The producers of the Made in Huntington Film & TV Festival are encouraging the public to personally experience and enjoy this first-ever festival that celebrates the creativity and art of filmmaking and spotlights films and tv that are made locally on Long Island and especially within the Town of Huntington. The full schedule includes 14 screening programs presented over 4 days, Thursday through Sunday, April 3-6, 2025 at the Cinema Arts Centre at 423 Park Avenue in Huntington, NY. Each daily line-up includes screenings with feature-length films, plus a collection of short-format projects, clustered by specific genre or theme, like humor, drama, documentary, arts, music or romance.
In addition to the screenings, the festival also offers emerging filmmakers the opportunity to attend an Industry Day program on Saturday morning, April 5, that features 3 panel conversations with film & TV industry executives who share advice on seizing opportunities for distributing film or tv projects in today’s expanding market.
Huntington Town Supervisor Ed Smyth said, “This festival offers area residents the unique chance to see locally-produced film and tv projects that they would not likely see anywhere else at this time.” He continued, “You never know, one of these local filmmakers might someday be the next big Oscar or Emmy winner. It’s worth catching them now on their way up.”
The Opening Day’s program on Thursday, April 3 especially celebrates “Hometown Huntington” by featuring content focused on people, and places within the Town of Huntington. Thursday starts with the Opening Ceremony hosted by Town Supervisor Ed Smyth as part of a “Making It in Huntington” Media Day and Meet the Filmmakers program at 1:30 p.m. The Opening Program is free of charge and the public are encouraged to attend. The ceremony is followed by a panel conversation with some filmmakers. The first screening, aptly titled “Our Town” begins immediately after the Opening Program at 2:30 p.m. Later, at 5 pm viewers can enjoy a shorts program featuring 4 locally-focused documentary narratives, including “Northport Beatnik” about beat-generation author and Northport resident, Jack Kerouac and later at 7:30 pm, the day concludes with a feature titled, “Undocumented” which includes a conversation with the filmmaker and talent.
Friday, April 4th offers two features, one at 12 noon titled “It’s About Friggin’ Time” and “Death’s A Bitch” at 7:30 p.m. plus two short programs, one at 2:30 p.m. that features 6 short titles on Art, Music and Romance, and another program featuring 8 humor-based short titles at 5 p.m. Huntington residents will likely recognize local scenes and faces in these short features.
Saturday, April 5 offers 4 screenings, each devoted to drama, starting at noon with the feature “Five Day’s on The Pile” followed by a short program of 5 titles at 2:30 pm and another short program with 5 different titles at 5 pm. The day concludes at 7:30 pm with a Long Island premiere of the feature “Ebenezer, The Traveler.” This screening concludes with a conversation with the filmmaker and some cast members.
Sunday, April 6 has two screenings, the shorts program at 11 am offers ticket buyers a final chance to catch the 8 titles in the Humor category, while the 1:30 pm program is the final screening for the festival. It is the skateboarding-based, and celebrity-filled documentary feature “Humanity Stoked” and is followed by a conversation with the filmmaker and some cast and crew.
The Awards Ceremony and Closing Reception for the festival will also take place on Sunday evening at Newsday Studios, located at 6 Corporate Center Drive in Melville. The Red Carpet begins at 5:15 pm, and the ceremony begins at 6 p.m. The Awards Ceremony is hosted by Elisa DiStefano, the popular on-air host of Newsday TV. The ceremony will be recorded and will be streamed on Newsday TV beginning at 10 am on Monday, September 7.
Nine awards will be presented including a Best of Show and an Honorable Mention.
Joe Schramm, the Festival’s Executive Producer and the Town’s Director of Film & Television commented, “We appreciate that Newsday is willing to host the Awards Ceremony and Closing Reception at their beautiful Studios. This offers the Town of Huntington the chance to show off just one of the several state-of-the-art television production facilities we have here.”
Those wishing to obtain more details about the schedule, or to read each program’s description, or to purchase tickets online for the screenings or Industry Day, are encouraged to go to www.madeinhuntiongton.com.
Tickets are $20 each per screening program. Members of the Cinema Arts Centre are eligible for a member discount.
Tickets for the Industry Day are $50 each.
The Made in Huntington Film & TV Festival is presented by the Town of Huntington’s Cultural Affairs Institute, a 501c3 corporation and produced by the Town’s Office of Film & Television.