Gold Coast International Film Festival Director Regina Gil at the 2018 Awards Ceremony. Some 80 full-lenth and short films will be presented at GCIFF 2019 taking place in venues around North Hempstead, Long Island, November 4-13, 2019 © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
LONG ISLAND, NY —Mark your calendars for November 4-13, 2019 as the Gold Coast International Film Festival enters its ninth year, presenting more than 80 feature-length and short films, certain to appeal to filmgoers of all ages and tastes. The Festival will once again be in venues across the North Shore, including Great Neck; Port Washington; Manhasset; Roslyn and Huntington.
Last year’s Gold Coast International Film Festival broke all previous records while presenting award-winning films from more than 20 countries and featuring dozens of visiting filmmakers and special guests for unforgettable post-screening Q&A’s.
This year’s highlights include “The Two Popes,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce; which will be the Festival’s Closing Night Spotlight Film. Other films of note this year include “Marriage Story,” starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” the winner of the Best Screenplay at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and “Clemency,” starring Alfre Woodard, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The Festival will also be screening “By the Grace of God,” the Grand Jury Prize winner at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival.
The launch of the Festival will take place on Monday, November 4 at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts with an on-stage conversation with Broadway, Hollywood and television legend Ben Vereen, who will be receiving the Gold Coast Arts Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Vereen’s illustrious career includes starring roles in Broadway’s “Pippin,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and “Wicked,” among many other hits, and on television as Chicken George in the groundbreaking series “Roots.” Emmy Award-winning journalist Frank DiLella will conduct the on-stage Q&A. The Uniondale High School show choir, Rhythm of the Knight, a nationally recognized, award-winning group will also perform at the event. The Festival’s full schedule will be released on October 4, 2019.
Thousands of people from more than 175 different ZIP codes throughout the tri-state area attended the Gold Coast International Film Festival each year, including hundreds of children and adults who attended free community screenings of our highly-regarded short film programs at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington and the Port Washington, Manhasset, Bryant and Great Neck libraries. Dozens of veterans are once again invited to attend screenings free of charge courtesy of a grant from Operation Democracy.
Since 2011, the festival has brought the latest Hollywood hits and Indie favorites to standing room only audiences throughout the fabled Gold Coast of Long Island. Add A-list celebrities and unforgettable events to the mix, and it’s easy to see why the Gold Coast International Film Festival has become the “go-to” festival for film buffs and the public; it is also the last major film festival on the East Coast before Awards season. The Gold Coast International Film Festival is produced by the not-for-profit Gold Coast Arts Center.
Previous honorees and special guests of the festival and the Gold Coast Arts Center include film industry VIPs Francis Ford Coppola, Hugh Grant, Robert Wagner, Jill St. John, Baz Luhrmann, Brian Dennehy, Paul Sorvino, Ed Burns, Bruce Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Lou Diamond Phillips, Morgan Spurlock, Eli Wallach, Gabriel Byrne, Jacques Pepin, Bill Plympton, Phil Donahue, Phylicia Rashaad, Joan Allen, Jay McInerney and Michael Cuesta, as well as composer Morton Gould, artists James Rosenquist, Oleg Cassini, Edwina Sandys and Bob Gruen, comedian Susie Essman, Broadway stars Kelli O’Hara, Melissa Errico and Savion Glover, and 4-time Oscar winner for production and costume design Catherine Martin.
The Gold Coast Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting the arts through education, exhibition, performance, and outreach. Located on the North Shore of Long Island, it has brought the arts to tens of thousands of people throughout the region for 25 years. Among the Center’s offerings are its School for the Arts, which holds year-round classes in visual and performing arts for students of all ages and abilities; a free public art gallery; a concert and lecture series; film screenings and discussions; the annual Gold Coast International Film Festival; and initiatives that focus on senior citizens and underserved communities. These initiatives include artist residencies, after-school programs, school assemblies, teacher-training workshops, and parent-child workshops. The Gold Coast Arts Center is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners in Education program, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. More information can be found at www.goldcoastarts.org.
For information about upcoming films in the Festival’s year-round film screening program plus the latest news on the 2019 Festival visit www.goldcoastfilmfestival.org.
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Tags: film festivals, Gold Coast International Film Festival, Long Island events, Long Island film festival
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