The Rochester International Film Festival is the world's oldest continually held short film festival (since 1959). The annual program features narratives, documentaries and animation made by emerging filmmakers from the USA and abroad, selected by a pedigree short film jury. Based on audience surveys, the most popular films shown at the festival are added to the permanent traveling collection called The Best of the Fest. The George Eastman House's Dryden Theatre holds a Best of the Fest screening each winter.
The festival is associated with Movies on a Shoestring, Inc. - an independent non-profit organization. Fractions of the underwriting for The Best of the Fest comes from the New York State Council on the Arts. Additionally, the Rochester International Film Festival is part of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. For one year, in 2008, the festival merged with the High Falls Film Festival to become the Rochester-High Falls International Film Festival.
The two festivals have since separated.