CLEVELAND — The Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF), which is kicking off April 3, is an Academy-qualifying event that draws thousands of film industry leaders and enthusiasts annually. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Tri-C Film Academy, an intensive six-week course, trains students in the production industry and gives them the real experience of being hired on a short film at the end of the program.

  • This year, the academy's short film, Minutes to Go, will be screened at Cleveland International Film Festival.

  • Local leaders said the goal of the academy is to build up the film production workforce in Cleveland.

The Tri-C Film Academy, an intensive six-week course, trains students in the production industry and gives them real experience of being hired on a short film at the end of the program.

This year, the academy’s short film, Minutes to Go, is being screened at CIFF.

Award-winning actor and director, James Madio, serves as the artist-in-residence at the academy alongside program director Olivia Villaseñor.

“We pretty much take trainees who want to be in film and television from their freshman year to their senior year with the help of Miss Olivia,” Madio said. “She runs it with me.”

They bring in industry professionals to help pack everything from special effects and stunts to sound mixing into their course. 

At the end of the class, they hire and pay their students to work production on a local short film, thanks to a grant from the John P. Murphy Foundation. 

“We try to keep it real world experience for them because when they get on a set, we want to make sure they know chain of command, the lingo, they know everybody’s roles, they respect everybody’s roles, just to give them the proper skill set,” Madio said. 

Those films have won awards in the past and this year, the short they helped produce will screen at the Cleveland International Film Festival, something they’re very proud of.

Ohio’s state legislature recently increased the cap for film tax credits from $40 million to $50 million to help incentivize out-of-state studios to shoot here.

The number will increase to $75 million come July. 

Villaseñor said with that increased funding, will come increased demand for skilled crew. 

“At the film academy, that is really our main goal,” she said. “It’s really trying to support that workforce, and make people understand you can work in the film industry and live in Ohio.”

Recently, big-budget feature movies like White Noise and Judas and the Black Messiah were filmed in Cleveland. 

Soon, a Superman movie is expected to start production here.

Madio said he and Villaseñor often get calls from studios seeking local crew to hire before bringing in people from out-of-state. 

“They’ll contact Olivia, or they’ll contact our program, and kinda say ‘Who do you think has it?’ And then we’ll go ‘That person has it.’ And we can cherry-pick them and go, ‘Yeah, these people are ready for real-world experiences. Put them on your set and they will not disappoint you,’” Madio said. “We have the confidence to do so, through this program.”

Madio, produced and acted in a feature film, The Featherweight, which will also be screening at CIFF.

The film is a biography of Willie Pep, a retired featherweight boxer out of Hartford, Connecticut, and was a passion project for Madio, who took on the leading role.