Adam Short, producing director of the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

I have a degree in English literature. I taught for a while. Then I got into the mortgage business — that wasn’t the right fit for me.

I had been doing volunteer work for the Rhode Island International Film Festival, and its director, George Marshall, asked me if I would like to come on board and do some grant writing. I did, and we got some money from the city. Then George hired me as an assistant. I didn’t really know what the job would entail. I think he had an idea but he wanted to leave it up to me.

The basic mission of the film festival always stays the same: to discover and empower filmmaking talent and to educate people about international cinema and film. But what I do changes from year to year.

We’re the only Academy Award qualifying festival in New England and 1 of only 63 worldwide. Our accreditation is in the short film category — we can recommend films to the academy for nominations for an Oscar. For a small local festival, it’s a pretty big deal.

Last year, we had 2,400 films submitted from 70 different countries. Anyone who has an interest in film can be a reviewer — our members, friends, even my grandmother, help review films. We have You be the Judge nights at Brooklyn Coffee & Tea House on Douglas Avenue. It’s totally free. People come and watch films. They talk about their reactions and fill out judging forms.

Only 10 percent of the films are going to make it into the festival. Ultimately, it’s up to a small group of us to make the final decisions. The reviewer scores matter a lot. It’s an interesting process: open and fair to the filmmakers.

Last year, we showed 306 films in 6 days.

During festival week, I get out and meet the filmmakers. I go to the venues and make sure everything’s working. There are a million things that can go wrong. You need someone who can come in and look at what’s going on and make decisions on the spot. I have a very even-tempered personality, so I’m good at easing tensions.

At this time of year, I work on fundraising, marketing, public relations and publicity. We always need money: we have corporate sponsorships, but never enough. We got a legislative grant for the first time last year, and we get some support from the city. And RISCA has doubled their grant money to us.

We bring in films to middle school students, talk to them about how to watch a film, how to be discerning, to have an opinion rather than be totally passive, to be able to articulate why a film is good. It’s so easy to make a film now. The equipment is reasonable, the knowledge is out there, but we need original voices.

The Columbus Theatre was a porn theater for 30 years. We were the first arts group to come in. It had that X-rating stigma. We made the theater acceptable to other groups like Opera Providence and RISE. We want people to get interested in preserving it. It was built in 1926 as a vaudeville theater. In the ’30s they showed silent films. The old projection booth is still up there.

Being around independent film has changed me. I’ve come to love short films, as a genre. It’s really tough to make a short film — you don’t have much time for background or character development. You have to say something poignant in a short span of time.

I like the people I work with. And it’s neat showing up everyday to work in an old vaudeville theater!