Competition Heats Up at Stony Brook Film Festival

Short films and features screened at the Stony Brook Film Festival between July 22 and July 28 are competing for awards in two categories, one awarded by a panel of jurors and one awarded by the moviegoers themselves.

The panel of jurors, consisting of professionals in the arts, will choose a winner from among the feature and a winner from among the shorts, according to festival director Alan Inkles.

Individuals attending the festival receive paper ballots as they enter the theatre, on which they can rate the movies from "1" (the best score) to "5" (the worst score). From those ballots, feature film and short film audience choice award winners will be chosen.

"Wednesday I'll meet with my jurors and talk about the competition," Inkles said. "There have been some nights when it goes until two or three in the morning."

All shorts and features without distribution are eligible for the awards, meaning the films in competition finished screening Wednesday night. Movies scheduled for Thursday through Saturday already have distribution deals. It is Inkles' hope that all of the films in the festival will grab a deal for distribution in the U.S.

"The nice thing about these winning films is that they have a better chance of getting picked up for distribution in America," Inkles said.

He has seen some of the ballots, and so far, most of the films have been scoring very well among audience members.

"It's a good weathervane to see how we're doing," Inkles said. "We try to do things right, otherwise, why do it?"

Tonight's lineup includes two features: The Army of Crime at 7:00 p.m. and Howl at 9:40 p.m.