The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival

THE ART OF BROOKLYN is a an award-winning international film festival designed to connect Brooklyn's vibrant indie scene with their peers around the world. We are a filmmaker-focused event, platform and showcase for emerging creators and established voices. Founded by working artists in 2011, over a dozen of our premieres have gained distribution and one became an HBO series. We are generating significant growth each year with an expanding international footprint among audiences, filmmakers, and the entertainment industry. In 2020 we entertained guests from 15 countries, and 3 of the features we premiered gained distribution, despite the fact that we were fully digital due to the pandemic. One of our 2021 award-winning shorts is being developed as a feature, one feature premiere got distribution, and two others are in talks as of October 2021. We are a hybrid festival, producing live, in person screenings in neighborhoods across Brooklyn (Covid permitting) and streaming screenings and panels in real time on a set schedule to an international audience with studio grade DRM protection via our Virtual Festival Platform . We have produced film events in 20 different venues for diverse audiences in 10 different Brooklyn neighborhoods, including those underserved by art and culture organizations. Adding streaming to our event enables us to host global events locally, bringing the largest possible audience to our films. We also partner with local Brooklyn bars and restaurants for both formal and informal networking events with after party drinks specials for the entire run of our festival-- in addition to our famous Launch Party's open bar. For our 12th edition we will follow NYC’s guidelines closely to determine what in-person events are possible in June 2022, based on rules for indoor gatherings as well as venue availability. The safety of our community is always our priority as we strive to deliver a world-class film festival experience. Equity is organic to our mission. We bridge the opportunity divide by making media accessible to everyone, including those who are underrepresented on either side of the camera. Every year AoBFF invites a different film professional to act as Guest Festival Director for the season, and in 2020 the search went international. If you're interested in submitting yourself for the position please contact us at filmfestival@theartofbrooklyn.org. Our short list always includes women and/or people of color, and the position has been held by members of underrepresented groups over 66% since we started the program in 2016. One of the things we are consistently noted for is the outstanding quality of our curation, which has only improved as we've opened up to exciting new voices. We have a Transparent and Ethical Submission Policy in which every film we receive until midnight of the last day of late submissions is viewed in its entirety and considered for programming. We never pre-select films for competition, fill a template or set our schedule before submissions close. Every single submission is screened multiple times, first by our selection committee, a diverse (racially, by gender, and age) group of film professionals and film fans, who represent the popular taste of our audience. They leave detailed notes on each film for the Guest Festival Director, who makes final decisions based on their own complete viewing. We have curated films we’ve received at the very end of our submission process several times, resulting in more than one AoBFF award-winner. So don't hesitate to spend on a late submission to AoBFF, it's worth it. We never require filmmakers to purchase blocks of tickets for their own screenings. We don't make filmmakers pay for their own trophies. And we never charge filmmakers for marketing or promotion. We believe that film festivals exist for filmmakers, not the other way around. OUR SCREENPLAY COMPETITION: Film or TV scripts in any genre, 120 pages maximum. Entries are scored by a team of professional script readers, managed by our Script Contest Director, Gina Leone. (Read more about prizes in Awards & Prizes section.) BKOD In 2014 we became the only indie film festival to build and program our own video-on-demand streaming platform: Brooklyn On Demand, where we broadcast festival favorites, original series and more, online and on a Roku channel with over 16,000 subscribers, alongside Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. brooklynondemand.com ABOUT THE FESTIVAL ABOUT US: • In 2021 our first Hybrid Edition combined virtual and in-person screenings and events. 3 of our 2020 features received distribution! We have screened and held events in 20 venues in 10 different neighborhoods across Brooklyn. In 2020 we launched our first Digital Edition (on schedule) in response to the Covid pandemic on the Eventive Virtual Festival Platform • We welcome around 2,000 guests to our event every year, including 2020. • In 2016, we screened the premiere of the theatrical cut of Spike Lee’s new documentary ‘2 Fists Up’ through a partnership with ESPN Films. • In 2017, we screened Kelly Reichardt's 'Certain Women' and welcomed Neil deGrasse Tyson as a special festival guest for our New York Premiere of the feature 'Future '38' • In 2018 we hosted a special 25th Anniversary screening of the indie classic "Just Another Girl On The IRT" with director Leslie Harris in attendance. • Our Official Selections Hunter&Game (2015) Lake Nowhere (2015), Lemon (2014), American Bomber (2013), Casual Encounters (2013) and You Bury Your Own (2012) all went on to get distribution. • Our 2014 Best Animation winner ‘How You Doin’ Boy? Voicemails From Gran’pa’ was sold as a series to HBO Latino. • We won a Brooklyn Innovation Award for Creative Group of the Year in 2015 OUR INDUSTRY PARTNERS: • We have enjoyed strategic partnerships with Alliance of Women Directors, New York Women in Film and Television, The Alliance of Women Directors, The NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment, Prime Latino Media, Gravitas Ventures, BOND/360, IndiePix films, Pratt Institute, ESPN Films, LesFlicks global streaming platform, NBC Universal and LiveStream, among others. OUR ETHICAL SUBMISSION POLICY: • We watch every film submitted to us, right up until midnight of our extended deadline. And yes, we have programmed films we received on the last day of submissions! • Our Film Selection Panel is a diverse group of industry professionals, and we choose a new Guest Festival Director each season, so that the AoBFF doesn’t reflect a single, static point of view. • Only films that we receive through our submissions process are eligible for festival awards. HOW WE SCREEN: We are a hybrid festival, producing live, in-person screenings (pandemic conditions permitting) and live streaming events via the Eventive Platform with studio-grade DRM protection, seamless livestream integration for filmmaker talkbacks, and ticketing. Our in person screening venues include a state-of-the-art 4K cinema at Pratt Film/Video, the new 500+ seat theater at Sunset Park High School, Brooklyn High School of the Arts, and more. • Our Technical Director pre-screens every selection in advance, to ensure the best-quality version of your film screens for our audience. • We only screen from digital files to ensure a high quality screening without the technical pitfalls that can accompany DVDs or Blu-Rays. • Our projectionists always remain in the theater for every screening. OUR PREMIERES: We strongly prefer to screen premieres, especially for features. We have a great track record of opening films, garnering them press and industry attention with successful screenings... If ESPN Films trusted us to premiere the theatrical cut of Spike Lee’s 2 Fists Up, maybe you can too? We’re just saying. THE AoBFF EXPERIENCE: • We create opportunities to connect with your peers and industry at our world-class audience talkbacks, panels for networking and skill building, and our amazing Opening Night Party. • We are aggressive about promoting our screenings to press and audience using social media and targeted press outreach. • Your film’s festival run is an important part of its long-term marketing plan. We will partner with you to make the most of your AoBFF screening; before, during and after the festival. Premiering with us pays off! • Our communication skills are legendary; you’ll always be in the loop. • We produce broadcast quality interviews with AoBFF filmmakers that appear on our streaming platform Brooklyn On Demand (brooklynondemand.com), online and on Roku even after the festival ends. • Our filmmakers love screening with us!