The 8th edition of RIFF, Rome Independent Film Festival, is closed. Ten thousand people, 90 works in competition, long movies, short movies and documentaries, coming from 30 different countries.

During the award ceremony, presented by RIFF director Fabrizio Ferrari and Milena Kaneva, with the participation of Regione Lazio representative members, Giulia Rodano and Comune di Roma, Umberto Croppi, RIFF Awards 2009 have been delivered to the winning works, by an extraordinary jury: Valentina Cervi, Sabrina Impacciatore, Paul Zonderland, Umberto Massa, Ahmad Rafat, Rachid Benhadj, Manetti Bros:


Best Feature Film: Steve McQueen's “ Hunger” - United Kingdom/ Northern Ireland

Special Mention to Ratmin Lavafipour's “Be calm and count 7”
New Vision Prize 2009 to Johan Kramer 's “Sing For Darfur” – Holland
Best Italian Feature Film: Marcello and Dario Baldi's “Narciso” -Italy
Special Mention to Marco Carniti 's “ Sleeping Around” - Italy

Best Documentary: Ferenc Moldoványl's Another Planet – Hungary/Finland/Belgium
Special Mention to Alan Bacchelli and Lorenzo Degl’Innocenti’s “Almeno io Fo…à” - Italy

Best Italian Short: Giuseppe Pizzo's “ Nero apparente”
Special mentions to Italian short movies: Andrea Costantini's “L'ultima volta”; Andrea Zaccarello's “TV “ and Marco Gianfreda's “Io parlo”.

Best Foreing Short: Daniel Wilson's “Section 44” - United Kingdom
Special Mention to: Cris Jones's “The Funk” - Australia
Best Students Short: Lorenzo Sportiello's “Col Sangue Agli Occhi”

Best Animation Short:
Ex aequo: Lars Arrhenius, Johannes Müntzing's “The Big Store” - Sweden
Bill Plympton's “Hot Dog” - United States

Best Screenplay: Carlo La Chimia's “Un cancello tra i prati”
Best screenplay for Short Film: Riccardo Degni's “L’alternativa”
Best Subject (new section): Fabrizio Bozzetti's “Vento zero”.
Among our several guests: Roberto Herlitzka, Arnoldo Foà, Valeria Solarino, Sabrina Impacciatore, Daniele Mazzocca, Dario Baldi, Marco Carniti, Salvatore Maira, Michael Margotta, Terje Carlsson, Leila Sarsour, Agnes Rossa, Joe Berlinger, Frederic Massot, Alyse Spiegel, Oana Giurgiu, Reinier Selen, Laura Hastings-Smith, Marko Skop, Igor Vorskla, Tom Heinemann, Khaled Benaissa, Villi Herman, Dan Wilson, Romain Raynaldy and Monica Nicolaidou.
RIFF thanks: Ministero affari Esteri, Ministero Beni Culturali e attività Culturali (General Cinema Direction), Assessorato Politiche Culturali Regione Lazio, Assessorato alle politiche Culturali e della Comunicazione Comune di Roma and all the sponsors that have have given their contribute to the 8th RIFF Edition.