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Sayville native and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” star Melissa Joan Hart, along with her mother, producer Paula Hart, will return to their hometown this summer to receive the inaugural Vanguard Legacy Award during the first-ever Sayville International Film Festival.
The four-day festival, scheduled for Aug. 13-16, will feature film screenings at Sayville Theater, industry panels, filmmaker networking events and an awards gala, with organizers hoping to establish Sayville as a destination for independent filmmaking.
Founded by award-winning filmmaker and fellow Sayville native Maria Capp, the nonprofit festival is designed to bridge the Hollywood relationships Capp has built throughout her career with her hometown, giving aspiring filmmakers access to the people and resources needed to build careers in the film industry.
“Paula and Melissa have shown audiences worldwide what it looks like to live the dream and master the reality of this vocation,” Capp said. “Their journey, a Long Island mother and daughter breaking into the industry to build a global, multi-generational brand, is the perfect alchemy of art, persistence and elite business acumen.”
Renowned for her starring role in “Sabrina” from 1996 to 2003, Melissa Joan Hart has appeared in dozens of television movies, many of them through Hartbreak Films, the production company she runs with her mother.
Most of the upcoming film festival events will be held at the Sayville Theater, whose resurgence in recent years has helped restore it as one of downtown Sayville’s cultural anchors. The Railroad Avenue theater closed for nearly two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, reopening in late 2021 before new ownership in 2023 renovated the building and expanded programming.
The festival opens Aug. 13 with a red carpet event, opening-night film screenings and a filmmaker mixer. Two full days of screenings will follow, along with filmmaker question-and-answer sessions, industry discussions, networking events and a pitch competition designed to connect independent filmmakers with working professionals.
Industry Day on Aug. 15 will feature sessions on film packaging and distribution, talent representation, directing, pitching projects and career development. Among the featured guests are casting directors Liz Lewis and Angela Mickey of Liz Lewis Casting Partners, Weekly World News Studios CEO Greg D’Alessandro, Citizen Skull CEO Mark Myers and casting director and producer Paul Sinacore.
Tickets are on sale here.
“I’m beyond excited to be participating at SIFF in August,” Myers said. “I look forward to meeting diverse, emerging filmmakers as well as old pros in this expertly curated event.”
Sinacore, who will sponsor a professional table read featuring SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity performers, said the festival offers filmmakers an opportunity to make meaningful industry connections.
“Sayville is building something special — a community-driven, industry-connected festival where filmmakers, actors, representatives and audiences can come together in a meaningful way,” he said.
The festival concludes Aug. 16 with a professional table read at the Sayville Movie Theater before moving to the CM Performing Arts Center in Oakdale for a nominated filmmakers brunch and the Closing Awards Gala.
“We are incredibly excited and honored to host the closing ceremony for the inaugural Sayville Film Festival,” said Marc Hollid-Ausset, president and CEO of CM Performing Arts Center. “Supporting local artists, storytellers and community-driven creative efforts has always been deeply important to us, and this festival represents a wonderful celebration of the talent and passion that exists right here on Long Island.”
Organizers said the festival also will award more than $25,000 in industry prizes and filmmaking software from sponsors that include AVID, Entertainment Partners and Celtx to help emerging filmmakers continue developing their careers.
Top: Sayville Theater (Brian Harmon photo) and Melissa Joan Hart arrives at the premiere of “How to Train Your Dragon” on Saturday, June 7, 2025, at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. (Photo by Andrew Park/Invision/AP).
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