In 2004, the ReelHeART International Film Festival (RHIFF) was founded by a film supporter and world traveler of Irish descent who speaks 3 languages.

Our Founder, along with our Director had a vision that a new film festival could be formed in North America to fill the void created by the growing trend of ‘niche’ festivals.

ReelHeART is proud to call ourselves a ‘truly open festival’, accepting films of all genres, countries and film lengths. Our screenplay competition gets the same open welcome as this past season can attest. The top 3 Winning screenplays ranged from a futuristic “I Am Legend” meets “28 Days Later” mysterious, incurable virus story, to a home spun fish-out-of-water Southern love story, to a true story of an escape from East Berlin in the 80’s by an artists now living in the United States.

Over the past few seasons we have garnered the nickname: “The Filmmaker’s Film Festival”, which symbolizes our commitment to independent filmmakers and screenwriters and a badge we wear proudly.

Knowing our Founder speaks English, Spanish and French, was motivation to also promote English, Spanish and French as the “official languages” of ReelHeART. We will integrate these languages into our festival programming and promotional materials as often as possible. We hope to reach our goal of offering a fully tri-lingual web site in 2010. To this end, films submitted in Spanish and French will not have to be subtitled specifically for our festival.

ReelHeART believes this will also help bring cultural mix of dedicated sponsors, media and filmgoers to our event and establish long term relationships. We also believe this will add to the cultural and creative exchange throughout ReelHeART from planning stages to launch of the 5th Annual ReelHeART International Film Festival (RHIFF) June 15-20, 2009 in Toronto, Canada.

ReelHeART is steadfast in its dedication to supporting the need for exposure for ALL LEVELS of independent filmmakers around the world. We put emerging and student artists alongside established and master filmmakers in an effort that all filmmakers can be recognized for their art, rather than their credits.

We also have a goal to satisfy and challenge the interests of filmgoers and film supporters; to encourage, reward and celebrate the “Real HeART” of film, new media and screenwriters alike.

Whether filmgoer, filmmaker, screenwriter, reviewer, media or industry professional, the welcome and networking opportunities you experience at ReelHeART will be talked about from one year to the next…

Please join us for an exciting 5th year and do it with ReelHeART…