Ballston Spa might not come to mind when considering star-studded localities the village doesn’t have a movie theater but come the first weekend of August, one might just mistake it for a smaller version of Hollywood.
Ballston Spa will be holding its first ever film festival that weekend. The festivities will begin Thursday, July 31, at 8 p.m. with a premiere party at Manna’s Restaurant, and conclude with a 4 p.m. award ceremony at Coffee Planet on Sunday, Aug. 3. In between will be showings of 28 films created by both local and world-renowned artists.
The festival is an extension of the free movies that have been offered as part of First Fridays in Wiswall Park. Like that program, the festival is the brainchild of Daniel DeFabio and supported by the Ballston Spa Business and Professionals Association. DeFabio teamed up with Nicole Coady and Eric Vollweiler. All three moved to the area after working in Los Angeles.
In fact, DeFabio and Coady ended up living on the same street in Ballston Spa.
`A neighbor introduced us, and so we met,` said Coady. `Daniel was really the one who came up with the idea for the festival.`
All three, however, have been using their connections to bring films and judges to Ballston Spa since November.
That has resulted in the sizable slate of films and a panel of judges filled with big names from the film industry. Marcus Fuller, Anne Mari Lizzi, Daniel Fried and Jim Jermanok will be in town for the festival, while Daniel Pyne (who was the screenwriter the films `Any Given Sunday` and `The Manchurian Candidate`) will be judging the films remotely.
The films themselves will be a mix of local productions and world-renowned reels.
`We felt it was important to have local films and student films,` said DeFabio. `But we also wanted to make sure those works were showcased alongside the best of the best.`
One of those big-name films will be `The Pearce Sisters` from director Luis Cook. It was the winner of a BAFTA award for Best Animated Short (a BAFTA is the British equivalent of an Oscar), and will be showing during a Saturday, Aug. 2, 7 p.m. slate of movies for older viewers in Malta Avenue School. All other slates of films will feature family-friendly programming.
All of the films will be shorts; some are as brief as three minutes, with a few stretching past the 20-minute mark. The schedule includes a number of world premieres and works from younger artists.
There will be a slate of experimental films showing in the Strolling Village Artisans building on Washington Street.
Also on tap for the weekend are two parties. The premiere party at Manna’s will be `a big, fun, dance-clubby night party,` according to Coady. There will also be after-parties on Friday and Saturday at sunset CafE and the 51 Front Street Wine Bar, respectively.
Attendees will have a chance to interact with the judges on Saturday, Aug. 2, at 3 p.m. at a panel discussion at the Brookside Museum.
`They’ll be going through their experience of what it takes to get a film off the ground,` said DeFabio. `I think they’ll get into the differences between a high budget and low budget film, and what you can accomplish with a smaller budget.`
For show times and more information on all films and events, check www.bspafilm.com.“