Stony Brook Film Festival returns with 36 films from 23 countries

Stony Brook Film Festival opened its 31st year at the Staller Center for the Arts with 36 films from 23 countries, and the run through July 25 puts one of Suffolk County’s strongest summer arts draws back on the calendar. Stony Brook Medicine is presenting the festival for the first time, adding an institutional partnership that ties the event to both the university and the county’s health system. The opening-night feature, Once Upon My Mother, is the New York premiere and screens July 16 at 7 p.m.

The festival’s staying power is part of the appeal for Long Island audiences weighing where to spend summer money and time. It began in 1995, and the festival history says it has since shown New York, East Coast, U.S. and world premieres from more than 80 countries. In recent years, it has drawn more than 10,000 attendees, and the Main Stage Theater gives those films a setting built for scale, with a 40-foot screen and seating for more than 1,000. Passes and individual tickets are on sale now.

This year’s lineup leans into the mix that has kept the festival busy for three decades: internationally minded titles with enough variety to keep casual moviegoers in the room. Among the films highlighted are A Mosquito in the Ear, The Sea, If I Go Will They Miss Me, Downbeat, The Art of Quitting Gracefully, Bravado, It Takes Two to Tango and Crystal Cross. Once Upon My Mother, told by the son as an adult, centers on a mother trying to help her son overcome a severe disability, giving opening night an immediate human stake as well as a premiere badge.

The closing-night film will be the East Coast premiere of Hello Betty on July 25, followed by closing-night awards at 9:30 p.m. Filmmakers who attend may receive travel assistance, lodging and access to parties and events, which keeps the festival connected to the artists behind the screening schedule, not just the audience in the seats.

Stony Brook Medicine said the sponsorship extends its mission as Suffolk County’s premier academic medical center, and festival director Alan Inkles said the partnership reflects the role medicine and the arts play in enriching people’s lives. After the main festival ends, the program continues with a free encore screening of Westhampton on July 26 at Stony Brook Southampton’s Avram Theater, with a reception at 6:30 p.m. and Q&A at 8:45 p.m. A second free encore screening of 9/11: An American Requiem is set for Sept. 10 in partnership with Stony Brook’s WTC Health & Wellness Program.