The inaugural First Time Fest is celebrating first-time filmmakers with a grand prize of theatrical distribution, hosted by the Players Club & Loews Village VII this weekend March 1-4. Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward are the co-founders of the festival and the Director of Programming is David Schwartz, the Chief Curator of Museum of the Moving Image.
Eye For Film's New York critic, and contributing editor for The WORD Anne-Katrin Titze will join author Gay Talese, producer Christine Vachon and the B-52s Fred Schneider as one of the FTF’s five jurors (the audience at each of the 12 competition films will be the fifth juror). Together, the jury and audience will ultimately select a Grand Prize winner, who will be offered theatrical distribution for their film and full international sales representation from the renowned American film distributor, Cinema Libre Studio.
Actress Ellen Burstyn will host the FTF Closing Night Awards programme which will also see director Martin Scorsese present the first John Huston Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema to Black Swan and Requiem For A Dream director Darren Aronofsky.
In addition, FTF will also host a special presentation of Andy Grieve and Lauren Lazin’s documentary about the band The Police, Can't Stand Losing You, featuring Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers will be added to the Fest’s slate.
Among the vintage first-time works being celebrated are John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and Aronofsky's Pi.
In conjunction with FTF’s presentation of the Australian/Mongolian documentary Mongolian Bling on Sunday night, First Time Fest and Hip Hop Saves Lives presents Project Haiti, an album release party for Zing Experience at Webster Hall. FTF is selling tickets to the screening, the party or a special combo pass for both.
For more information about the festival and the full line-up visit the official site.
