Brooklyn Film Festival is focusing its 26th Edition on HUMAN TIMES. BFF Executive Director, Marco Ursino, said this about the 26th edition of BFF: "We live in an era that when someone posts a story online, for a growing number of observers, that story becomes 'reality'. Has questioning what we see, therefore, gone out of fashion? Unfortunately, too many trust postings on a computer more than teachers and books. We know that we face some very important issues: the climate, the failing political models, and Covid 19's variants. How are we going to fight these invisible enemies? Will humans be smart enough to use scientific methods to resolve scientific issues, and accept one another's beliefs to find unity and collective strength? Or are we betting on the support of powerful allies, like AI? This year, BFF will focus on the power of questioning, and the freedom of choosing. Join us in June to discuss."
The 2023 advertising campaign is being created by Havas New York, based on the festival’s theme: Human Times.
BFF, a Canadian Screen Award qualifying festival, received 3,237 films from 97 Countries for its 26th edition, and will program the selected films into 39, two-hour program blocks. The 2023 film lineup will include 160 total film screenings, of which 150 are premieres.
This year, BFF will be staged from June 2nd-11th, in-person at Windmill Studios in Greenpoint with additional screenings being held on June 5th and 8th at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg. All films will also be available online via the festival website. After a three-year hiatus, BFF will be partnering with The Center for Fiction at their new facility in downtown Brooklyn, to once again hold the BFF Exchange (BFFX) on June 10th from 11am-5pm. The BFFX will be offering panels of interest to filmmakers, their popular 'Lunching with Lawyers' program, and a pitch session for documentary projects. The day will culminate with a networking cocktail party.
Also at BFF the 19th Annual KidsFilmFest will be staged in-person at Windmill Studios on Saturday, June 10th at 11am. All films will also be available online for the entire 10-day festival. The program is rated "G" and consists of numerous animated shorts, documentaries, and live-action films.
BFF divides films into six categories: Feature Narrative, Documentary Feature, Short Narrative, Short Documentary, Experimental, and Animation. BFF's selection criteria, a 26-year-old set of rules, constitute the true festival's trademark: participating films cannot be older than two years; films are selected from submissions only; all films in the festival participate in the award competition. Even the smallest film can win the top festival award: the Grand Chameleon.