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For the 18th edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival, the festival will open with the East Coast premiere of J. Davis’ Manson Family Vacation , starring Jay Duplass, Linas Phillips, Tobin Bell, Leonora Pitts, Adam Chernick and Davie-Blue, screening at new BFF venue the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg. Executive produced by Jay & Mark Duplass, the film was acquired by Netflix at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival.

This year’s festival is comprised of 108 features and shorts from 26 countries spread over 5 continents and of these, 17 are world premieres and 30 US premieres, with Ryan Carmichael’s But Not For Me as the lone narrative feature world premiere. This New York City film stars Marcus Carl Franklin, Elena Urioste, Maria Vermeulen and Roger Guenveur Smith.

In addition to But Not For Me, BFF films with a NYC connection include Matthew Yeager’s US premiere Valedictorian, starring Brian Dell, Jennifer Prediger and Eleonore Hendricks; Onur Turkel’s Abby Singer/Songwriter , also starring Prediger, along with Turkel and Josephine Decker, Harvey Mitkas’ Devil Town, starring Lindsay Burdge, Alex Karpovsky, Lawrence Michael Levine, Jennifer Prediger (no, we’re not kidding), Sophia Takal, Brooke Bloom, Noah Gershman, Jen Kim, Alex Ross Perry and Caveh Zahedi; Alison Bagnall’s Funny Bunny, starring Kentucker Audley, Joslyn Jensen, Olly Alexander, Louis Cancelmi, Josephine Decker, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Grace Gonglewski, Caridad de la Luz and Nicholas Webber; Frank Hall Green’s Wildlike, starring Ella Purnell, Bruce Greenwood, Brian Geraghty, Teddy Kyle Smith, Nolan Gerard Funk, Ann Dowd, Diane Farr, Joshua Leonard, and Jack & Robert Schurman’s documentary Wild Home.

“The 2015 fest has a number of fantastic films from local filmmakers that shows the diverse creative visions of our city’s filmmakers,” says Director of Programming Bryce J. Renninger. “Work from across the country and the world round out the lineup, exploring and exemplifying this year’s theme of Illuminate with their intelligence and ingenuity.”

Expanding on the theme, BFF executive director Marco Ursino says “Illuminate is designed to showcase a new generation of filmmakers and their visions as part of the larger Brooklyn creative story,” adding “The festival hopes to spotlight storytelling without boundaries and welcome multi-layered stories, including the abstract and the inspirational, the intriguing and the ironic. The festival is simply looking for projects that reflect a creative, furious, explosive, and uncontainable intelligence.”

Other special events during the fest include the 11th annual KidsFilmFest 2015 on Saturday, May 30th at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP; the Filmmakers Party on June 3rd at Billet & Bellows; the BFF Exchange series of panels and a pitch session on June 6th; The Illuminate Party, also on June 6th, and the June 7th Awards Ceremony.

Main BFF venues are the Wythe Hotel and Windmill Studios in Greenpoint. Satellite locations include Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, Made in New York Media Center By IFP in Dumbo, and BRIC House in Fort Greene.

Winners of the various festival awards as chosen by the fest juries and Board of Directors receive a total of $50,000 in prizes and film services from festival sponsors Panavision NY, Abelcine, Xeno Lights, Media Services, Film Friends, Mik Cribben Steady-Cam, Cinecall Soundtracks and Windmill Studios.

Please visit website for the complete Feature lineup.

– Originally Posted May 27, 2015