BROOKLYN FILM FESTIVAL
Announces 2018 Edition: THRESHOLD
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, March 27, 2018 - Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF), the first international, competitive film festival in New York, has closed submissions for its 2018 edition: THRESHOLD. BFF received a total of 2,584 films from 120 countries and will select roughly 130 film premieres to be announced in May. The films are divided in six categories: Feature Narrative, Feature Doc, Short Narrative, Short Doc, Experimental and Animation.
BFF’s selection criteria, a 21-year-old set of rules, constitute the true festival’s trademark. Participating films cannot be older than two years. Films are selected from the submissions only. All the selected films are shown twice. All the selected films participate in the competition. And the smallest film can win the top festival award: The Grand Chameleon.
The festival will run from June 1 through June 10 at two main venues: Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg and Windmill Studios in Greenpoint. Additional programming will be presented on June 5 at Syndicated in Bushwick and on June 8 at UnionDocs in Williamsburg. On June 6 and 9, BFF will present a total of five shows at Made in NY Media Center by IFP in Dumbo, where it will also present the 14th annual kidsfilmfest on June 2. On June 9, the 7th annual BFF Exchange program will be hosted by Kickstarter in Greenpoint and on June 4, BFF will be hosted by Alamo Drafthouse in Downtown Brooklyn. Additional programming and networking events will be announced at a later date.
BFF Executive Director Marco Ursino said of the 2018 edition, “This will be a special year: we are finally 21! We start seeing things for what they really are, although it doesn’t take a genius to see that we are living in pretty challenging times! Division, bigotry, the wall, Trump...but luckily, some great things usually come from bad times. For example, the Spanish Civil War gave us the Guernica; the NYC defaults in the 70’s gave us the best graffiti in the world. Even the Great Depression gave us swing dancing. It doesn’t matter how bad it looks, art always wins. And this year’s festival is not going to be the exception. In the middle of this undeniably appalling time in American history, directors, actors, producers and the festival want their voices heard. Bad times make great art. And if so, this year’s Brooklyn Film Festival should be amazing.”
BFF’s list of sponsors for 2018 includes WNET, Eurochannel, G-Star Raw, AbelCine, VER, NYC Camera Company, Sixpoint Brewery and for the 6th consecutive year, the truly innovative TBWA/CHIAT/DAY will create our promotional campaign. As a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, BFF is supported in part by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Google for Non-Profit, CUNY, The Young Professionals of the Americas Society and Techsoup. Several BFF events this year will be organized in collaboration with Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, Brooklyn Documentary Club, Film Shop, Video Consortium, UnionDocs and Maysles Documentary Center.
In each of the six film categories, BFF’s judges will select Best Film, Spirit Award and Audience Award winners. From all the six categories combined, BFF will award one of each of the following: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Composer, Best Editor, Best Cinematographer, Best Screenplay Writer, Best Producer, Best New Director and Best Brooklyn Project. Through the resources of our sponsors, BFF will assign to the winning filmmakers over $50,000 in prizes (products, services and cash).
About the programmers
BFF’s Feature Narrative programmer is Jason Stefaniak. An Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, he received a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television Production at NYU, where he was awarded an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scholarship and a Graduate Craft Award for Producing. Jason’s work has been recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, has been featured on 20/20, MSNBC, The Huffington Post, Boing Boing, MoveOn.org, Upworthy, The Progressive, and has screened at the United Nations. The Feature Documentary programmer is Julie Bridgham, an award-winning documentary filmmaker. She directed and produced “The Sari Soldiers,” for which she received the Nestor Almendros Prize for courage and commitment in human rights filmmaking, and both a Sundance and IFP Documentary Fellowship. Natalie Gee, a multiple short film producer, leads BFF’s Short Narrative category. Brandon Harrison, a graduate of the UCLA School of Film and Television is the Short Documentary programmer. Melanie Abramov, a BFF Alumni and director from Brooklyn, is the Experimental category programmer. She received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and later founded her production company, Dame Productions, which lends a necessary and provocative voice to women in media. Julia Cowle, BFF’s Animation programmer, is an independent filmmaker, illustrator, animator and comedy writer.
BFF’s Feature Narrative programmer is Jason Stefaniak. An Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, he received a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television Production at NYU, where he was awarded an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Scholarship and a Graduate Craft Award for Producing. Jason’s work has been recognized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, has been featured on 20/20, MSNBC, The Huffington Post, Boing Boing, MoveOn.org, Upworthy, The Progressive, and has screened at the United Nations. The Feature Documentary programmer is Julie Bridgham, an award-winning documentary filmmaker. She directed and produced “The Sari Soldiers,” for which she received the Nestor Almendros Prize for courage and commitment in human rights filmmaking, and both a Sundance and IFP Documentary Fellowship. Natalie Gee, a multiple short film producer, leads BFF’s Short Narrative category. Brandon Harrison, a graduate of the UCLA School of Film and Television is the Short Documentary programmer. Melanie Abramov, a BFF Alumni and director from Brooklyn, is the Experimental category programmer. She received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and later founded her production company, Dame Productions, which lends a necessary and provocative voice to women in media. Julia Cowle, BFF’s Animation programmer, is an independent filmmaker, illustrator, animator and comedy writer.
About the BFF Exchange (BFFX)
For the seventh consecutive year, on June 9 from noon-5pm at Kickstarter in Greenpoint, the festival will continue its BFF Exchange, aimed ultimately at connecting filmmakers with film distributors. BFF Exchange will feature a pitch session, panels and a Happy Hour. In an effort to bridge the city of Brooklyn with Mexico, BFFX is proud to feature as special guest Mexico City’s film commissioner Mauricio Aguinaco.
For the seventh consecutive year, on June 9 from noon-5pm at Kickstarter in Greenpoint, the festival will continue its BFF Exchange, aimed ultimately at connecting filmmakers with film distributors. BFF Exchange will feature a pitch session, panels and a Happy Hour. In an effort to bridge the city of Brooklyn with Mexico, BFFX is proud to feature as special guest Mexico City’s film commissioner Mauricio Aguinaco.
About kidsfilmfest
On June 2 from 1pm-3pm at Made in NY Media Center by IFP, BFF will present the 14th annual kidsfilmfest, which aims to discover, expose and promote the youngest generation of filmmakers. The film program is tailored for children of all ages (films are rated "G"), and consists of numerous animated shorts, documentaries and live-action films. A Q&A with the filmmakers and a filmmaker's workshop will follow the program.
On June 2 from 1pm-3pm at Made in NY Media Center by IFP, BFF will present the 14th annual kidsfilmfest, which aims to discover, expose and promote the youngest generation of filmmakers. The film program is tailored for children of all ages (films are rated "G"), and consists of numerous animated shorts, documentaries and live-action films. A Q&A with the filmmakers and a filmmaker's workshop will follow the program.
About BFF
The organizers of the Brooklyn Film Festival have been staging International, competitive film events since 1998. BFF's mission is to provide a public forum in Brooklyn in order to advance public interest in films and the independent production of films, to draw worldwide attention to Brooklyn as a center for cinema, to encourage the rights of all Brooklyn residents to access and experience the power of independent filmmaking, and to promote artistic excellence and the creative freedom of artists without censure. BFF, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
The organizers of the Brooklyn Film Festival have been staging International, competitive film events since 1998. BFF's mission is to provide a public forum in Brooklyn in order to advance public interest in films and the independent production of films, to draw worldwide attention to Brooklyn as a center for cinema, to encourage the rights of all Brooklyn residents to access and experience the power of independent filmmaking, and to promote artistic excellence and the creative freedom of artists without censure. BFF, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
For more info about the festival please visit www.brooklynfilmfestival.org.
For more info about kidsfilmfest, visit www.kidsfilmfest.org.
For more info about kidsfilmfest, visit www.kidsfilmfest.org.
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