If you’re not familiar with Festival of Cinema NYC then let’s face it, your not a New Yorker! Festival of Cinema NYC is known as the fastest growing independent film festival in Queens, New York. They celebrated their third annual film festival beginning August 2nd-11th, 2019 at Regal UA Midway in Forest Hill Queens. Opening night red carpet premiered Camilo Vila’s “5th of July” starring Jaleel White, which also premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.
“Nora Ephron Goes To Prison” Directed by Hannah Elless. This eleven day film festival showcased over 120 films with over 425 submissions from more than from 40 countries. This years Festival of Cinema NYC has partnered with several organizations hosting five days of free special screenings and presentations to help provide a greater experience for the community of Queens at Queens Library of Forest Hills. Festival of Cinema NYC was loaded with events at multiple venues around Queens for the entire 11 days.
During the red carpet event Executive Producer Richard A. Stein from “Joyce” stopped for a moment to give us a brief synopsis about his film, a immigrant Filipino nanny living in NYC who makes a friend that puts an end to her loneliness when she needed it most also, Director, Robert Haufrecht, of “Full Moon and High Tide in The Ladies Room” a narrative about a waitress in Greenwich Village who gets pregnant two years into Roe v. Wade and has to decide whether to have the baby or don’t have the baby and her very close friends and family members all have an opinion. Closing Night event showcased “QUEST..The Truth Always Rises” starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Dash Mihok and Betsy Brandt,Directed by Santiago Rizzo, a love story about how one person can have an enormous impact on humanity by sharing and betting on a child in need. The finale of this wonderful film festival finishes off with an awards dinner celebration on August 11th at Queens Brewery where they announced the winners from 18 categories also including the winner of the NYC Indie Film Collective Short Film Challenge. This award ceremony has been known to be the highlight of the Festival of Cinema NYC. Filmmakers, cast, crew and attendees mix and mingle while enjoying a buffet dinner along with free beer and wine. We were truly delighted to attend this years film festival and we greatly appreciated being there. Thank you to their Publicist, Brian Geldin for all that you do. We also had the pleasure of speaking with the Founder & Executive Director, Jason Simba. Jason has so much passion and direction for the Festival of Cinema NYC you can hear it in his voice as he speaks. Thank you Jason for bringing your passion to fruition.
