Stony Brook Film Festival, now in its 26th year, kicks off on Thursday, July 22 with the world premiere of The 5th Man, a documentary on Paul Limmer, a former track coach at Bellmore’s Mepham High School. During his 50-year career there, Limmer racked up hundreds of wins, though director Trey Nelson focuses on the story of all the other kids – the ones who never felt “seen” – until Paul Limmer came into their lives.

The film will be preceded by Feeling Through, an Oscar-nominated short featuring deaf-blind actor Robert Tarango of Selden.

Produced by Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University, the Festival running Thursday, July 22 through Saturday, July 31, pairs short films with a selection of features.

In addition to the live in-person Festival, the Stony Brook Film Festival will be screening the Festival virtually following the Live in-person Festival. This Virtual Festival will be available on IndieFlix Festivals August 5-30, and it will be an encore screening of the films shown live at Staller Center.

Other highlights

Rachel Keller (of Legion, Fargo, Dirty John, and Tokyo Vice) is planning to attend for her film The Following Year

The feature Anchorage was shot chronologically over five days in the California High Desert with a cast and crew of ten people shoved into a few vehicles. This darkly comic, intense and even frightening film stars director Scott Monahan and screenwriter Dakota Loesch as low-level, opioid-addicted brothers who plan to drive their stash from Florida to Alaska and sell it for a huge profit.

Ruby Barker, Marina Thompson in Bridgerton starred in How to Stop a Recurring Dream before being cast for her role in Bridgerton.

The entire short film Noisy was filmed on a single subway train ride to Coney Island, with the two actors sitting among regular passengers who ignored them as the film crew sat at the front of the car, hanging on through the lurching stops and starts of the train.