Film Festival Returning to Midway Theater Next Year

Kew Gardens Festival Of Cinema Rebranded As FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC,

Returns To Regal UA Midway In Forest Hills And Queens Museum

Aug. 2-11, 2019

Ranked By FilmFreeway In The Top 2% Of Film Festivals And Creative Contests Around The World, FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC Call for Submissions For 2019 Edition Now Open

Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema has big changes in store for its third annual event taking place August 2-11, 2019, and submissions for the festival are now open. With its new home and location at the Regal UA Midway in Forest Hills, Queens, this past 2018 festival, Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema is rebranding itself as FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC going forward. This rebranding will allow the festival to expand its appeal, helping attract attendees and filmmakers from around the world, to the city’s most ethnically diverse borough.

In just two years, FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC has been ranked as one of the ‘Top 100 Best Reviewed Festivals” on FilmFreeway. According to reviews from real FilmFreeway users, the festival ranks in the top 2% of more than 6,000 film festivals and creative contests around the world.

FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC is sponsored by the Queens Museum and Regal Entertainment Group —the second largest theater chain in the United States. Screenings will take place at the Regal UA Midway in Forest Hills on grand screens with state of the art sound and projection. Attendees experience each screening in the comfort of the theater's recliner seats.

At the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, filmmakers and festival guests can take advantage of free programming, industry panels, workshops and additional screenings.

The support of these established organizations allows FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC to bring truly independent cinema to mainstream audiences, breaking the stereotypes that are often associated with lower budget independent films.

Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as an event that New Yorkers are “taking note of,” and with coverage in major media including The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Time Out New York, FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC aims to put independent filmmakers in the spotlight by offering opportunities like no other independent film festival.

The Festival's publicity team works to get the most news and media coverage for as many of the films as possible. In the past, the Festival's filmmakers have been spotlighted on such news media as Page Six and NY1 News on Spectrum Time Warner Cable. Further promotional opportunities available to our filmmakers include participation on the Festival Talks Daily Podcasts, Red Carpet interviews, as well as opportunities for filmmakers to participate on filmmaker panels to discuss the challenges faced in the independent film industry.

This year, the Festival will partner with a variety of local and international sponsors who will be presenting panels and workshops. Sponsors include The New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, SAG-AFTRA, Moviemaker Magazine, Variety 411, Final Draft, Simple DCP, Soundview Media Partners, Synimatica, The Acting Studio NYC, Seed & Spark, Yelp and Big City Graphics. Plus, every filmmaker that submits their film(s) will automatically receive a one-year subscription to Videomaker Magazine, a leading subscription service that focuses on guiding independent filmmakers with online tutorials and publications (a $20 value). In addition, all selected filmmakers will receive Full Access film badges that allow entry to all screenings and networking events, as well as the latest edition of Variety 411 (choice of NY or LA edition.)

FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC is a competitive festival that accepts films and media of all lengths, genres and subjects. Awards in over 15 categories include Best Feature and Short Narrative, Best Documentary, Best Animation, Music Video & Experimental, and Best Web Series. Audience choice for Feature and Short film are also awarded. Winners can expect to walk away with a custom statuette as well as over $15,000 in prizes being offered from sponsors.  

Organizers says FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC will be an amazing experience for everyone that attends - so filmmakers and guests can expect networking events that include Karaoke, Trivia night, Comedy Night, Billiards Night and After Parties taking place throughout the area, hosted by local sponsors.

In the past, the Festival has hosted panels and workshops that strongly appeal to filmmakers. Subjects including diversity, women in film, distribution and production resources, as well as workshops by industry leaders such as SAG-AFTRA and Seed & Spark have been very popular amongst filmmakers and attendees.

Past panelists and Jury Board members have included Anna Garduno, Executive Producer at Netflix; Charles E. Williams, two-time Emmy award winner at CBS; and Doug LeClaire, founder of Asbury Shorts USA.

To submit your film(s) to the 2019 FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC, visit FilmFreeway, Withoutabox, or http://bit.ly/2lBnNdL.

Small Town in the Big City?

How many other neighborhoods in New York City would act as if the nearby movie theater was the only one for miles around and be so attached to it they launch a campaign to actually save it? I can understand if we were talking about the mammoth, art-deco marvel that is the Ziegfeld in Manhattan. But, the Cinemart—a tiny, kinda multiplexish theater on Metropolitan that never has really impressed me each time I've seen a film there?

The goings-on down on Metropolitan to save the Cinemart movie theater are amazing to me from my perch here in the northern Queens Blvd.-centric part of Forest Hills. It really is something I'd expect to see occurring in the middle of maybe Iowa, not New York home as it is to so many theaters. But lo and behold, there's this story that was posted on the Blog's Facebook Page this evening: Cinemart Cinemas achieves record ticket sales     Take a look at that photo in the story. What a turnout!

Are there other parts of the city that have such an extreme contrast? The Metropolitan Ave. part of Forest Hills really does sometimes feel like a small town in the middle of a big city. It even looks like it's stuck somewhere in the 1950s (a great street for period films or TV shows, by the way, for all you big Hollywood producers who haven't discovered it yet). But then walk—what, half a mile?—and you find yourself smack dab in the hustle and bustle of Austin St. and go another block and you're face-to-face with the traffic and pedestrian mishmash of Queens Blvd.

And, as we've seen so many other times over recent years here in the Big Apple, those neighborhoods that are kind of stuck in time are the ones that eventually gentrify. And that is what's now happening to Metropolitan—or, as some seem to like to call it these days, "Michelin Road"—thanks to all the fine new restaurants opening there in the past year or two.

It's kind of ironic, isn't it, that Austin Street, with all of the shoppers it gets, is for the most part being passed over nowadays by cool, interesting new restaurants for other nearby areas like Metropolitan Ave., and other parts of Queens, that are much cheaper and rapidly becoming quite hip. It should be interesting to see how much the central Austin St. shopping district of Forest Hills shares in this emerging hipsterism or if it remains just on the cusp of it in 2015. God knows, interesting things are happening all over Queens these days...

Save The Historic Cinemart Theatre by seeing a major film screening this week!!!

Cinemart Cinemas at 106-03 Metropolitan Ave in Forest Hills has a second chance for survival, since Warner Bros. Pictures has at last licensed a first-run film, “American Sniper,” which is also one of the year’s most acclaimed films, produced and directed by Clint Eastwood.

- Previews will be screened on January 15 at 7 PM, 8 PM, and 9 PM, and include free popcorn and a drink with refills.

- Beginning on January 16, there will be 8 to 9 daily screenings through the Oscars (February 22) and likely beyond.

The Cinemart is being tested! If the film does not draw a large enough audience, owner Nicolas Nicolaou may have no choice but to close his 5-screen theater, which dates to 1927, since Hollywood studios will likely issue no other first-run films.

The Cinemart's year-round lower price policy consists of a $6.00 admission for weekday matinees (12 PM to 5 PM) with an extension to Tuesday evenings. Seniors and children pay $6.00 at all times. General admission for adults is $9.00. Patrons can anticipate complimentary popcorn and a drink with Wednesday and Thursday admissions.

If ticket sales prove successful, the owner envisions restoring and renovating one of the borough's last continuously operated independent movie theaters.

Trailer: http://www.americansnipermovie.net/

What I'm Hearing...

1. Strange goings-on at the Cinemark Theater on Metropolitan Ave. Reportedly missed a child's birthday party recently, its website is down. Is it opened or closed?

2. Sign for new eatery appears in 'Austin Street Mall.' Couldn't find any reference to this place on the Web. I just hope whatever it is they want me to munch on, it's delicious...

Openings and Closings

Just some news from the past week while I was away:

- A reader spoke with the owner of the El Coyote Mexican restaurant, who says his new place in the Austin St. mall will be opening in about a month.

- @foresthills72 tweeted that Tuscan Hills' new place on Queens Blvd. will be called Ovosodo. I can't think of anything else in Forest Hills I am looking forward to more than the opening of this place (except to find out what the other concerts are at the Stadium this summer). Ovosodo will be going into the former Just Like Mother's space and is the place that will have Tuscan Hills' spectacular pizza and a variety of other foods.

Here's some details from the craigslist posting:
New restaurant in Forest hills looking for part time and full time employee.
Here are the position that we are looking for:
Line cook, Pizza man, dishwashers
Waiter, Waitress, busboy, Barista
Interview will be held Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 1:00 to 4:00 pm at 
110-60 queens boulevard(between Ascan Ave and 73rd road)
Subway take the F train and use the 75th avenue stop
Bring your resume, No Phone Calls 
Ask for Marco or Roberto
The name of the Restaurant is Ovosodo, but we still have no Awning

- We lost what could have been an amazing cultural gem as a movie theater showing indie films like Kew Gardens Cinema does when Brandon Cinemas on Austin finally closed its doors, to be replaced by, joy, some type of medical clinic.

- And work began on turning the former Bike Shop on Queens Blvd. into what one reader says is going to be a sneaker and sportswear store.

Flying High

The Buffalo Wild Wings sign is, anyway... Here are a couple of shots of their new sign on what used to be the Forest Hills Theater. I wonder how many people walking along 71st Continental Ave. these days even realize that this building, which now houses a Duane Reade and the soon-to-open Buffalo Wild Wings chain restaurant, used to be a grand old movie house?

In any case, the new Buffalo Wild Wings sign is quite a bit of overkill if you ask me. It's sad enough that this beautiful theater (see photo below, courtesy of the website Cinema Treasures) had to close its doors years ago and become a drugstore, Staples and now a chain restaurant, but does its beautiful historical facade have to be defaced by such loud signage? I'm all for new businesses opening here, don't get me wrong—as long as they respect the character of the neighborhood. Maybe I could understand signs like these way up high if the building had exposure to Queens Blvd, where many people could notice it. But this new sign can only be seen from across the street...

See more photos of the old theater at this Rego-Forest Preservation Council photoset site.