Astoria Film Festival Returns Online And In Person

Press release from Astoria Film Festival:

Sept. 27, 2021

Astoria Film Festival (astoriafilmfestival.org), a member of the Kaufman Arts District, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was founded and is run by Astoria born-and-bred Founding Director Nina Fiore and a primarily female Board of Directors, that produces an annual Film Festival featuring Short Films, Feature Films, Web Series, and Podcasts from around the world, holds filmmaking workshops for local youth and adults, and supports the local filmmaker community, with a focus on under-represented filmmakers.

Within the larger festival, Astoria Film Festival (AFF) also holds an annual Youth Film Festival, featuring films made by those 18 and under, and an annual Halloween Horror Film Festival.

SPONSORS
Our main festival 2021 sponsors include Kaufman Astoria Studios, Kaufman Arts District, Heart of Gold Bar, Queens Council on the Arts, and NYC & Co Foundation
Prizes for Filmmakers this year include free annual subscriptions to Final Draft and Soundstripe, a free marketing package for our Horror Short winner from Michael Joy at Macabre Marketing, a free annual membership to New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) to a local female filmmaker, and a gift certificate to local boutiques The Brass Owl and In Casa Decor.

EVENTS
Astoria Film Festival 2021 events will take place at our generous hosts Kaufman Astoria Studios and at Heart of Gold Bar in Astoria NY. This year, the festival will be held again in October 2021, and again be held both online, and in person, outside, at various events. Additionally, festival events, panels, and filmmaker interviews will be featured on the festival’s weekly QPTV show Astoria Film Festival Presents.

AFF21’s Online Festival will take place from October 1-31, and will feature the selected films/web series/podcasts, Filmmaker Intros, Filmmaker Panels and Q&A Sessions, as well as Virtual Social and Networking Events and recaps from the in-person events.

In-person events will take place Oct 1-3 in outdoor locations Kaufman Astoria Studios’ Backlot and Heart of Gold Bar in Astoria NY. Events will include an Opening Night Filmmaker Networking Event, Keynote Speakers in the Kaufman Astoria Studios’ Backlot, and a Fundraising Meet & Greet with the Keynote Speakers at Heart of Gold Bar, The Astoria Youth Film Festival and Awards Ceremony, the Festival Awards Ceremony in the Kaufman Astoria Studios Backlot, A Covid Memorial featuring the Mt Sinai Queens Nursing Staff and the premiere of a film created by AFF with the Mt Sinai Nurses highlighting some of their experiences with the pandemic.

AFF21 will also feature screenings of the work created by the AFF Workshops and by the AFF21 Film Fellows, including a Web Series about Queens Nonprofits, a Queens Covid Documentary that the Fellows have been working on, as a collaborative project with the general Queens community, since March 2020, and a short film done in collaboration with Mt. Sinai Queens Nursing Staff, about their Covid experiences.

Our 3rd Annual Astoria Halloween Horror Festival will be held Sunday October 31 at both Heart of Gold Bar in Astoria NY and online.

The majority of proceeds from our festival events go towards supporting free or affordable filmmaking workshops for the local community, in schools/after schools/community centers and towards supporting the AFF Film Fellows Program, which provides Media Arts Workforce Development for local youth.

AWARDS
Festival 2021 Awards Include:
The Zukor Award
(named after Kaufman Astoria Studios/Paramount Pictures founder, is awarded to a film that brings positive attention to an underrepresented topic or group)
Best Feature Film
Best Drama Short
Best Comedy Short
Best Documentary Short
Best Experimental Short
Best Dance Short
Best Horror Short
Best Quarantine Short
Best Youth Short (ages 18 & Under)
Best Drama Web Series
Best Comedy Web Series
Best Documentary Web Series
Best Podcast
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Cinematography
Best Director
Best Editing
Audience Awards (4)
Honorable Mention (4)

ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND
Astoria Film Festival (astoriafilmfestival.org), a member of the Kaufman Arts District, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was founded in 2018 and is run by Astoria born-and-bred Founding Director Nina Fiore and a primarily female Board of Directors, that produces an annual Film Festival featuring Short Films, Feature Films, Web Series, and Podcasts from around the world, holds filmmaking workshops for local youth and adults, and supports the local filmmaker community, with a focus on under-represented filmmakers.

Within the larger festival, Astoria Film Festival (AFF) also holds an annual Youth Film Festival, featuring films made by those 18 and under, and an annual Halloween Horror Film Festival. Astoria Film Festival also has an Education and Outreach division where they teach Filmmaking Workshops to ages 8-18 in schools and after school programs and lead youth through the short films production process. In addition, Astoria Film Festival runs a Film Fellows Program, where high school and college students (ages 15-25) from around New York City who are interested in film/tv/digital media careers, work together (virtually during COVID) with the Festival Director on real-world media projects. The 2021 Film Fellows come from schools in NYC including School of Visual Arts, Brooklyn College, Hunter, LaGuardia Community College, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, William Cullen Bryant HS, High School of Art & Design, The International High School for Health Sciences, and Fordham High School for the Arts.

This press release was produced by Astoria Film Festival. The views expressed here are the author's own.