Queens World Film Festival Artistic Director Don Cato announced the final selections, schedule, special events, venues and honorees for the 6th Annual Queens World Film Festival (QWFF) at the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), in Astoria, Queens. The festival will take place in different venues from March 15-20, 2016.
Each year, the QWFF pays tribute to an outstanding filmmaker for his or her body of work. This year’s “Spirit of Queens” Award will go to the legendary American Actor, Director, Screenwriter, Playwright, Novelist, Painter and Composer Melvin Van Peebles, who will be honored on opening night, March 15. His groundbreaking Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song will screen at MoMI on March 16.
See the whole 2016 edition film lineup here.
To highlight the IndieCollect film preservation campaign, prominent director, producer and writer Susan Seidelman’s 1982 movie, Smithereens, will be showcased at MoMI on closing night, March 19. Smithereens was the first American independent feature to be screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
The QWFF engages audiences with targeted outreach to the diverse communities that comprise the borough of Queens. “This year’s 138 films come from 25 countries whose diasporas are represented in Queens,” says Cato.. “They promise to move and entertain our audiences.”
QWFF sponsors include Investors Bank, Investors Foundation, Kaufman Astoria Studio, Council Member Daniel Dromm and Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, The Queens Post and the Queens Council on the Arts.
In addition to producing the annual Queens World Film Festival, the organization programs films year-round at a variety of borough venues through its “Encore” and “Old Spice” screening series, and its “Young Filmmakers” training program.
The Queens World Film Festival is a program of the Queens World Film Initiative, Inc., a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization.
For more information click here.
The day of the inauguration of the Queens World Film Festival 2016 at the Museum of the Moving Image.
