As every Iowan knows, there’s usually an Iowa connection with most things. At the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival (CRIFF), that’s the whole point.
“That Iowa connection has always been our number-one thing, and I think we're pretty unique in that,” said Festival Director Eric Dean Freese. “We are celebrating that Iowans are working in the film industry everywhere.”
With submissions coming from places as far-flung as Mexico, England, Germany, India and Japan, CRIFF has proven that to be true over the years. This year, the festival received a record number of submitted films, including its first ever entry from the Philippines.
“We've never suffered from a lack of entries,” Freese said. “There's just that much great Iowa-connected work being done.”
For over 20 years, CRIFF has offered filmmakers with an Iowa tie a place to screen their work and connect with fellow filmmakers. It has also provided the community with opportunities to see a variety of movies and talk directly to the people who made them.
“We are celebrating that Iowans are working in the film industry everywhere.”Festival Director Eric Dean Freese
This year, the festival features 65 official selections — a record high — chosen from more than 120 submissions. The growing interest from filmmakers and audiences has led organizers to not only expand the schedule but also the festival’s footprint.
The 2026 CRIFF runs April 9-12 across three locations. The festival’s usual home at Collins Road Theatres in Marion will host screenings Friday through Sunday, while the added screenings on Thursday night will play at the Ideal Theater and the Olympic South Side Theater in Cedar Rapids’ NewBo District.
Freese, who first got involved with the festival in 2002, is excited to see new opportunities pop up in a different part of town.
“This is our biggest expansion in many years,” he said. “Just being able to add more films and add more locations and reach out to more members of the community … We're just really excited.”
What’s on the schedule?
With a four-day schedule stacked with screenings, Freese said there’s something for everyone.
“We have documentaries, short films, feature films, music videos — at all skill levels,” he said. “Whether they're students, whether they're hobbyists, whether they're seasoned professionals, there's just a great variety and great diversity of genre.”
One of the student films playing on Sunday has already earned a young filmmaker a national award. Bettendorf Middle School student Adrian Gillette’s documentary about book bans is one film Freese is thrilled to feature at the festival.
“He did a documentary called FREADOM on Trial: Rights and Responsibilities in Island Trees Board of Education v. Pico, which is a documentary about the only court case about school book banning that ever reached the Supreme Court,” Freese said. “He's actually won some national awards, kind of rubbing elbows with the famous documentarian Ken Burns.”
William Rock is making his directorial debut at CRIFF with Jury of Her Peers, a true crime feature based on an unsolved axe murder that happened in Iowa in 1900. Rock said he and his cast and crew are thrilled to bring the film to the festival.
“Most indie films don't have giant marketing budgets. We certainly don't, and CRIFF is a very well-attended festival,” he said. “So, my gratitude is twofold: both the recognition of our film's quality and the opportunity to connect with new audiences.”
For Hannah Rosalie Wright, this year’s CRIFF marks a special occasion. The Des Moines-based filmmaker has two projects screening at the festival. Wright said she doesn’t take moments like this for granted and that she’s looking forward to celebrating local film this weekend.
“It means a lot because whenever a film screens publicly, it's not something to take lightly. It takes technical setup, a space and an audience giving their time,” she said. “As a filmmaker, I had different roles and responsibilities for the two films I was on; I directed one film, Still Life, and produced another, Fly Over. There were different teams for each one. I think it's a beautiful display of the Iowa film community and the creativity and support we lend to one another.”
This year is special for Freese, too. The festival director is also a documentary filmmaker and was the editor on a feature-length doc that’s playing at CRIFF called The Collins Story – The Internet Connection. The documentary explores the evolution of Cedar Rapids technology company Collins Radio, which helped shape the internet in the 1970s.
Freese said he was fascinated with how integral a local company was with such important feats in modern history, from communicating with astronauts on the moon to inventing the internet.
“It's kind of a neat thing to be able to say that this ‘little’ company in Cedar Rapids had such an impact on some of the things that we consider milestones in exploration,” Freese said.
25 years of supporting indie film
Since its founding in 2001, CRIFF has welcomed filmmakers of all skill levels to showcase their projects on the big screen. In its early days, the festival attracted the attention of two aspiring filmmakers from Bettendorf, who debuted one of their early short films there.
The film was called Yearbook, and it was directed by the now-renowned directing duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.
“They were, I think, sophomores in high school at the time, and they submitted it to the 2002 CRIFF and were accepted,” Freese recalled. “That was their very first festival experience.”
The Iowa-born filmmakers went on to write and direct A Quiet Place, 65 and, most recently, Heretic. They continue to make films in Hollywood but have shown their lasting love for their home state by opening an independent theater in Davenport in 2023.
Freese said that even with their “wonderful successes,” Beck and Woods have remained supporters of local cinema.
“They've always been great friends of the festival,” Freese said. “We are proud of the fact that CRIFF was their very first film festival.”
‘A filmmaking renaissance’
As CRIFF celebrates its 25th anniversary and its 23rd festival — it did not run for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic — Freese sees a bright future for the industry locally.
“I think we're kind of in a filmmaking renaissance in Iowa,” he said.
Freese has seen audiences open up to less conventional forms of storytelling — especially when it comes to independently produced films.
“People are realizing the quality of work that goes into independent film and the unique stories that are allowed in independent film that you don't see out of a studio picture,” he said. “People can take more risks, can do something controversial — and there's a place for that, and people appreciate that.”
As an independent filmmaker who’s been making movies in Iowa for about nine years, Wright sees it as a great opportunity for everyone involved to come together and celebrate local connections.
“Twenty-five years is a long time to have a festival not only survive but thrive,” she said. “It's a testament to the community and volunteer support, as well as the Iowa filmmakers who make an effort to gather.”
The full schedule of films and tickets for the 23rd annual CRIFF are available on the festival website.
