Columbus International Film + Video Festival officially joins forces with CCAD

The Columbus International Film + Video Festival is officially joining forces with Columbus College of Art & Design.

Starting this year, CCAD will run the film festival after the Film Council of Greater Columbus, a nonprofit organization that previously ran the festival, merged with CCAD in December 2015.

The 2016 festival will take place April 7-9 at CCAD and other venues in central Ohio.

That's a bit of a change for the festival. Last year, CIF+VF took place in November. But it's cold in November in Ohio, and a spring event fits in better with the film festival circuit, said Jeremy Henthorn, executive director of the film festival.

CIF+VF has had a relationship with CCAD for more than a decade, but Henthorn said the new merger will give the festival more resources and help it attract higher-profile films.

“Having the name of one of the foremost arts colleges in the country along with the longest-running film festival in the country is really going to raise the profile of the festival overall,” Henthorn said. “And that’s going to give us a lot of opportunities to expose not just the Columbus area but also Ohio in general to the best independent filmmaking in the world.”

Plus, CCAD Interim President Kevin Conlon said the merger will benefit CCAD students, who will have a chance to screen films and learn firsthand how a film festival is run.

“It makes real our educational mission by providing a venue for students to be able to show their work,” Conlon said. “And it also serves as a way to draw filmmakers to Columbus.”

Because of the shortened turnaround time, the 2016 CIF+VF will be smaller than in recent years. But Henthorn says the film festival is building for the 65th annual festival in 2017.