PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Philadelphia Cinema Alliance is hosting a film festival later this week with nearly 60 films being shown.

The curtain opens for the Philadelphia Cinefest on Thursday, April 7th. It runs seven days and will feature several U.S. and world premiers at various venues in the city.

“We want the industry to come to Philadelphia. That’s what is important. We want to make sure Hollywood, New York, international sales agents, everybody comes to Philly to see these films. That helps stimulate the economy,” said Josh Goldbloom, the festival’s artistic director.

There is also a festival within the festival, “The Festival of Independents,” that features the talents of filmmakers across the Philadelphia region.

(Steve Saturn, Managing Director of Cinefest, left. Josh Goldbloom, Artistic Director, right. Credit: John McDevitt)

“We’ve got an awesome documentary about Quizzo. I didn’t even know Quizzo was even started in Philadelphia. It’s like the dorkiest movie of all time, but we’ve got that,” Goldbloom said.

“We got our first sell out which is “Cost of a Soul’ that just won the AMC award. It’s going to be distributed in 50 AMC theaters nationwide. We got, “Calendar Girl,” we got, “Good Day for It,” which is an amazing film by this local filmmaker Nick Stagliano.”

For festival information go to Phillycinefest.org

Click to listen to John’s CBS Philly Podcast on Philadelphia Cinefest

Reported by John McDevitt, KYW Newsradio