 CUNYFF was founded by Hunter College film student Daniel Cowen in 2008.Cowen had made a short film and planned to enter it into CUNY's film festival when he was surprised to find that CUNY did not have one that drew on work from numerous CUNY schools.In starting CUNYFF, Cowen hoped to foster a "sense of community and to promote cross campus projects" among students at CUNY's various four-year commuter colleges.