Bellmore hosts L.I. Film Expo for 11th year

For the 11th straight year, the Long Island International Film Expo set up shop at the Bellmore Movies on Pettit Avenue, and filmmakers from around the world showed their latest works.

The expo, which is celebrating its 16th year, featured panels, special speakers and film screenings from July 17 to 25. Debra Markowitz, director of the Nassau County Film Office and a festival director, said organizers saw a record number of filmmakers participate this year, with dozens coming to Bellmore from as far as Israel, Greece and the Philippines.

Markowitz said that before the festival called Bellmore home, it was held at the Malverne Cinema and Arts Center, owned by Anne and Henry Stampfel. The organizers decided to move the festival to the Stampfels’ Bellmore theater to accommodate larger audiences.

“We were selling out too many of the screenings,” she said. “The thought was that we needed to move to a bigger theater where we had room to grow.”

Markowitz, a native Merokean and Calhoun High School graduate, said the Bellmore-Merrick community has taken more of an interest in the festival in recent years. She noted that the Bellmore Movies’ location also makes it ideal for travelers coming to the festival, as it’s close to the Bellmore Long Island Rail Road station and the Bedford Avenue business district.

“There really couldn’t be a more perfect location for this,” she said. “This has everything we could possibly need.”

At the festival, Markowitz said, “You have people that just love film, and they don’t want to see the same old thing all the time. It’s a chance to come and see some stuff that’s very, very different.”