(BROOKLYN, NY) -- The Brooklyn SciFi Film Festival (BSFFF) is a week-long virtual festival that runs from September 20-26. All 162 selections, from 18 countries, will be available for viewing throughout the seven days and viewers can cast their vote for their favorites. A People’s Choice selection will be announced as part of an awards ceremony on September 25.
The finalists were chosen from 162 selections and will be considered for awards in seven different categories including Best Live Action Short, Best Animated Short, Best Comedy SciFi Short, Best Student Short and Best SciFi Feature.
Highlighted selections in the animated short category include The Desert, an Australian film directed by Michael Dockery, Tom, a Brazilian film directed by Felippe Steffens and The Dark Odyssey a Brooklyn-made film directed by Michael Lavine. Live Action Short selections include No Guarantee, a U.K. film directed by Stuart Black and Nick Mather, H.E.N.R.I., a Canadian film directed by Katarzyna Kochany, and EP, a U.S. film directed by Pat Campo.
Returning for its second year, the BSFFF will also feature a Best in Brooklyn category highlighting films made by local filmmakers, individuals who studied filmmaking in Brooklyn and films that were shot in the borough.
Local films include The Dark Odyssey, filmed in Brooklyn by Michael Lavine and nominated in the Animation Short category, C by Derek Van Gorder, a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and nominated in the Live Action Short category, Depart by Brooklyn-based Mathilde Suissa, Elfenlied by Brooklynite Julian Griggs and Genesis, by Jorgan Duran who currently resides in Manhattan but studied film at CUNY Brooklyn College.
Selections will be judged by a diverse and accomplished group of jurors including award winning artist and filmmaker Peter Bolte, illustrator and author Jay Cooper, writer and journalist Brad Balfour and English filmmaker Mark Neale.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Following the festival’s opening night on Monday, September 20 the events include:
* Tuesday – An Evening of Japanese SciFi Cinema in association with the Jimbocho Movie Festival in Japan and curated by New York Japan CineFest’s Hiroshi Kono.
* Wednesday – Grasshopper Film will host a virtual screening of Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin directed by Arwen Curry.
* Thursday – Film Movement will host and stream Lapsis, which debuted at the 2020 SXSW and is directed by Noah Hutton.
* Friday – Kino Lorber will host a virtual screening of the Man with the Magic Box directed by Bodo Kox
* Saturday – Live screenings and awards – Wythe Hotel – Williamsburg, Brooklyn
NEW AND RETURNING FEATURES
A new addition to this year’s festival program is the "The Future Sounds of Brooklyn," which is a compilation of SciFi-inspired music from musicians across the globe. The popular The Sixth Borough, a curated, BSFFF-developed series, which presents three fantastic science fiction short films united by a common theme each day of the festival, will return for the second year.
BSFFF Founder and Executive Director Michael Brown said, “The diverse programming represents the independent spirit and global nature of Brooklyn, and the official selections celebrate and elevate the great genre that is science fiction.”
The Brooklyn SciFi Film Festival made a successful debut in 2020, in spite of a challenging year, recognizing and premiering over 100 new, independent science-fiction films created by filmmakers from 18 countries around the world.
Submissions and other information can be found here.
