History & Past Festivals

The Stony Brook Film Festival is produced by the Staller Center for the Arts on the campus of Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY. The festival in 2025 will be the 30th year of this very competitive and highly selective ten-day festival. All films are shown on our 40-foot screen in the Staller Center’s Main Stage Theater, which seats over 1000. Filmmakers who attend may be provided with travel assistance, lodging, and access to all our parties and events.

The festival works very hard to ensure that all films selected get seen by as many people as possible, including film industry insiders, distributors, and other festival programmers. We also work very hard to ensure that each screening has as close to a sold-out house as possible. In recent years, we have had over 10,000 attendees, including passholders and single ticket buyers.

Over the past 30 years, the Stony Brook Film Festival has shown numerous New York, East Coast, US, and World Premieres from over 78 different countries; more than 268 of them have been directed by women.

Attendees have included Alan Alda, Eddie Alfano, Thora Birch, Celine Bonnier, Steve Buscemi, Brian Cox, Dana Delany, Stephen Dorff, Matthew Glave, Karoline Herfurth, Sylvia Hoeks, Brent Huff, Rachel Keller, Nathan Lane, Ralph Macchio, Jena Malone, Mary Stuart Masterson, Tim Blake Nelson, Joe Pantoliano, Christopher Plummer, Lewis Pullman, John Putch, Missi Pyle, Eran Riklis, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Campbell Scott, Leelee Sobieski, Meg Steedle, David Strathairn, Tilda Swinton, Christine Vachon, Valerie Weiss, Ray Wise and many others.

Follow the links below to see information about past festivals.