User:Wallyvh/sandbox

Overview
Festival of Cinema NYC (previously the Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema) is an international film festival held in New York City. In 2019, the festival screened 125 films from 40 different countries. It was founded by festival director, Jayson Simba.

Critical Reception
Festival of Cinema NYC was named one of Film Freeway’s Top 100 Best Reviewed Festivals. Since its inception in 2016, it has been praised by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Huffington Post and Time Out New York, among other press. The Wall Street Journal has denoted the Festival of Cinema NYC as an innovative new alternative to Tribeca Film Festival and New York Film Festival focused on independent cinema.

Sponsors
Sponsors of the Festival of Cinema NYC include The New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, SAG-AFTRA, Moviemaker Magazine, Variety 411, Final Draft, Simple DCP, Soundview Media Partners, Synimatica, The Acting Studio NYC, Seed & Spark, Yelp, and Big City Graphics.

Past Panelists
Past panelists and Jury Board members have included Anna Garduno, Executive Producer at Netflix; Charles E. Williams, two-time Emmy award winner at CBS, Doug LeClaire, founder of Asbury Shorts USA, among many others.

Past Films
The 2019 Festival of Cinema NYC opened with Camilo Vila's acclaimed "5th of July". It’s closing night selections included Esmé von Hoffman’s sold-out world premiere of Ovid and the Art of Love starring Corbin Bleu, John Savage and Tara Summers and Santiago Rizzi’s “Quest- The Truth Always Rises”.