About the Festival:

The Southern Appalachian International Film Festival, SOAPIFF for short, serves to publicly recognize, promote, and preserve the work of independent film makers and encourage film production and film culture in Southern Appalachia.SOAPIFF has revived an annual film festival in greater East Tennessee, the birthplace of the oldest continuous independent film festival in the American South (the Sinking Creek Film Celebration, now the Nashville Film Festival).

SOAPIFF is now in its seventh year of bringing some of the best independent films in the world to the region. SOAPIFF‘s roots are firmly in the South, but its branches reach far and wide. SOAPIFF was inspiried by the Sinking Creek Film Festival, originally founded by the late Mary Jane Coleman in Greeneville, Tennessee. In 2005 Mark Compton started the SOAPIFF in nearby Johnson City as his graduate thesis project in tourism and development. It has since grown into one of the most diverse film festivals in the country, showcasing films from all over the world, many of which have gone on to greater acclaim after receiving their premier screening with the festival. The festival will present its Seventh Annual screening of films this year at The Knoxville Museum of Art and on each campus of Pellissippi State Community College from November 12th to November 18th.

In its very first year, SOAPIFF premiered the independent horror film Five Across the Eyes, filmed in the Tri-Cities area, which went on to gain a European distribution deal after winning the festival‘s Best of Fest award. Films like Basement Jack, Good Dick, and Virtual JFK have also gone on to further acclaim after screenings at the festival. Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel, by executive producer and writer Pamela Roberts, was broadcast nationally on PBS in 2012. In its seven years, SOAPIFF has hosted world premieres for films from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

The Southern Appalachian International Film Festival is also proud to present the annual Mary Jane Coleman Award. Given in honor of the founder of the Sinking Creek Film Celebration, the award is given to individuals and artists who promote and encourage film production in the American South. Previous winners of the Mary Jane Coleman Award include Linn Sitler, one of the longest-serving film commissioners in the world at the Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commission; Ted Hatfield, Director of Film Marketing at Regal Entertainment Group; and Appalshop, the media collective dedicated to documenting and preserving Appalachian culture and tradition