Queens World Film Festival To Stream This Year's Picks Online

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The 10th annual Queens World Film Festival will open this week as planned, but not at its usual venue, the temporarily shuttered Museum of the Moving Image. Instead, festival organizers are adapting to widespread closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic by screening their selected picks online.

Starting Thursday, the Queens World Film Festival will stream its lineup of 220 films representing 32 countries across the globe. Festival programmers selected the films from among more than 800 entries.

The festival kicks off at 7 p.m. Thursday with a series of six short films under the theme "Tales of Connectedness," which organizers call a "timely and poignant message amplified by the current situation" of the global health pandemic wrought by the new coronavirus.

“In these times of crisis, it is even more important that we gather around the humanity provided in film," Katha Cato, the festival's executive director, said.

The festival lineup includes 84 pieces by women, 43 by Asian filmmakers, 24 from Queens and 10 by children.

“We literally have something for everyone,” Don Cato, the festival's artistic director, said.

The Queens World Film Festival starts streaming Thursday night on DISCOVERED.TV. Visit queensworldfilmfestival.com to check out the full lineup.