90 Films Plus Honoring Darren Aronofsky 2010 Held At Coney Island Film Festival Thru 9/26

The 10th annual installment of the Coney Island Film Festival hits the shores of Coney Island from Friday, September 24th through Sunday, September 26th. This year's festival features 90 films from around the world; a stunning array of high and low-brow fare, as diverse as the neighborhood it represents. Subjects range from the profound to the profane, showcasing the independent spirit and irreverent nature of the one and only Coney Island.

On Sunday, September 26th at 5pm inside the Coney Island Museum, the festival organizers will honor South Brooklyn born auteur Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Wrestler, The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream, Pi). Immediately following the ceremony, the festival will screen Aronofsky's harrowing masterpiece Requiem for a Dream.

Documentary Feature highlights include JL Aronson's Last Summer at Coney Island, with the future of "America's playground" hanging in the balance, an amusement park operator and a local historian work to save Coney Island from becoming an ersatz copy of its former self, an empty lot, or even worse, a shopping mall. Gary Beeber's Dirty Martini and the New Burlesque explores the outrageous world of the performers who created the new burlesque scene in New York City. Dennis W. Ho's Ministry in the Subway, an intimate look at a tangle of relationships revolving around a Times Square Subway Pastor living at the intersection of unquestioning faith and unexamined motivations.

Feature film highlights include the New York Premiere of James McKenney's Horror Film Satan Hates You. Inspired by films from the golden age of Christian "scare" cinema, Satan Hates You is a graphic horror film that tells the stories of two individuals and their personal struggles with Lucifer himself. Starring Angus Scrimm (Phantasm), Reggie Bannister (Bubba Ho-Tep), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes), Debbie Rochon (Tromeo and Juliet) and Larry Fessenden (Habit). CIFF presents Steve Staso's Cellar, using intimate and imaginative cinematography to create a vibrant depiction of New York's Hell's Kitchen, director Steve Staso unveils a moving and lyrical tale where three very different lives intersect to find friendship and redemption. Billy Sharff's The Sparrow and the Tigress , With a haunting soundtrack from Pulitzer Prize winner Ornette Coleman, and striking black and white photography from first-time writer/director Sharff, The Sparrow and the Tigress takes us into The Shadows of a Coney Island underworld where past, present, reality and fantasy collide. In keeping with annual tradition, the festival will screen the 1979 Coney Island classic The Warriors at 10:30pm on Saturday, September 25th.

The Coney Island Film festival offers a huge variety of Shorts: Dramas, Comedies, Documentaries, Animation, Experimental, Made in Coney Island, Horror Films, Music Videos and Silent Films are all represented, making CIFF a festival with something for everyone! Short highlights include Andres Sanz 's Flat Love , A man, convinced that the world is actually flat, falls in love with a two-dimensional woman at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In Michael Erland Walsh's Amant De Chaussure (Shoe Lover), a young philosopher falls in love with an unlikely object - a shoe. Alex Horwitz's Alice Jacobs is Dead a scientist races to find the cure to a horrific virus before it turns his wife (Adrienne Barbeau) into something monstrous.

Two programs featuring films which use Coney Island as a backdrop screen during the festival, Saturday at 9pm and Sunday at 2pm. The wildly popular Horror Shorts Program returns again this year, Saturday at 8pm.

The festival will begin with an Opening Night Gala on Friday, September 24th. Museum of Wax, Shape of the Shapeless and Dirty Martini and the New Burlesque screen at 7:30pm at The Coney Island Museum, followed by an opening night party, 9:30 p.m. at the Freak Bar at Sideshows by the Seashore. It's an evening of live sideshow and burlesque that will kick off the festival with a riotous bang. An awards ceremony takes place Sunday, September 26th, 8pm at the Eldorado Auto Skooter Bumper Cars, 1216 Surf Ave.

Event Details are as follows:
Coney Island Film Festival
September 24, 25 and 26, 2010

Films screen at Sideshows by the Seashore (Ground Floor) and the Coney Island Museum (2nd Floor), both located at 1208 Surf Ave., between Stillwell Ave. and West 12st in Coney Island, Brooklyn. 718-372-5159. Take the D, F, N or Q lines to the Coney Island/Stillwell Avenue stop. Both screening venues are within easy walking distance of the subway.

Tickets:
Opening Night Gala screening & party: $25
Full Festival Pass (excludes "The Warriors"): $45
Saturday Pass (excludes "The Warriors"): $15
Sunday Pass: $10 (excludes Aranofsky Honor and Requiem Screening)
Special Event: Darren Aranofsky and screening of Requiem for a Dream: $10
Special Event: Saturday Night Showing of The Warriors: $10
Any Individual Program Screening: $6

Advanced tickets for all programs and events are on sale now at our website. Remaining tickets and passes are available day of, at the door.

For the full schedule and a complete list of films at the festival, visit www.coneyislandfilmfestival.com

Members of the media seeking press passes should contact us in advance.

About Coney Island USA
Coney Island USA, is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit based in the amusement area of Coney Island whose mission is to defend the honor of lost forms of American popular arts and culture, leading to the renaissance of the historic Coney Island neighborhood. Coney Island USA produces programs including the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, the Mermaid Parade and Ball, Burlesque at the Beach, Creepshow at the Freakshow, the Coney Island Film Society, the Coney Island Film Festival, the Coney Island Museum, Ask the Experts, Coney Island Sideshow School, the Coney Island Tattoo and Motorcycle Festival and the Congress of Curious Peoples. The Coney Island Film Festival is produced in association with indiefilmpage.com.