A new festival will welcome local, domestic, and international filmmakers to Allentown this spring. WDIY’s Sarit Laschinsky has more.
According to a release, the Allentown Film Festival will be making its debut this April, and it will include the screening of dozens of short and feature films.
The festival will kick off with movie screenings at the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center on April 1, with a weekend of additional movie showings planned for later in the month.
Two Civic Theatre venues – the Nineteenth Street Theatre and Theatre514 – will be the primary locations, with screenings from April 14-16. The Allentown Art Museum will also be showing films on April 15.
According to festival organizers, films from American and international filmmakers are being considered, with over 330 entries having been received so far from filmmakers in over 40 countries.
Categories are Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Narrative Short, Best Documentary Short, and Best Music Video. These categories do have an entry fee.
Lehigh Valley residents can also submit films – from one to five minutes in length – in three categories: K-12 students, college students, and nonstudents. There is no entry fee charge for these local entries.
The festival will award cash prizes to the best entries in the Lehigh Valley Shorts categories.
Submissions must be made online by establishing a free account atFilmFreeway.com/AllentownFilmFestival and uploading a film. and the deadline for entries is March 1.
Festival director Alan Younkin said in a statement that the event’s goal is to identify and encourage “compelling, thought-provoking independent films.
“The Allentown Film Festival will not only boost Lehigh Valley pride but also remind people in the Mid-Atlantic region that Allentown is a vibrant, much-closer-than-you-think arts mecca," he said.
(Original air-date: 1/25/23)
