13th annual AIFF Poster Contest
The Arlington International Film Festival, more than a film festival but a celebration of the arts,
sponsors an annual Poster Contest, which is the first project to spin-off connecting film with the arts.
This year’s contest was open exclusively to the students of Mass College of Art - Illustration Department.
Poster entries are evaluated by an esteemed panel of Judges with expertise in composition, design, public relations, and marketing. Entries are assessed for visual appeal, content, and marketability. Beginning in 2020, the previous year’s winner will be invited to participate in the judging of the current year’s competition.
The selected poster design becomes the face of the Festival for the current year, appearing in various forms; ex. posters, postcards, banners, program books, lanyards, covers of news media, electronic ads, social media, bulletin boards locally, nationally, and internationally.
Congratulations to Elijah White, whose design was chosen as the 2023 Poster Contest winner and who was the recipient of the $500 cash prize.
“For this assignment, my approach was having a celebratory aesthetic, a physical highlight reel of filmmaking. This is shown in the spectacle-like formation of the film reels, and the figure in the center. The design of the figure was to be the embodiment of international filmmaking, with the dress being made up of flags of the many countries involved in AIFF.”
- Elijah White on their design | #AIFFwinnerElijahWhite
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD
This award goes to the public’s favorite poster submission and includes a $200 cash prize. #AIFFAudienceChoiceAward
Congrats to Kayla Analambidakis on being the 2023 Audience Choice Award Winner!
"For this project I really just wanted to do things on the spot. I wanted stamps and I wanted it to be messy, but also very simple. It just felt right.”
- Kayla Analambidakis
2023 entries
Thank you to all the students who are participating in the 2023 Poster Contest! Click the images to enlarge.
AIFF POSTER ARCHIVE
2011 Jared Glaser & Isaac Lehman, Arlington High School - 2012 Marley Jurgensmeyer, Arlington High School - 2013 Marley Jurgensmeyer, Arlington High School - 2014 Sam Manion, Minuteman High School - 2015 Naythen Lowe, Cambridge Charter School - 2016 Tyler Wood, Mount Ida College (Newton) - 2017 Joshua Chace, Massachusetts College of Art and Design | Illustration Department - 2018 Rico St Paul, Massachusetts College of Art and Design | Illustration Department - 2019 Biana Bova, Massachusetts College of Art and Design | Illustration Department - 2020 Rayna Walters, Massachusetts College of Art and Design | Illustration Department - 2021 Elena Mathis, Massachusetts College of Arts and Design | Illustration Department - 2022 Arianna Stoughton is a junior at Mass College of Art - 2023 Elijah White, Massachusetts College of Arts and Desing Illustration Department
POSTER CONTEST JUDGES
Elisa Adams
Elisa Adams has many identities ranging from first generation Albanian American, to practicing Doctor of Chiropractic, to artist, to President of New England Sculptors Association. Adams began working with stone just over a decade ago, finessing her talent at the Decordova Museum School. She then spent six years sharing a studio with six other women artists, and presently continues her self taught work at her own studio in Concord, MA. Adams’ work is inspired by her fascination with the ocean and nature’s shapes. She loves Georgia O’Keefe’s flowers, and incorporates that astute awareness of nature’s sensuality into her sculpture. Much of her figurative work is inspired by her time spent studying on the Italian Rivera, through which she learned the admiration and appreciation of the female form honored in their art. She spent four years studying the shapes of the body, translating them with respect and care into stone. Adams is a member of the American Women Artists, International Sculptors, New England Sculptor’s Association, Concord Art and Cambridge Art Association and her work has been featured in galleries throughout Massachusetts and Florida.
www.ElisaAdamsSculptor.com | www.DrElisaAdams.com | New England Sculptors Association
David Ardito
David Ardito is an arts administrator and visual artist living and working in Arlington, Massachusetts. He attended the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City and the Syracuse University Graduate School of Visual Art, receiving his BFA (1969) and MFA (1971) respectively. He is currently the Interim K-12 Director of Visual Art for the Arlington Public Schools where he supervises twelve art teachers in the nine public school buildings in Arlington. Ardito taught in the Art Education Department at Mass. College of Art and Design and co-supervised the Saturday Studios youth program from 2007-2015.
A long-time Arlington resident, Ardito is also very committed to promoting all forms of visual and performing arts within his community and has served on numerous local committees including the Arlington Art Lottery Council, the Arlington Commission on Arts and Culture, and the Arlington Public Art Committee.
Over the past several years, Ardito’s personal artwork has transitioned from two-dimensional art forms to three-dimensional sculptural forms in wood, marble, clay, and an assortment of other media. See his work at www.daveardito.com.
Jennifer Cheng DesAutels
Jennifer is an illustrator, logo designer, and plein air artist. Her first published work is "The Untold Story of Miss Mirabella," written by Sally Odgers/Teacher Created Materials, publisher). Jenn coordinates an annual children’s art exhibit, a monthly artist critique group, and occasional plein air outings. She lives in Medford with her husband and two daughters. You can view her work at www.studioJCD.com.
Marc Gurton
Marc Gurton is the owner of 13FOREST Gallery in East Arlington. After a 20-year career in corporate accounting, Marc had a chance encounter in 2006 with the owner of an art gallery in Medford Square where 13FOREST Gallery was born. After becoming the owner, he relocated the gallery to Capitol Square in East Arlington in 2008. 13FOREST is a contemporary art and craft gallery, featuring rotating exhibits and representing over 150 local artists. Among many events the gallery features an ‘Artist Talk and Reception’ on the third Thursday of each month. View the gallery's exhibitions and schedule at www.13FOREST.com.
Erica Licea-Kane
Erica Licea-Kane has been a working artist since the early 1980’s and a college studio art instructor for over 35 years, most recently at Wheelock College for 20 years which included her position as Gallery Director of the Towne Art Gallery for 17 years. She received her BFA at the Parsons School of Design, NY, and her MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art, MA, earning both degrees in the field of fine art textiles. Licea-Kane has exhibited her work extensively throughout the United States and abroad and she is currently a member of the Kingston Gallery in Boston’s South End. Recent exhibitions of Licea-Kane’s work include The Krakorian Gallery at the Worcester Center for Crafts, Worcester, MA; Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA; Site:Brooklyn, NYC, NY; Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, ME; Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA; Andrews Art Museum, Andrews, NC; Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA; and the Attleboro Museum, Attleboro, MA. She has been the recipient of several grants and fellowships including the 2018 Artist Fellowship in Painting from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the A.R.T Grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, and a Regional Fellowship from the New England Foundation for the Arts, a regional organization of the National Endowment of the Arts. Her work has been reviewed in several publications with recent coverage in the Portland Phoenix, the Boston Globe, the Portland Press Herald, and Take Magazine as well as past reviews in the Boston Globe Magazine, the Boston Herald, Surface Design Journal, and several of the Lark Publications Fiberarts Design series of books. Currently she is a visiting lecturer at several institutions in the Boston area. www.licea-kane.com
Agathe “Gatt” Pias
Gatt is a French artist based in Valencia (Spain). She studied Advertising in France and Fine Arts at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and she is currently completing a Masters in Artistic Production at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia while working in the FabLab of the Drawing Department. Gatt's artistic work moves between illustration, graphic design, and animation, using both analog and digital techniques. She was the winner of the poster contest of the Festival International de Cine Independiente de Elche (Spain) in 2021. agpia.upv.edu.es | @_gattt
Vicky Rodriguez
Vicky Rodriguez is an artist and arts administrator with a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She primarily considers herself a problem-solver, and has used her project management skills to produce educational videos and print resources, visual and written digital content, websites, and large-scale fine craft trade shows. A lover of art and a maker of things, Vicky loves applying her organizational skills to build platforms through which other artists can also thrive.
Arianna Stoughton
Arianna Stoughton is an artist from Norton, Massachusetts, and the 2023 winner of the AIFF poster contest. She graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in August of 2022 with a BFA in Illustration. Her works largely focus on telling stories and she hopes to one day make illustrations for children’s books.