Catalina Film Festival Honors Academy Award-Winner Mira Sorvino

The five-day Catalina Film Festival (CFF) celebrates its 9th annual festival in coastal sister cities with iconic and historic film venues. The continued partnership with Long Beach connects the island festival's experience to the mainland Sept. 25-29, 2019, bookending CFF with "launch" and "landing" premieres, parties and panels Wednesday-Thursday and Sunday in Long Beach. Catalina Island will play host to CFF Friday and Saturday, with Festival-chartered cruises to and from the Queen Mary Terminal daily.

Just a few highlights include:

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 25－OPENING NIGHT ABOARD THE QUEEN MARY with feature film comedy, Babysplitters. Written and directed by Sam Friedlander, staring Emily Chang (The Vampire Diaries), Danny Pudi (Community), Eddie Alfano (Shameless), Mark Feuerstein (What Women Want). Director Sam Friedlander and Eddie Alfano confirmed to attend.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 26－THRILLER THURSDAY: WORLD PREMIERE OF DARK HARBOR STARRING JOEL MCHALE & JESSICA SIPOS & THE TALK, DIRECTED BY KEVIN ALEJANDRO. Thriller Thursday takes over the Queen Mary with World Premiere of Dark Harbor, starring Joel McHale (Community, The Soup) and Jessica Sipos (Chesapeake Shores, Wynonna Earp). Cast confirmed to attend: Jessica Sipos, Xander Berkeley, Meagen Fay, Connor Trineer, Jillian Armenante, and more. Plus, The Talk,directed by Kevin Alejandro (confirmed to attend), best known for his role on Netflix's Lucifer.

Thriller Thursday includes the Wes Craven Horror Block at 6 p.m. - the only festival award sanctioned by the king of horror. Catalina Film Fest's Film & New Media Summit also kicks off on the Queen Mary with a Film Finance panel (10 a.m.) and Making your First Feature Film (12:30 p.m.), plus a Spotlight Interview at 2:30 p.m. with actress Lesley Ann Warren moderated by film critic Jim Hemphill.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY (SEPT. 27-28): CATALINA TRIBUTE TO ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS MIRA SORVINO. The Festival heads to Catalina Island for two full days of premieres, panels and events. Daily roundtrip cruises are available from Long Beach. Island action includes:

Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite, Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion) will be honored with the Avalon Award, plus the World Premiere of Badland, starring Sorvino, Kevin Makely (Big Legend) also confirmed to attend, Bruce Dern (The Hateful Eight), and Trace Adkins (I Can Only Imagine), Sept. 28.

Lion's Den Pitch Panel. Stacked with prospective film investors, this pitch-fest matched accredited investors with filmmakers seeking funding for their projects on Friday.

NEW THIS YEAR: CFF's new streaming channel features 67 official selections in competition for the 2019 Film Festival, allowing festival channel passholders to watch films in competition and vote for their favorites.

Catalina Film Festival is an annual celebration of film in Southern California with coastal screenings and events in Long Beach and on Hollywood's. Past CFF honorees include Nicolas Cage, Jon Favreau, Stan Lee, Kevin Hart, William H. Macy, Andy Garcia, Sharon Stone, Emmy Rossum, Richard Dreyfuss, and more. 2019 sponsors include The Cafaro Group, Building Image Group (BIG), Bogart Spirits, REED'S INC, REZ - Recovery Brands, BANDERO Tequila, Catalina Express, Toyon Grill, Bezalel, ABK BEER, Horseshoe Bend Vineyards, Sprint.

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