Local film fans now have an excuse to bust out their best Bogarts, Bacalls and Brandos – or, for the younger set, Bella Swans – for a chance to appear in trailers at the Gold Coast International Film Festival.
The Great Neck Arts Center’s “Starring You!” contest wants cinephiles to submit 15-second videos acting out their favorite movie lines, a compilation of which will be used in trailers and television commercials ahead of this year’s film festival.
Contestants’ best impressions of “Here’s looking at you, kid” or “I am your father” can be submitted via Instagram and Youtube, or the old fashioned way – at in-person auditions being held across the North Shore.
“The tagline for the festival is ‘Everyone’s invited. Again,’” Great Neck Arts Center Executive Director Regina Gil said. “We wanted to make sure that message gets out, and what better way to get people focused on the fact that this film festival is for everyone than to get people engaged in making a film.”
Gil said the center’s marketing team came up with the contest as a way to boost public engagement with the festival and decided to use social media to help attract a younger demographic that may often prefer clubs in Manhattan to cinemas on the Gold Coast.
“We’ve got young people programming for it, we’ve got young people doing marketing and media for it,” Gil said. “It’s actually cool to be here.”
Up to 30 of the submissions will be edited together and shown in theaters, on television and online to promote the festival.
“This way we’ve got all kinds of people who are going to send things in,” Gil said. “We’ll get the ones that are amusing or wonderful – eventually they’re going to be on screen at the festival.”
Contestants are also in the running for four grand prizes, which include all-access passes to the festival and a red-carpet walk with the festival’s filmmakers and stars. Two winners will be chosen by the festival’s jury and two will be picked by voters on Facebook.
Upcoming in-person auditions will take place Aug. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Great Neck Arts Center’s Middle Neck Road headquarters and Aug. 8 at Teddy Roosevelt Park in Oyster Bay, starting at 6:30 p.m.
