PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) -- The 43rd Edition of Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival began at the Providence Performing Arts Center on Tuesday.

The Opening Night Ceremony featured eight short films.

Over the course of five days, more than 300 films will be screened from over 75 countries.

In 2024, six films that were screened at Flickers' were nominated for the Oscars.

"Over the years, Flickers' has had 94 nominees and 14 wins, so we've had a long track record of highlighting Oscar-nominated short films, a lot of them have started at opening night," RIIFF Executive Director Shawn Quirk said.

This year, there were over 7,000 film submissions across 100 countries.

"You never know where these creatives are gonna end up, and a lot of them are established, but even more so, if you're a local filmmaker and you want to understand the business side of things I have industry panels that are stacked, with the top-tier people from Hollywood that are here, they want to inspire and they want to put the ladder down for others to understand how they can break in," RIIFF Director of Community Engagement and Development Ericka Atwell Cardona said.