FOREST CITY – The first annual North Iowa Film Festival (NIFF) will make its debut at the newly reopened Forest Theatre on May 2, 2014. Five short films will premiere from Phillip Koolhoven, Carlos Ruiz, Claire Lawson, Kyle Acker and Andrew May, all of whom are current students or alumni of Waldorf College based in Forest City, Iowa with the exception of Andrew May, who attends Forest City High School. The event begins with a red carpet event at 7:30 p.m. with the first film showing at 8 p.m.
The films featured at this year’s festival will be The 16 Bit Sword, Wanderlust, Shadows, It’s On Me and Simple Job. All four films are currently in the post-production stage. The current approximate times for the films are as follows: It’s On Me (25 minutes) Simple Job (15 minutes) Wanderlust (12 minutes) Shadows (10 minutes) and The 16 Bit Sword (5 minutes).
This is the first film festival to be held in Forest City which will partner with the communications department of Waldorf College. In future years, the NIFF will be open primarily to student submissions from Waldorf College and other colleges as well as feature length film submissions and animations.
The North Iowa Film Festival was founded in 2013 by Phillip Koolhoven and Carlos Ruiz. Currently, Koolhoven serves as President handling the business and financial affairs. Ruiz is Vice President handling marketing and public relations of the festival. Mark Newcom and Betsy Yaros, Waldorf College professors are board members. All four will be the creative executives that decide which films are to be featured from submissions in either the short film, feature film and animation categories in the near future.
