Gold Coast Film Fest Gets $15K Grant from LI Community Foundation

The Gold Coast International Film Festival has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the Long Island Community Foundation to launch a new film series that will spotlight films that focus on a variety of social issues of importance to Long Islanders and the region, according to an announcement by the festival’s director, Caroline Sorokoff. Following each film screening, a Q&A panel consisting of filmmakers, subject matter experts, and other relevant guests will be on hand to help audiences further explore the issues raised in the films. Films are expected to touch on a wide range of topical subjects including the environment, immigration, income equality, veterans’ issues, voting rights, and hunger, among others.

The Gold Coast International Film Festival currently previews more than 100 feature-length and short films each year through its annual fall film festival and its year-round film screening and discussion series. Films include independent, foreign and documentary films as well as previews of upcoming blockbusters.

“We look forward to partnering with several local and regional nonprofits to use film as a means of bringing important societal issues to the forefront and fostering dialogue on topics that affect our region,” said Ms. Sorokoff. “The Gold Coast Film Festival is greatly appreciative to the Long Island Community Foundation for its generous support of our efforts in this important endeavor.”

The new series will launch this summer. For more information about all of the Gold Coast International Film Festival’s upcoming films visit www.goldcoastarts.org. Moe information about the Long Island Community Foundation can be found at www.licf.org.

About the Gold Coast International Film Festival
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 and entertainment industry VIPs Francis Ford Coppola, Hugh Grant, 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.

About the Gold Coast Arts Center
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 over 20 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.