Catalina Film Festival

The Catalina Film Institute's (CFI) non-profit mission is to help foster the growth of our filmmakers’ "IMAGINATION, EDUCATION and DESTINATION" while promoting film and the rich cinema history of Catalina Island and Southern California to the world’s arts and entertainment community. Through our annual Catalina Film Festival, one of the most historic and unique film festivals in the world, and other various branches like the Catalina Film Society, CatalinaFilmChannel.com, Catalina Film Radio Program, Lions’ Den®, and the Catalina Film & New Media Summit, CFI strives to offer educational seminars, introspective Q and A’s, workshops, industry panels and networking events. We offer our attendees exposure to the worldwide film industry through a wide spectrum of cinema, social interactions, and educational experiences. Our mission is designed to help create a platform for our filmmakers to be seen, but more importantly, provide them with industry exposure to help sustain their destiny within the craft for many years to come. Hosted completely within Los Angeles County cities and our namesake island, Catalina, Hollywood's famous and historic “Island to The Stars”. CFF is one of the world’s premier film events garnering 100 Billion media impressions worldwide! The beauty of the seaports Los Angeles County offers, and the clear blue water of the sub-tropical island is right here in Hollywood’s backyard with all its majestic beauty and rich iconic cinematic firsts in history. Catalina is where Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille all screened the first “talkie” films in the world’s first movie theatre built for sound (a 1,184-seat movie palace) inside the world-famous Avalon Casino building (opening May 29, 1929). This exotic island has been entertaining Hollywood’s elite for over 100 years, as Catalina was once home to Marilyn Monroe, hosted 30 years of Chicago Cubs baseball spring training (where sportscaster Ronald Reagan was discovered by Warner Brothers), and has been California's vacation spot for all of yesterday’s and today’s stars; from Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Orson Welles, Natalie Wood, Errol Flynn, Mickey Rooney, Winston Churchill, Jane Mansfield, Harrison Ford, Barbara Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, Katy Perry, Ryan Gosling, Sharon Stone, Robert Downey, Jr., Kate Bosworth, Leonardo DiCaprio, William H. Macy, Andy Garcia, Roman Coppola, Emmy Rossum and many more. The 10-day live and online festival start on the first weekend in our sister-city, Long Beach, CA for our “Catalina Launch Weekend” with multiple screenings, panels and fun parties with our partner and venue, the Scottish Rite Cultural Center. Our Second weekend of the 10-day live and online festival happens on our namesake Catalina Island for the second weekend of fun. All venues and locations are within walking, biking and/or shuttle distance. The festival’s on-line competition is for all our filmmakers to have greater exposure to our attendees, industry executives, press/media, distributors, and investors during all our 10 days on our FilmFestivalFlix.com platform. This also gives live attendees the chance to see films they’ve missed, or for our filmmakers that don’t screen live to be able to tell people where they can see their film as they walk our red carpet and do interviews. Attractions on the island range from enjoying the clear blue-water beaches from a cabana, glass-bottom boat tours, zip-lines, world-class scuba-diving and snorkeling, hiking, camping, kayaking, para-sailing, wild-life bus tours, shopping, massage/spa, golf, miniature golf, botanical gardens, bike rentals, golf cart rentals, and so much more... There are festival party cruises, yacht services and transport ferries that will take you from Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties, as well as helicopter and airplane rides that take only 15 minutes from the mainland. Our chartered festival party cruise on and off the island grants you the full island festival networking experience over the weekend with your peers… Once on the island, you feel like you entered into an exotic destination; but remember, you're still in Los Angeles County, so you don't have to change your currency!