About the Long Island Film Festival

Established in 1984 by Christopher Cooke, the Long Island Film Festival is the first annual Island-wide competitive film festival of its kind to stage
public screenings and champion the creative, visionary and storytelling talents of both professional and student filmmakers from both America and
abroad. The handful of host venues that presented the Festival’s screening program and special events for the first edition included the Cinema Arts
Centre, Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, Inter-Media Arts Center and some area colleges.

In addition to the public screenings, prizes and recognition awards, the Festival facilitated the broadcast of selected winners over cable television
stations, and presented selected films/videos to the community at large through an exhibition in conjunction with Long Island’s
Cooperative Extension Library System.

Thus from the very beginning, a concept had been created that set-up a ‘nomadic’ quality to the Festival that would broaden and continue the journey
into the decades to follow. Within a few years, the Festival expanded to venue locations that included Guild Hall/John Drew Theater in East Hampton,
Shelter Island, Vail-Levitt Music Hall in Riverhead and Theater 3 Cinema Village in Port Jefferson.

The decade of the 1990’s inaugurated the collaborative screening partnerships and post-festival award galas with facilities that included multiplex
cinemas, technology centers, mansions and castles, the Staller Center at Stony Brook University, nightclubs and theaters in Manhattan, Northport
Theater and the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center.

The 21st Century has ushered in new locations that include venues in Port Washington, Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts, Glen Cove,
Queens, Brooklyn and special screenings in Los Angeles. The Long Island Film Festival is not anchored to any one particular venue, movie house
or specific town. The entire geographic region, from the sandy bluffs of Montauk to the banks of the Hudson River, from the Sound on the North
Shore to the Ocean on the South Shore, is home to the Long Island Film Festival. Any village, town or city, on or off Long Island, can be a host
location for the shared culture of LIFF screenings, receptions and special

Photo by Jerry King Musser

Christopher Cooke, Artistic and Founding Director

Christopher Cooke established the Long Island Film Festival in 1984 while serving as the Director of the Suffolk County Film & Television
Commission and Office of Cultural Affairs. In 1992, Cooke founded the Long Island Film and Television Foundation and Long Island’s first
filmmaker cooperative, The Filmmakers Network. He also published and edited SNEAK PREVIEW, a quarterly journal that covered the
filmmaking scene on Long Island. Previously, during his lengthy career as an actor, he appeared in scores of independent films including 'indie'
classics such as Hal Hartley's THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH, TRUST, and SIMPLE MEN, Matthew Harrison's RYTHMN THIEF
(Grand Jury Prize-Sundance), Paul and Menno Denoojer's EXIT (Netherlands), Scott Saunders' THE HEADHUNTER'S SISTER, animator
Bill Plimpton's I MARRIED A SRANGE PERSON, and Dave Campfield's thriller-noir DARK CHAMBER. On television he appeared in
Dreamworks' SPIN CITY (with Michael J. Fox), ABC's ALL MY CHILDREN (with Susan Lucci), SARDINES (with Peter Boyle),
and MURDERED INNOCENCE (with Gary Burgoff-Radar in M.A.S.H), and Dan Cohn's EYES BEYOND SEEING (with Keith Hamilton Cobb).
Mr. Cooke acted as producer and on-camera host for the PBS series "OFF-HOLLYWOOD" and Cablevision's "CINEMA" and "Metro/Indie Films". He
produced "THE POE SERIES" for Irish Television as well as "AN EVENING WITH AMBROSE BIERCE" and Gogol's "DIARY OF A
MADMAN". He has served as an adjudicator at numerous film festival including most recently "Digi Fest" based in Florence, Italy.

Thomas Santorelli, Vice President and Treasurer

Thomas Santorelli is an award winning filmmaker, historian of early American cinema, archivist and composer.