April 23, 2009

 Hollywood is coming to Syracuse in less than a day. The sixth annual Syracuse International Film Festival gets underway tomorrow night and last minute preparations with more than 100 volunteers is underway downtown at the Hotel Syracuse.

The festival was started by Syracuse University trans-media professor, Owen Shapiro, in 2003. It will be showing shorts, feature and Pixar animation films from over forty countries around the world. Some of the films’ countries include Armenia, South Africa and Israel.

Although the film shows mainly international films, festival manager Debra Borenstein says that there are certain exceptions to the rule.

“Very few American films are shown and the only ones shown have a Central New York connection," Borenstein said."Either the film maker went to Syracuse University or they grew up in the Central New York region."

The festival’s theme this year is “music in film”. Tomorrow’s opening night’s headlining film will be the 1925 original silent film “Ben-Hur” accompanied by a live orchestrated jazz score.

Well known producers and directors are expected to attend the festival, including Central New York native, Bobcat Goldthwait, who will be screening the premiere of his film “World’s Greatest Dad” on the closing night.  

Festival attendance last year was between eight and ten thousand visitors and should be higher this year. Borenstein said this is because the festival is always easily accessible to the public.

“Anybody can come, the tickets are only eight dollars to get into for most of the screenings, which is less than a film at the mall,” said Borenstein.

The film festival runs from April 24^th through until May 3^rd at seven venues across the city, including LeMoyne College, Syracuse University and the MOST's Bristol IMAX theatre.