The Brooklyn Film Festival, opening on June 3, is not like its Manhattan siblings.
Unlike the Tribeca and New York film festivals, boldface names, mile-long red carpets lined with screaming photographers and prefestival festivities are not part of the scene. Neither are films that have already been seen by the masses—especially New Yorkers.
That’s Executive Director Marco Ursino's intention. He wants to reinforce the fact that after 19 years, the festival is still very independent, which is underscored by this year’s advertising slogan: "Go before it’s cool!"
“It’s easy to pick a few filmmakers, promise them a nice trip to New York City and bring a film that has already been tested at other film festivals," Ursino said. "But that’s not what our mission is. Our mission is to discover new people—filmmakers who don’t necessarily use big stars in their films but who are talented."
This year’s festival theme is Experiment. The Brooklyn Film Festival received 2,854 film submissions from 120 countries. Entries were whittled down to 107 features and shorts from 31 countries spread over six continents. The lineup will include 20 world premieres, 18 U.S. launches and 30 East Coast debuts.
The U.S. premiere of Sean Garrity’s Borealis will kick off the 10-day festival at Williamsburg’s Wythe Hotel.
Among the world premieres is Art Jones’s Forbidden Cuba, a dramatic comedy that follows an American businessman to Cuba. It is the first U.S. feature film shot in Cuba since 1959. Kim Rocco Shields’s first full-length film, Love Is All You Need?, about a world where homosexuality is the norm and heterophobia is common, will make its New York debut.
"From Canada to Iran to the Philippines to Belgium to China and Cuba, the 2016 fest is one of our most diverse ever,” said Ursino. “Brooklyn is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and its reputation as a cultural hub is increasing with each year.”
The Brooklyn Film Festival will include 12 narrative features, nine documentary features, 24 narrative shorts, 17 documentary shorts, 25 animated shorts and 20 experimental films. Screenings and events will be held at the Wythe Hotel, Greenpoint’s Windmill Studios NYC, Bushwick’s Syndicated, Dumbo’s Made in New York Media Center by IFP and Fort Greene’s BRIC House. On June 11, the festival will hold its fifth annual BFF Exchange, which connects filmmakers with film distributors. The BFF Exchange will include a pitch session and panels. Among the various topics, panelists will explore virtual reality, augmented reality and drones in filmmaking themes.
Ursino describes the festival’s aim as threefold: to find and promote new talent, advance public interest in films and support Brooklyn- and New York-based filmmakers.
“We like to have local filmmakers involved for a lot of reasons," Ursino said. "An obvious one is that local filmmakers draw a guaranteed crowd. We have an audience award, so it’s in the filmmaker's interest to organize screenings that are successful and to hire publicists."
When it launched in 1998, Ursino said it was initially difficult to get Brooklyn-based filmmakers involved in the festival.
"Until they started trusting us, the good local filmmakers would go somewhere else first," Ursino said. "Now they come to us as a place to make their world or New York premiere."
Brooklyn-based director Alicia Slimmer is one of those filmmakers. Her inaugural feature, Creedmoria, is making its East Coast premiere on June 9 in BFF's narrative competition. She calls her movie's acceptance into the festival a "dream come true.
"The story takes place [in New York], and we shot on location in Sheepshead Bay, and much of my crew comes from Brooklyn and other areas of New York City," Slimmer said. "I'm hoping to have a friendly crowd of friends and family."
Slimmer is also hoping to find distribution for Creedmoria, which in addition to directing she wrote and produced.
"I'm thrilled to have New York City industry folks have a chance to see it," Slimmer said. "Or at least I'm hoping they will."
For next year's 20th anniversary, Ursino said that he would like to see the festival lineup grow in volume.
"Once a film gets accepted to BFF, it’s a stamp of quality," Ursino said. "We open the doors for other festivals. So if we can further the career of 100 people that's great. But 180 is even better."