Edie Falco Q&A to Follow HIFF Screening of 'Judy Berlin'

The Hamptons International Film Festival is continuing their 25 Years: 25 Films series at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Sunday, April 9, with the 1999 HIFF selection Judy Berlin, starring Hamptons regular Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie, The Sopranos). The actress will be in attendance and is holding a special Q&A immediately following the screening of her film.

Directed by Eric Mendelsohn, Judy Berlin tells the story of a curious and eccentric aspiring actress, Judy Berlin, in a town full of likable suburban defeatists who are at odds with her. Berlin, played by Falco, is on the verge of a life change that will affect everyone around her. Meanwhile, her lonely schoolteacher mother, Sue Berlin (Barbara Barrie), is involved in a romantic flirtation with her married school principal, Arthur Gold (Bob Dishy), who has a difficult, high strung wife. As fate would have it, Judy is forming an attraction of her own—with the principal’s introverted and failing filmmaker son, David (Aaron Harnick). All comes to a head during a solar eclipse.

“There’s a mournfulness permeating this impressive feature debut that is anything but sad,” HIFF explains in the 25 Years: 25 Films announcement, adding, “Rather, this is the kind of American independent film that springs fully formed from a probing, painterly, benevolent mind and leaves audiences holding their collective breath in wonderment, as simple lives are revealed to be lives with profound human complexity.

25 Years: 25 Films is a series of (almost) weekly screenings featuring films from each year of the festival between 1993, when it began, and 2016 at various venues around the Hamptons. Some screenings, such as Judy Berlin, include “notable friends of the Festival, filmmakers and special guests” participating in exclusive talk-backs and Q&As after the films conclude. The 25th and final screening in the series will take place during the 25th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival over Columbus Day Weekend, October 5–9.

The next film in the series, on Friday, April 14 will be Embrace of the Serpent, from HIFF 2015, at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.

Judy Berlin starts at 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 9 at Bay Street Theater (1 Bay Street) in Sag Harbor. Edie Falco’s Q&A begins immediately after the 93-minute film ends.

Buy tickets and get the full 25 Years: 25 Films schedule here: hamptonsfilmfest.org/features/25-years-25-films-screening-series/

Watch the trailer below.