SINCE: 1996
WHERE: Stony Brook, New York
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Stony Brook Film Festival showcases the best in independent film premieres over ten stimulating days. All films screen in Staller Center’s main stage theatre at Stony Brook.
Stony Brook Film Festival
Stony Brook Film Festival, which saw its largest audience since the pandemic, concluded its 30th edition with the Peruvian drama Mistura by Ricardo de Montreuil winning the Jury Award for Best Feature. It follows a privileged French-Peruvian woman, who watches as her life quickly unravels after her husband’s betrayal ostracizes her from elite society.
The Stony Brook Film Festival revealed the full lineup for its 30th anniversary edition taking place from July 17–26 at Staller Center for the Arts. The 2025 Festival will showcase 36 films from 19 countries, including world premieres, U.S. debuts, and exclusive screenings.
Mediha bested 36 films from 19 countries to take home the Grand Prize Award at 29th Stony Brook Film Festival. Directed by Hasan Oswald, this documentary chronicles the journey of a young Yazidi girl returning from ISIS captivity. Using her camera to process her trauma, she documents her experience while rescuers continue to search for her missing family members. The film vividly illustrates the extraordinary endurance of the human spirit and the critical need to amplify the voices of those who have been unheard for too long.
The 29th Stony Brook Film Festival will run from Thursday, July 18, through Saturday, July 27, 2024, offering 36 feature and short films from 19 countries.
Michael Moshe Dahan’s Yes Repeat No, a challenging and engaging meta masterpiece film, won the Jury Award for Best Feature at the 28th Stony Brook Film Festival. “Thank you to all of the people who believe in human rights and democracy all over the world … and to all the people who want to make difficult material all over the world because finding the questions to ask is sometimes harder than getting the answers,” Dahan said in his acceptance speech.
The U.S. premiere of the Dutch film Sea of Time will kick off the 28th Stony Brook Film Festival, at the Staller Center for the Arts, set to run from Thursday, July 20, through Saturday, July 29, 2023.
Berenshtein, Roman Shumunov’s film on the true story of Leonid Berenshtein, the last surviving member of the World War II partisan battalion that located Hitler’s secret weapon, won the Jury Award Best Feature at the 27th annual Stony Brook Film Festival. The German film Contra directed by Sönke Wortmann took the Audience Award Best Feature, and Nicole Rodenburg’s Glob Lessons won the Spirit of Independent Filmmaking Award.
Now in its 27th year, the Stony Brook Film Festival returns to Staller Center for the Arts, live and in-person this year, from July 21-30, 2022 showcasing 38 films from over 28 countries.
Anchorage directed by Scott Monahan is the winner of the Grand Prize at the 2021 Stony Brook Film Festival, held at the Staller Center for the Arts. In the film, two brothers attempt to drive a trunk full of opioids from Florida to Alaska to cash-in big in the Land of Gold, but their plans don’t go as expected.
Stony Brook Film Festival, now in its 26th year, kicks off on Thursday, July 22 with the world premiere of The 5th Man, a documentary on Paul Limmer, a former track coach at Bellmore’s Mepham High School. During his 50-year career there, Limmer racked up hundreds of wins, though director Trey Nelson focuses on the story of all the other kids – the ones who never felt “seen” – until Paul Limmer came into their lives.
The Stony Brook Film Festival returns for the 26th edition from July 22-31 at the Staller Center for the Arts with live, in-person screening. The festival will also virtually offer this year’s Festival as another way to watch, streaming August 5-30 via the IndieFlix Festivals app.
Stony Brook Film Festival hosted its LIVE Virtual Awards Ceremony for the 2020 festival and The Subject directed by Lanie Zipoy and written by Chisa Hutchinson, won the Jury Award for Best Feature. The Subject tells the story of a successful documentary filmmaker haunted by his last film, which captured the murder of his Subject, a black teen in Harlem; a timely film that explores the relationship between an artist and their subject and addresses the harsh reality of race and class among the privileged. The film features Jason Biggs, Aunjanue Ellis, Anabelle Acosta, Carra Patterson, Nile Bullock, and Caleb Eberhardt,