Founded in 2014, the IES Abroad Study Abroad Film Festival was the first student-focused study abroad film festival in the industry. Celebrating its ninth anniversary in 2023, the IES Abroad Film Festival has provided students a platform to voice their global journey through their own words and video footage, capturing unique views into their life-changing study abroad experiences – showing what the experience meant to them and how it redefined their world.
Originally, the entire Film Festival was hosted as on-demand content on Facebook. In 2017 it was hosted as a live event for the first time at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and emceed by Kate Flannery – best known for her 9 seasons as Meredith, on NBC’s hit show, The Office. The 2018 and 2019 Festivals were hosted by Richard Roeper, best known as the film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times. Our 2020 Festival was hosted virtually due to Covid, and we were excited to return to an in-person Festival in 2022 hosted by Patrick Jager, an IES Abroad Vienna alum and award-winning, multi-discipline media executive.
The Film Festival event has raised more than $700,000 for IES Abroad Scholarships and more than 160+ colleges and universities have been represented through 600+ student film submissions!
Experience Our Past Film Festivals
