THE ART OF BROOKLYN is a an award-winning international film festival designed to connect Brooklyn's vibrant indie scene with their peers around the world. We are a filmmaker-focused event, platform and showcase for emerging creators and established voices. Founded by working artists in 2011, over a dozen of our premieres have gained distribution and one became an HBO series.
We're generating significant growth each year with an expanding international footprint among audiences, filmmakers, and the entertainment industry. In 2020 we entertained guests from 15 countries, and 3 of the features we premiered gained distribution, despite the fact that we were fully digital due to the pandemic. One of our 2021 award-winning shorts is being developed as a feature, one feature premiere got distribution, and two others were in talks as of October 2021. One of our 2022 award-winning features recently got distribution as well.
We are a hybrid festival, producing live, in-person screenings... plus streaming screenings and panels in real time on a set schedule to an international audience — with studio grade DRM protection via our Virtual Festival Platform . We have produced film events in 20 different venues for diverse audiences in 10 different Brooklyn neighborhoods, including those underserved by art and culture organizations.
Adding streaming to our event enables us to host global events locally, bringing the largest possible audience to our films. We also partner with local Brooklyn bars and restaurants for both formal and informal networking events with after parties, in addition to our famous Launch Party.
Equity is organic to our mission. We bridge the opportunity divide by making media accessible to everyone, including those who are underrepresented on either side of the camera. Every year AoBFF invites a different film professional to act as Guest Festival Director for the season. If you're interested in submitting yourself for the position please contact us at filmfestival@theartofbrooklyn.org. Our short list always includes women and/or people of color, and the position has been held by members of underrepresented groups over 66% since we started the program in 2016. One of the things we are consistently noted for is the outstanding quality of our curation, which has only improved as we've opened up to exciting new voices.
We have a Transparent and Ethical Submission Policy in which every film we receive until midnight of the last day of late submissions is viewed in its entirety and considered for programming. We never pre-select films for competition, fill a template or set our schedule before submissions close. Every single submission is screened multiple times, first by our selection committee, a diverse (racially, by gender, and age) group of film professionals and film fans, who represent the popular taste of our audience. They leave detailed notes on each film for the Guest Festival Director, who makes final decisions based on their own complete viewing. We have curated films we’ve received at the very end of our submission process several times, resulting in more than one AoBFF award-winner. So don't hesitate to spend on a late submission to AoBFF, it's worth it.
We never require filmmakers to purchase blocks of tickets for their own screenings. We don't make filmmakers pay for their own trophies. And we never charge filmmakers for marketing or promotion. We believe that film festivals exist for filmmakers, not the other way around.
OUR SCREENPLAY COMPETITION:
Film or TV scripts in any genre, 120 pages maximum. Entries are scored by a team of professional script readers, managed by our Script Contest Director, Gina Leone. (Read more about prizes in Awards & Prizes section.)
BKOD (Brooklyn On Demand)
In 2014 we became the only indie film festival to build and program our own video-on-demand streaming platform: Brooklyn On Demand, where we showcase festival favorites, original series and more. Check it out at brooklynondemand.com
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
ABOUT US:
• In 2022 we returned to a full slate of in-person screenings, plus virtual encore presentations and premieres.
• In 2021 our first Hybrid Edition combined virtual and in-person screenings and events. 3 of our 2020 features received distribution!
We have screened and held events in 20 venues in 10 different neighborhoods across Brooklyn.
In 2020 we launched our first Digital Edition (on schedule) in response to the Covid pandemic on the Eventive Virtual Festival Platform
• We welcome around 2,000 guests to our event every year, including 2020.
• In 2016, we screened the premiere of the theatrical cut of Spike Lee’s new documentary ‘2 Fists Up’ through a partnership with ESPN Films.
• In 2017, we screened Kelly Reichardt's 'Certain Women' and welcomed Neil deGrasse Tyson as a special festival guest for our New York Premiere of the feature 'Future '38'
• In 2018 we hosted a special 25th Anniversary screening of the indie classic "Just Another Girl On The IRT" with director Leslie Harris in attendance.
• Our Official Selections Hunter&Game (2015) Lake Nowhere (2015), Lemon (2014), American Bomber (2013), Casual Encounters (2013) and You Bury Your Own (2012) all went on to get distribution.
• Our 2014 Best Animation winner ‘How You Doin’ Boy? Voicemails From Gran’pa’ was sold as a series to HBO Latino.
• We won a Brooklyn Innovation Award for Creative Group of the Year in 2015
OUR INDUSTRY PARTNERS:
• We have enjoyed strategic partnerships with UCLA Extension Writers' Program, Alliance of Women Directors, New York Women in Film and Television, The Alliance of Women Directors, The NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment, Prime Latino Media, Gravitas Ventures, BOND/360, IndiePix films, Pratt Institute, ESPN Films, LesFlicks global streaming platform, NBC Universal and LiveStream, among others.
OUR ETHICAL SUBMISSION POLICY:
• We watch every film submitted to us, right up until midnight of our extended deadline. And yes, we have programmed films we received on the last day of submissions!
• Our Film Selection Panel is a diverse group of industry professionals, and we choose a new Guest Festival Director each season, so that the AoBFF doesn’t reflect a single, static point of view.
• Only films that we receive through our submissions process are eligible for festival awards.
HOW WE SCREEN:
We are a hybrid festival, producing live, in-person screenings with virtual premieres, encores, and live streaming events via the Eventive Platform with studio-grade DRM protection, seamless livestream integration for filmmaker talkbacks, and ticketing.
• Our Technical Director pre-screens every selection in advance, to ensure the best-quality version of your film screens for our audience.
• We only screen from digital files to ensure a high quality screening without the technical pitfalls that can accompany DVDs or Blu-Rays.
• Our projectionists always remain in the theater for every screening.
OUR PREMIERES:
We strongly prefer to screen premieres, especially for features. We have a great track record of opening films, garnering them press and industry attention with successful screenings... If ESPN Films trusted us to premiere the theatrical cut of Spike Lee’s 2 Fists Up, maybe you can too? We’re just saying.
THE AoBFF EXPERIENCE:
• We create opportunities to connect with your peers and industry at our world-class audience talkbacks, panels for networking and skill building, and our amazing Opening Night Party.
• We are aggressive about promoting our screenings to press and audience using social media and targeted press outreach.
• Your film’s festival run is an important part of its long-term marketing plan. We will partner with you to make the most of your AoBFF screening; before, during and after the festival. Premiering with us pays off!
• Our communication skills are legendary; you’ll always be in the loop.
• We produce broadcast quality interviews with AoBFF filmmakers that appear on our streaming platform Brooklyn On Demand (brooklynondemand.com), online and on Roku even after the festival ends.
• Our filmmakers love screening with us!
The AoBFF will present awards in the following categories:
- Outstanding Narrative Feature
- Outstanding Narrative Short
- Outstanding Documentary
- Outstanding Comedy
- Outstanding Drama
- Outstanding Cinematography
- Outstanding Performance
- Outstanding Ensemble
- Outstanding Editing
- Outstanding Performance
- Outstanding Animation
- Outstanding Score
- Outstanding Visual Effects
- Outstanding Short Documentary
- Audience Choice Award
- Jury Prize
- Dark Side Award (For Horror/Thriller/Noir Films)
- Vanguard Award (For Experimental/Non-Linear/Avant-Garde Films)
** Everyone who submits to AoBFF (film or screenplay) gets a live, interactive group pitch session from Roadmap Writers!
SCREENPLAY COMPETITION:
** As part of our mission to support emerging writers, everyone who enters will receive a FREE webinar from Roadmap Writers.**
Quarterfinalists:
- a live, interactive pitch session from Roadmap Writers
- an All-Access Festival pass
Semifinalists:
- a live, interactive pitch session from Roadmap Writers
- All-Access Festival pass
- 1 free month in the On Ramp Program from Roadmap Writers
Finalists:
- Live, interactive pitch session from Roadmap Writers
- an All-Access Festival pass
- Film Rise® screenwriting software
- 1 free month in the On Ramp Program from Roadmap Writers
- 4-month Pro listing on Inktip
- 6-month membership on ScriptHop
Grand Prize Winner:
- Live, interactive pitch session from Roadmap Writers
- an All-Access Festival pass
- 1 free month in the On Ramp Program from Roadmap Writers
- 4-month Pro listing on Inktip
- 6-month membership on ScriptHop
- Staged reading cast with professionbal actors
- Script read by manager Matt Dy from Lit Entertainment Group for possible representation