The Roosevelt Island Film Festival is a new film festival that is dedicated to the discovery and development of independent American and International filmmakers. The festival seeks to discover, support, and inspire independent film, and introduce audiences to new exceptional works in Feature Films and Short Films in addition to special categories such as Female Filmmaker, Emerging NYC Filmmakers, Comedy, and Foreign Language Films.
The festival is the brainchild of filmmaker Toni Vitale, who was inspired by independent filmmaking which prompted her to build a festival of her own. She chose Roosevelt Island to be the perfect location for having this new born festival. Daniel Jordano, a permanent resident of Roosevelt Island and filmmaker friend who worked together on one of Daniel’s films, joined forces with her and together they co-founded The Roosevelt Island Festival.