2021 - The Art of Bklyn

The 2021 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival

Our 11th Annual festival was a hybrid edition, with 49 online events (film screenings, panels, & webinars) and 3 in-person events. We programmed 54 films and 36 screenplays.

2021 Funders and Partners:

Our 2021 Festival Trailer:

AoBFF 2021 Festival Trailer from The Art of Brooklyn on Vimeo.

Edited by Jake King, Music by Brian Bonz

We named filmmaker Christie Conochalla our 2021 Guest Festival Director.

Saverio Guerra (Curb Your Enthusiasm) Ashlie Atkinson (Mr. Robot, BlacKkKlansman) Stef Dawson (Hunger Games) and Bill Corbett (Co-creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000) are all friends of AoBFF, and made videos to help us create buzz. (Full video is 2 min.)

"If you want to see the coolest sh*t coming out of Brooklyn, the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival is the place to do it." — Ashlie Atkinson

"This was the festival that made me want to be a Brooklynite myself because the stories and the lens that comes out of Brooklyn is truly badass"
— Stef Dawson

In-Person Events

Launch & Closing Parties

We held our Launch Party at the Sunset Park bar Mama Tried, where we provided an open bar for our filmmakers, screenwriters and guests. Brooklyn’s legendary L&B Spumoni Gardens donated food for all. We also held a closing party on Sunday, June 13 as another chance for our filmmakers to gather in person post-festival.

Free Outdoor Screening & Filmmaker Networking Event

We were happy to be able to produce our popular free outdoor screening again, which we've held on the main lawn of Sunset Park in partnership with the NYC Parks Dept. since 2016. We screened a block of family-friendly short films and invited our filmmakers to socialize and network.

Virtual Screenings, Panels and More

Using our new Virtual Festival Platform, we created a full festival experience with an interactive film guide, event schedule and box office.
We made films viewable with studio-grade antipiracy protection for a limited window, based on our schedule. Filmmaker talkbacks and other content remain available on the Virtual Festival Platform throughout the year.
We live-streamed our filmmaker talkbacks in real time after each screening. They were interactive, with audience members asking questions via a chat window which we read to the filmmakers.
We invested in a platform upgrade to include live captions for all live-streamed events, as part of our commitment to accessibility.

Film Guide

Panels and Workshops

We produced five livestreamed events that focused on important career and industry topics with our 2021 partners Roadmap Writers, Alliance of Women Directors, LesFlicks, and industry experts.

"A Specific Resistance"
Alliance of Women Directors Panel Discussion
(Full video is 1 hr 16 min):

"Pitch Prep" Webinar - best practices for pitch meetings, led by Joey Tuccio of Roadmap Writers (open to all our 2021 filmmakers)

"Group Pitch" Session - interactive pitches to industry execs, led by Joey Tuccio of Roadmap Writers with three special guests

"What Is Going On Here" - roundtable talk on the state of the industry, with film producers Dustin Williams, Gabe and Rafael Francisco, and Naomi Bennett, Lond0n-based founder of LesFlicks.

"What The World Needs Now Is Lesbian Romantic Comedies" - A screening block of Christie Conochalla's work followed by a livestream discussion with Naomi Bennett, Lond0n-based founder of LesFlicks.

Promotion and Marketing

We pulled out all the stops to promote our 2021 festival and our filmmakers, creating 62 shareable videos including filmmaker interviews, custom screening block trailers and posters for every day of the festival, and award acceptance videos. See all videos HERE

We designed a new poster for each date of the fest (featuring the shorts blocks and features screening that day) for daily social media promotion.

Sample Screening Block Trailer (30 seconds):

A sample Filmmaker Interview we created (48 seconds):

ALL 2021 AoBFF VIDEOS

Press, Media, and Industry

We received in-depth coverage of our entire festival, thanks to a relationship we cultivated with independent film critic Kirk Fernwood.
Local press covered our 2021 hybrid fest and the NY Premiere of our opening film ONE MOMENT
This year, two of our 2020 Premieres (IN ACTION and THE SUBJECT) got distribution from Gravitas Ventures and both films credited their participation in AoBFF as essential to their success. Gravitas Ventures is now in talks with three of our 2021 films.

Brooklyn Reporter article (click image to read)

Click image for full coverage of the 2021 AoBFF

"We didn’t really start to cultivate fans until Art of Brooklyn... AoBFF was the first time we could encourage everyone we know to watch - especially with the festival being online [in 2020]. AoBFF solidified we were a “real” movie to a lot of our community, and it helped us start to make a fanbase."
SEAN KENEALY, Co-Director of IN ACTION (now available on AmazonPrime and iTunes)

Facebook exchange with The Subject film (Click image to enlarge)