Museum of the Moving Image (Photo courtesy of MOMI)
Feb. 26, 2020 By Allie Griffin
A science fiction film festival celebrating the late novelist Philip K. Dick is coming to Astoria’s Museum of the Moving Image next week.
The eighth annual Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival will be held at the museum, located at 36-01 35th Ave., from Wednesday, March 4 through Sunday, March 8.
The festival includes several film screenings and premieres, panel discussions, virtual reality demonstrations and the launch of a new screenplay competition.
It kicks off next Wednesday with the U.S. premiere of the feature film “Imperial Blue,” directed by Dan Moss and produced by David Cecil and Semulema Daniel Katenda. A discussion of the film, which follows a drug smuggler on the quest to locate a sacred African herb that gives the power of prophecy, with the filmmakers will follow the screening.
The festival concludes on the following Sunday with a screening and panel discussion of Erin Berry’s Majic, which follows the discovery of a secret U.S. spy agency founded after the 1947 UFO incident in Roswell.
The full lineup of the film screening and events is listed on the festival website, where tickets are also sold.
The event will be screened exclusively in Queens this year.
“There is a strong cultural scene and appreciation for science fiction here,” said Daniel Abella, the founder and director of the festival. “Everyone has been impacted by the advantages and disadvantages of this new world we live in and that knowledge strengthens the overall experience of the festival.”
New this year, the screenplay competition will pick winners for Best Sci-Fi, Best Sci-Fi Prototyping and Best Supernatural screenplays. The winners will be announced on the last day of the film festival.
“The screenplay is the beating heart of a film,” said Abella, who developed the category to help audiences value films beyond their visual aspects onscreen. “Our plan is to emphasize the importance and necessity of good storytelling.”
