Overview Festival of Cinema NYC is a ten-day independent film festival in Forest Hills, Queens, screening more than 100 features, shorts, music videos and web series picked from over 400 submissions worldwide at the UA Midway, a historic movie house on Queens Boulevard. Paid screenings run in curated blocks mixing features and shorts; seminars, workshops, guest presentations and extra screenings at the Queens Library at Forest Hills, Queens Center Mall and other local venues are free. The nonprofit Festival of Cinema, Inc. has held it every August since 2017, and the 2026 edition was its tenth. On site More than 200 filmmakers, directors, jurors and talent and 50-plus industry guests come for the ten days. Around the screenings run panels, industry presentations, networking events, red carpet premieres and an awards ceremony with a dinner. Each year a special guest filmmaker screens a film and sits for an hour-long moderated conversation. Sponsors, presenters and outside nonprofits get the stage to present their business or cause. Street flags along Queens Boulevard and Austin Street mark the festival in the neighborhood, and a festival map points audiences to local businesses within a mile of the Midway. Audience The festival is set inside Community Board 6, which covers Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens and Glendale, and books partners that bring groups from beyond it. In 2025 Forestdale, a Forest Hills foster care agency, joined the Kids in the Spotlight red carpet, and Theaters Unsilenced has brought deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences. More than 30 local volunteers aged 13 and up help run it. Talent and Influencers Special guests have included Oscar-nominated director Matthew Heineman, who presented his documentary The First Wave with Dr. Nathalie Douge; Queens-born writer and director Dito Montiel, in conversation with festival publicist John Wildman after A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints; and Chris Kentis, the Sundance breakout behind Open Water. Partner organizations have included the Asian American Film Lab, Ghetto Film School, ArteEast and the Make a Film Foundation. Brand presence Sponsor levels take film-credit names, from Bit Part up to Producing and Presenting. At the top a sponsor's commercial of up to two minutes plays before every screening, a full-screen static ad rotates through the program, and the festival sends a dedicated email to its newsletter list; the Producing sponsor presents the awards dinner. Every level includes sampling or literature at all venues. Smaller buys cover trailer spots, walk-in screen ads, a presented screening and after-party, street banners and festival lanyards.