HISTORY The Palm Beach International Film Festival, celebrating its sixth year in the year 2001 has enjoyed a remarkable level of success in a brief period of time. While competing on a national level with over 300 similar events and internationally with the same level of competition, PBIFF has created a special niche within the film industry. Whether PBIFF is hosting acclaimed celebrities at Kravis Center Awards Gala, showcasing world & U.S. premieres in our countywide theatres or honoring the achievements of student filmmakers, the festival has certainly captured the media spotlight. Documented worldwide coverage of our 1999 countywide event was valued at over $4.7 million. The film festival celebrates both the history and the future of the industry with over ten days of world premieres, special events, feature and short films, documentaries, seminars, as well as an acclaimed student film showcase. The first event (1996) was managed by a group of dedicated volunteers with a vision of helping make the film industry a major component of Palm Beach County's economic foundation. They believed that to entice more filmmakers to our area was to organize a major film-related event. They also knew that a film festival with well-known film professionals would draw a gathering of film enthusiasts to Palm Beach County. These volunteers reorganized that for Palm Beach County to be an economically viable place to make movies, it had to have trained film crews. To make that happen, the Palm Beach International Film Festival contributes 100% of its net proceeds to Palm Beach County high school and college film programs. This has proven to be one of our most valuable and unique tools in marketing the event as well as enticing Hollywood's elite in participating. In September 1997, the Palm Beach International Film Festival hired a full-time professional staff to manage the event, concentrating on the business and marketing aspects of the film festival. Each year PBIFF continues to strive toward its goal of being a significant player in the industry as well as a cultural and tourist attraction for Palm Beach County. This includes increasing our filmmaker and celebrity attendance. The Palm Beach International Film Festival is one of a handful of annual events regularly attended by top industry press for new film reviews and its celebrity participants. Our programming department for five straight years has consistently enjoyed excellent local and national reviews. For 1998, 1999, & 2000 the festival has hosted a bevy of international celebrities including, Roger Moore, Sylvester Stallone, Esther Williams, Burt Reynolds, Michael Caine, Rod Steiger, Leslie Ann Warren, Salma Hayek, Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Delta Burke, and Anouk Aimee to name only a few. Over the past three years the festival consistently proves to increase in size and stature in the community and within the industry. 1999 PBIFF highlights included; publicity and marketing rose 20% to over $4.7 million, box-office receipts rose 10%, and a record number of filmmakers & industry reps attended (40), PBIFF booked over 250 paid room nights and three area newspaper inserts were published with total circulation over 400,000. For the first time in 2000 the festival moved its' Awards Gala to the County's premiere venue the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and more than tripled its' Awards Gala to the Country's premiere venue the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts and more than tripled its audience participation. Mission Statement: The Palm Beach International Film Festival was founded to provide a stimulating environment and unique experience for independent filmmakers from around the world, to showcase the finest in cinema while offering cultural, entertaining, and educational opportunities for filmgoers, and to provide grants to enhance existing high school and college film programs and scholarship to deserving film students.

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