilmFest.org
The Making of NIFF
