Albany Film Festival

Schedule

Sat Apr 06 2024 at 10:30 am

Location

University At Albany | Albany, NY

Legendary actress Jacqueline Bisset and Oscar-winning filmmaker James Ivory headline the 4th annual Albany Film Festival.
Free and open to the public, the event will take place from 10:30 a.m. through 7 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at the UAlbany Campus Center, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany NY 12222.
For more details, visit www.albanyfilmfestival.org
Actors, authors, directors, producers, screenwriters, and movie critics come together with film fans for a full day of screenings and discussions capped by an awards ceremony.
“We have found our niche as a film festival that focuses on the intersection between writing and filmmaking,” said NYS Writers Institute Director Paul Grondahl. “We explore that magical merger of the written word and visual storytelling. We are proud that we’ve created a uniquely ‘bookish’ event that will appeal to a diverse range of film lovers.”
4th Annual Albany Film Festival
10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 6
University at Albany Campus Center
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany NY 12222
Free and open to the public
For more details, visit www.albanyfilmfestival.org
DISCUSSIONS
• The future of Movie Criticism -- New York Times movie critic Alissa Wilkinson and Matt Singer, author of Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever (2023)
• The Legacy of the 2004 Cult Favorite “Mean Girls” -- Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, author of the 2024 book, So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We're Still So Obsessed with It)
• The films and filmmakers of “Merchant Ivory” -- A discussion with director/producer Stephen Soucy and Oscar-winning filmmaker James Ivory, winner of an Ironweed Award in 2021.
• The Growing Impact of “Deepfakes” and AI-generated Content -- Film and media scholar Joshua Glick
• The Legacy of Paul Newman – A discussion with David Rosenthal, editor of Paul Newman’s posthumous memoir, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man (2022), a candid autobiography of one of Hollywood’s most iconic movie stars.
• Conversation with Lizzie Gottlieb, director of the award-winning documentary, “Turn Every Page” (2022) which explores the remarkable 50-year relationship between two literary legends, writer Robert Caro and his longtime editor (and Lizzie’s father) Robert Gottlieb.
SCREENINGS & DISCUSSIONS
• “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” and a discussion with filmmaker Abigail Disney.
• “Swedish Erotica (a comedy)” (2023), Richard Roundtree’s final movie, and a conversation and Q&A with the film’s producer Bob Wishnoff and executive producer Larry Hummel.
• Spencer Sherry’s “The Monkey,” based on a Stephen King short story. Sherry will discuss how he received the rights from King to make the film as a participant in King’s “Dollar Baby” program, which offers filmmakers the chance to adapt one of his lesser-known stories for $1, with the stipulation that the films cannot be shown commercially or for a profit.
• Preview and discussion: A documentary (still in production) about The College of Saint Rose, moderated by Audrey Kupferberg, film and video archivist, former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany, and WAMC radio commentator.
• The 2023 Oscar-nominated documentary short, “Black Girls Play: A Story of Hand Games.” The film earned Best Documentary Short at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. Kyra Gaunt, Ph.D., UAlbany professor, ethnomusicologist, and leading expert on the pastimes of Black girlhood, is featured prominently in the documentary. She will lead a discussion following the screening.
• Short films by two emerging filmmakers. Deni Cheng (“Sucker”) and Cindy Chu (“Bayard Street”). “Sucker” was featured at the 46th Asian American International Film Festival in New York City. The script for Chu’s 2022 film, “Bayard Street,” was a grand prize winner of Pitch Royale, judged by Oscar winners Baz Luhrmann and Jason Blum.
IRONWEED AWARDS
The Ironweed Award will be presented to Jacqueline Bisset, who achieved superstardom in films of the 1960s and ‘70s beginning with Roman Polanski’s “Cul de Sac” (1966); “Bullitt,” opposite Steve McQueen (1968); “Airport” (1970); Francois Truffaut’s “Day for Night” (1973); Peter Benchley’s “The Deep” (1977); “The Greek Tycoon” (1978), opposite Anthony Quinn; and John Huston’s “Under the Volcano” (1983).
A second Ironweed Award will be presented in absentia to Luis Guzmán, a familiar face on the screen with roles in some of the most acclaimed films of the last 30 years, including three directed by Steven Soderbergh, “Out of Sight” (1998), “The Limey” (1999), and “Traffic” (2000), and three directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, “Boogie Nights” (1997), “Magnolia” (1999), and “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002).
SHORT FILM SCHEDULE AND AWARDS
Screenings of the finalists’ films will take place throughout the event starting at 10:30 a.m. in the Campus Center West Boardroom.
The short film awards – for Dramatic, Comedy, Experimental, Documentary, and the Brendan Fahy Bequette Student Short Film Award -- will be announced at the closing ceremony in advance of the Ironweed Award presentations. Watch the trailers for the short film finalists.
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“We are forever grateful to our sponsors, whose generosity allows us to keep this community-wide event free and open to all.”
– Paul Grondahl
PREMIER SPONSOR:
The Towne Law Firm, P.C.
PRESENTING SPONSORS:
The Opalka Endowed Directorship
Times Union
University Auxiliary Services
SUPPORTING SPONSORS:
The Brendan Fahy Bequette Fund, sponsored by Patricia Fahy & Wayne Bequette
The Foy Fund
Annette Nanes
NYS Writers Institute Classic Film Series Endowment
The Swyer Family Foundation

Where is it happening?

University At Albany, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, NY 12222-0100, United States,Albany, New York

Event Location & Nearby Stays:

Host or Publisher New York State Writers Institute

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