Long Island International Film Expo Announces Award Winners at Closing Event

The 22nd Anniversary of the Long Island International Film Expo (LIIFE) took place between July 12th - 18th, and included some of the best new short and feature-length independent movies anywhere, made by filmmakers from around the world - with a strong contingent of local Long Islanders showcased as well - all shown at the historic Bellmore Movies (222 Pettit Avenue, Bellmore, NY 11710)

Hosted by the hilarious Kevin Brown from 30 Rock, honorees accepting awards for this year included Abigail Hawk of BLUE BLOODS (Creative Achievement Award), Director John A. Gallagher (LIIFETime Career Achievement Award) and Carol Silva of News 12 (Excellence in Newscasting Award). Local Reggaeton stars SAMMI RAE & LOS VEGAS performed to kick off the night and JACKIE "THE JOKE MAN" MARTLING, SAL RENDINO, GERALDINE LEER, LUKAS HASSEL and ROBERT CLOHESSEY were all in attendance. Other notable personalities who stopped by during the festival included RALPH MACCHIO, EDDIE MCGEE and CHRIS ROACH.

Here is the full list of your 2019 Winners:

Best Actor

Paul Dewdney - Mea Culpa

Best Actress

Jamie Ragusa - The Rest of My Life

Best Supporting Actor

Anthony Robert Grasso - Wink

Best Supporting Actress

Cherie Mendez - Rubber Room

Best Original Score

Benedikt Brydern - In the House of Paper Flowers

Best Original Song

Vapor (sung by Natsuko Nisshoku) - Terrolun and Lunlun

Best Editing

Evan Metzold- My Dinner With Schwartzey

Best Cinematography

Alexa Wolf - My Dinner With Schwartzey

Best Art Design

May Daives - Mea Culpa

LIIFE 2019 Screenwriting Competition Winner

Zack Smith - In Too Deep

Alan Fortunoff Humanitarian Film Award

My Body Is Not A Weapon

Long Island International Film Expo 2019 Additional Nominees and Winners

(Winners Are Bolded)

Best Documentary

Isle of Capri

Stories of Strength and Hope

My Body is Not a Weapon

To Make a Long Story Short

Shaholly

They Stole A House

Best Short Film

It Lives in the Closet

The $500 Dress

Coffee and a Donut

Follow

Sombra City

Cosmic Light

The Loyalist

The Gift of the Red Fern

Chemistry Read

The Badge

Bae

Best Foreign Film

One More Round

Back Stage

Touch Me

Terrolun and LunLun

Toke is Cheap

Hunting Rabbits

Best Webisode/Pilot/New Media/TV

Eddie's

That Last Sound

Rubber Room

F.A.M.

Hot "N" Nerdy

Impact

Best Music Video

Lover and a Giver

Someday

Who I Am

Best Long Island Film

Reverie

Father

Teen Night

Into the Dark

Lara

Mea Culpa

Passage of Time

Best Animation

Bristled

Spice Frontier

Never Ending Stream of Consciousness

Two Balloons - Best Animation - Stop Motion

Lost Steps

In the House of Paper Flowers - Best Animation

Best Trailer

The Birth of Deceit

Effigy, Poison and the City

Indestructible: Baseball on the Isthmus

Best Student Film

Kid, The Moon

Deep Dive

Reservation for Two

Love Sick

In My Eyes

Midnight Regulations

Best Horror

Follow

Karen

The Driving Dead

Mirror, Mirror: Tale of Blood

It Lives in the Closet

I Waited for You

Theatre of Terror

Best Feature Film

Family Obligations

Fairytale

Funny You Never Knew

My Amish World

Safe Spaces

Best Story

How Do You Type a Broken Heart

Terrolum & Lunlun

Kid, The Moon

Into the Dark

Coffee and a Donut

Hunting Rabbits

The Gift of the Red Fern

Best Director

The Rest of My Life

Be There Soon

The Loyalist

Back Stage

Sombra City

Safe Spaces

Audience Award

Interview with the Hitman

Judges' Awards

Jury Award for Best Feature - Fairytale

Jury Award for Best Short - Mea Culpa

For over 20 years, LIIFE has been the premiere filmmaker community on Long Island; this year showing over 180 short and feature-length films of every genre. Currently sponsored by Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, the County of Nassau, Gold Coast Studios, the Long Island Film/TV Foundation (LIFTF), The Long Island Railroad and Hamptons TV; each year the expo offers networking opportunities, a 350 seat historic theater, press and media opportunities, a convenient filmmakers lounge, and informative discussion panels with topics ranging from distribution to scriptwriting, to legal music, and a filmmaker panel/breakfast.

Opening the Long Island International Film Expo this year was the Young Filmmakers Showcase. LIIFE proudly showcases films from students of the Long Island High School of the Arts, Barry Tech, and Long Beach High School, as well as various young independent filmmakers, the youngest being 15 years old. This is the 3rd consecutive year LIIFE has held the YFS, and it is now one of the many highlights of the film expo.

Most of the panels at this year's Long Island International Film Expo (except for the Breakfast panel) were free and included: "From Script to Screen - How to create, finance, and distribute independent content in the digital age," "How to Market Yourself in the Acting Biz," "How to get an agent," "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of Independent Filmmaking- Breakfast Panel," "The Write Stuff' Panel on Scriptwriting," and our widely popular, "Directors' Audition Panel."

Some of this year's films included Long Island premieres such as Daniel Schechter's, Safe Spaces starring Justin Long (New Girl), Fran Drescher (The Nanny), Richard Schiff (The Good Doctor), Kate Berlant (Ghosted) and Becky Ann Baker (The Blacklist), Eddie McGee's (formerly of Commack) pilot, Eddie's, starring Eddie McGee and George Wendt (Cheers), Sal Del Giudice's, To Make a Long Story Short, Bellport's Andrew Henriques's, The $500 Dress, Rockville Centre's Kenneth R. Frank's, Family Obligations, Plainview's Justin Portaros, Kid, The Moon, St. James', William LiPera's, The Rest of My Life, Hicksville's Tom Cassese's, Zoul, West Babylon's James' Hardy's, Be There Soon, Glen Cove's Christian Plingo's, Sometimes, We Never Really Change and East Meadow's Max Hechtman's Stories of Strength and Hope: Preventing Youth Suicide.

New York premieres included Oceanside's Eli Hershko's, Fairytale, Oceanside's Jacki Xerri's Teen Night and Ruckzuck,, Riverhead's David Chai's, Pass the Buck and Jimmy Bie's, The Badge.

World premieres included Shirley's Fred Carpenter's, Interview with the Hitman (starring Kevin Brown), Centerport's, Robert M. Sansivero's, The Loyalist, Lindenhurst's Gregg A. Dacosta's, The Last Sound, and Hempstead's Rob Graydon's, Father.

Other LIIFE films included such notables as James Dreyfus (Notting Hill), Ben Wilbond (Ghosts), Tim DeKay (American Crime), Sean Young (Blade Runner), Bianca Marroquin (Fosse/Verdon), Evan Alex (Us), Navid Negahban (Legion), Fred Willard (Modern Family), Kevin Pollak (The Marvelous Ms. Maisel), Bob Newhart (The Bob Newhart Show), Lily Tomlin (Grace and Frankie), Carl Reiner (The Dick Van Dyke Show),

Carol Channing (The Love Boat), Mitzi Gaynor (South Pacific), Vincent D'Onofrio (Daredevil), Betsy Baker (Sharp Objects), Norman Lear (One Day at a Time), Tom Smothers (The Informant!) and Kay Ballard (The Mothers-in-Law).

The 23rd Annual LIIFE is scheduled for July 2020.

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