An Emergence of Film Festival Camaraderie

“Community” co-stars Yvette Nicole Brown and Ken Jeong on the red carpet at the 2025 Catalina Film Festival. Photo credit: Jacob Chavez.

“I hopped off the plane at LAX” – then immediately hopped into an Uber to take me to the Catalina Express Long Beach Terminal. The final destination was Catalina Island, where I’d spend the weekend experiencing the Catalina Island Film Festival while accompanied by the team at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. Us East Coasters would be living the West Coast life for the next few days; but why us and why Catalina Island? While the days of rivalry in the film festival sphere are still very much alive, for RIIFF and CFF, they’re in the past. We set out to Catalina Island because of the relationship that has been blossoming between RIIFF and CFF. A relationship that stems from CFF founder Ron Truppas Rhode Island background.

When Truppa first moved to Los Angeles back in 2000, he had no plans of starting a film festival. The Lincoln born actor, writer and producer intended to climb his way up the Hollywood scenes ladder, hoping to eventually make it to the big leagues. While on that journey, Truppa visited Catalina Island, a small island 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, for a friend’s birthday celebration. This trip Truppa says, changed all his plans.

“Catalina reminded me of Block Island and made me realize how much I missed the luxury of a quick ferry to a different world,” Truppa says. “Once I learned the film history of Catalina, I couldn’t get it out of my head that a film festival needed to take place here.”

Catalina Film Festival Founder Ron Truppa with his family from Rhode Island on the red carpet at the 2025 Catalina Film Festival. Photo credit: Jacob Chavez.

Avalon, Catalina’s only incorporated city, is home to the Art Deco Catalina Casino, the largest circular ballroom in the world atop the Avalon Theatre, a 1200-seat movie palace, the world’s first to be specifically designed for films with sound. This prompted movie studio moguls to frequent the island and preview movies before they hit mainstream theaters. Iconic Old-Hollywood figures such as Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. Demille and D.W Griffith would screen their films at the theater, putting the casino and Catalina Island on the map.

This history only intrigued Truppa more, though the decision to go forward with the film festival was still a tough one for Truppa and his wife Xiomara (then girlfriend), who were worried about taking on the year-round responsibilities needed for organizing a film festival. While spending the day at Disneyland’s California Adventure min-2010, the couple received a sign in the form of the Al Jolson song “Avalon” while staring at the Catalina Casino building prominently displayed on the parks old front entrance, the California Mural: The Largest Ceramic Mural in the world (torn down shortly after). Hearing the song not only prompted the couple to consider the festival to be part of their destiny, but hearing the islands other iconic hit on the way out, the Four Preps’ 1958 chart topper, “26 Miles” on the way out sealed that fate.

“It was a gut punch realization that it wasn’t going to be easy, but that it had to happen,” says Truppa. “We knew the economy in Catalina was struggling in 2010 and this could help stimulate it. We also knew that we had to pay respect to everything this island was to the film world.”

The iconic Catalina Casino off in the distance. Photo credit: Tess Lyons

The festival had its first official year in 2011, after Truppa started the Catalina Film Institute as an umbrella for the film festival. After swerving around some internal problems and dealing with logistical issues, the festival settled on taking place every September, when the island could use a tourism bump and plane tickets to LAX are cheaper for guests and filmmakers attending the event.

The festival has had celebrity attendees such as Nicolas Cage, Kate Bosworth, Patricia Arquette and William H. Macy, among other stars, while this past year famed comedian Ken Jeong attended the festival to accept his King of Comedy Award, presented to him by “Community” costar Yvette Nicole Brown. CFF has also been ranked in the top 10 best reviewed film festivals on filmfreeway.com for over a decade, as well as on the list of the 50 film festivals worth the entry fee in MovieMaker Magazine. Last month the festival celebrated its milestone 15^th year, and the RIIFF team was celebrating right along with them.

In 2018 Ericka Atwell-Cardona attended the Catalina Film Festival, which was premiering a film she starred in. Upon meeting Truppa, through his mother who picked up her Rhode Island accent, the two instantly bonded over their shared similarity of having Rhode Island blood. After that, Atwell-Cardona began attending the festival every year while she lived on the mainland in Los Angeles. Once she had moved back to Rhode Island, she became the Director of Community Engagement and Development at RIIFF and invited Truppa to the festival back in his home state. That invitation birthed a direct line of communication and camaraderie between the two festivals; and it was only the start. Back in August, RIIFF invited Truppa to lead a finance summit at the festival, while in 2024 and this past year RIIFF has come to Catalina Island to moderate and be part of their panels.

“Our goal is to build a bridge between our two festivals for our filmmakers. Filmmakers have such a hard time navigating the film festival circuit, but this partnership is simplifying that through exposure to both,” says Truppa.

Rhode Island International Film Festival Executive Director Shawn Quirk on the red carpet of the 2025 Catalina Film Festival. Photo credit: Jacob Chavez

Rhode Island International Film Festival Director of Community Engagement and Development Ericka Atwell-Cardona on the red carpet at the 2025 Catalina Film Festival. Photo credit: Jacob Chavez

The partnership has been an exciting one on RIIFF’s end too, especially  for Shawn Quirk, Executive Director at RIIFF. One of Quirks main goals is to help filmmakers succeed at RIIFF and beyond.

“Theres nothing better than working to further cultivate our Ocean State community in the heart of Hollywood,” says Quirk.

The amazing thing is, it’s working. Filmmakers from this past year left with all the knowledge the festival has to offer, and more. The exposure to the team at RIIFF, a prestigious, Oscar qualifying film festival, gave attendees more than they could ask for. Filmmakers who premiered their films at CFF this year now have their sights set on RIIFF for next year.

Truppa hopes that the partnership continues to grow and that through the tight knit relationship the two festivals have created, more collaboration comes. There are talks of the Catalina Film Institute hosting workshops in Rhode Island and Truppa plans to continue attending RIIFF each year, with RIIFF having the same plans regarding attending CFF.

On the East Coast, RIIFF is continuing to make a splash in the film festival world, while on the West Coast Truppa is working hard to maintain the prestige of his festival. The festivals’ partnership hopefully inspires an emergence of comradery from other festivals around the world.

“All of this shows that we share the same goal: building bridges between communities and championing independent film from coast to coast,” says Atwell-Cardona.

For more information, visit the Rhode Island International Film and the Catalina film Festival websites.