Inside the Festival: How to Get Into a Sold-Out Show

When the 10-day Stony Brook Film Festival passes sell out, that's it, they're gone. But when the remaining single tickets to the individual films sell out, there may still be a way to get into a sold-out screening.

The festival makes no guarantees, but the key is getting to the Staller Center early – at least an hour prior to the show – to wait on a standby line, according to Julie Rulon Greene, a festival spokeswoman.

The festival sold 800 passes, and the Staller Center seats about 1,100 people. But no one knows how many pass holders will show up to a given show, so there may be seats available during the 15 minutes prior to the show, which go on a first-come-first-served basis to those waiting in line at the box office. If all 800 pass holders show up, however, there won't be any extra tickets sold.

"We understand that some people don't want to take that chance, but we have a pretty good track record of getting people in," Greene said. "Over the years we've learned how many tickets we can sell. Each film is a little bit different."

Take, for instance, Thursday night's opening night screening of Sonny Boy. Single tickets were sold out, Greene said, but a standby line of about 30 people had formed by 7:45 p.m., and all of them were able to get seated because a number of pass holders did not attend the showing.

As of Thursday night, two other screenings have sold out: Kings Park: Stories from an American Mental Institution on Monday, and Late Bloomers on Friday. Kings Park documentary maker Lucy Winer and Isabella Rosselini, who stars in Late Bloomers, are expected to attend their respective screenings.

Widespread publicity combined with big-name actors are often what draws the most people to the screenings, Greene said. Still, it's unpredictable how many pass holders will show up to each film.

"All theaters have these mechanisms," Greene said, "but not everybody knows about them."