Last week, we kicked off the New Year by proudly announcing the 2014 DC Independent Film Festival finalists. After receiving over 1,000 entries, we narrowed down our finalists to nine feature films, six documentary features, seven documentary shorts, 23 narrative shorts, 16 animated films and nine high school student films.

We’ve truly held up our tradition of international representation at this year’s festival with over 28 films from 18 different countries, including New Zealand, Canada, Iran, Spain, Netherlands, China, Russia, Austria, India, Italy, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Singapore, Croatia, Ireland and Australia.

We’ll be working diligently behind the scenes over the next few weeks to set the final line-up, organize volunteers and press and firm up panelists for the festival, which runs from Wednesday, February 19^th to Sunday, February 23^rd. To paraphrase our festival director, Deirdre Evans-Pritchard, the festival is meant to be accessible to all, from members of the filmmaking community and casual film lovers to those who wish to support the DC arts community. We encourage everyone to join and reap the benefits of our seminars, workshops, panels and more. To support our core value of accessibility, we are currently running a deal through Groupon for discounted VIP or one-day passes through February 18th.

Be sure to check back here for more festival updates over the next month including in-depth filmmaker profiles.