The Newport International Film Festival has announced an exciting new partnership with The Museum of Modern Art, featuring a special selection of films from the Museum’s annual exhibition To Save and Project: The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation. The announcement was made by NIFF Executive Director, Jennifer Maizel at a NIFF benefit event in Newport on Saturday night (3/7).

The NIFF will present its annual Claiborne Pell Tribute Award at the 2009 Festival (Senator Pell of Rhode Island was the father of the Pell Grant and the man responsible for the establishment of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities). The Honoree of NIFF’s annual Claiborne Pell Tribute Award will be presented with a $10,000 contribution in their name to be given to The Museum of Modern Art for its internationally renowned film preservation program. The honoree, in consultation with NIFF & MoMA, will take part in choosing which film the Museum will preserve.

The 2009 NIFF will also feature a special film series based on the past six years of MoMA's To Save and Project preservation festival, selected by Joshua Siegel, Associate Curator, and Anne Morra, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. Representatives from MoMA's Department of Film will present selected titles in this NIFF series and also participate in a panel discussion on film preservation.

“We are extremely honored to work with The Museum of Modern Art,” said new NIFF Artistic Director Tom Hall. “As an historic community, we’re excited that Newport can support the preservation of our cinema’s important history. We are eager to not only show these rarely screened films to our audiences, but to partner with our festival’s honoree to make a contribution to the MoMA’s ongoing efforts to save films from extinction.”

“Our To Save and Project program is one of the centerpieces of the Museum’s archival efforts,” stated MoMA Chief Film Curator, Rajendra Roy. “To be able to share our archive with the Newport International Film Festival as well as broaden the awareness in the program is a wonderful opportunity for us. We look forward to a long collaboration with NIFF.”

About To Save and Project: The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation: Each year, the member institutions of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) preserve hundreds of motion pictures, working together to find the best-surviving materials for each film. Spanning the history of the moving image, these preserved films are vivid reflections of the diverse cultures that produced them, making this annual MoMA film preservation festival, now in its seventh year, a tribute to the passion and commitment of film conservators and archivists around the world. The films in To Save and Project are preserved through the collaborative efforts of FIAF archives, as well as commercial studios and distributors around the world. Virtually all have their New York premieres at MoMA, and some are shown in versions never before seen in the United States.

The mission of the Newport International Film Festival is to enrich the community by presenting unique programs that inspire, challenge, and engage a broad and diverse audience through the art of filmmaking. Additional films, programs, honorees and events will be forthcoming as the 2009 Newport International Film Festival approaches this June 3-7, 2009.