The Adirondack Film Society (AFS) has announced a re-brand of their premier film event, the Lake Placid Film Forum (LPFF), and will celebrate its nearly 20-year history with a gala tribute to the AFS-LPFF’s co-founder on October 25th.

The Lake Placid Film Forum has been re-named the Lake Placid Film Festival, and the stated theme of the 2018 film festival is “Diversity.”

The Adirondack Film Society (AFS) launched its signature annual event, the Lake Placid Film Forum, in 2000 with the aim of bringing high-quality independent and other films that are hard to find in public venues in the Adirondack North Country — and the filmmakers who made such movies. The Film Forum attracted first-rank directors and actors such as Martin Scorsese and Steve Buscemi, Fortune 500 corporate sponsors and large, appreciative audiences.

In each successive year since 2014, the festival has presented more films and film-related events (e.g., master classes and panel discussions) and drawn more film-goers than the previous year — essentially doubling the number of screenings and off-screen programs from 2015 to 2017.

For 2018, the organizers have initiated several changes — chief among them, moving the festival dates from early June to late October  — Friday to Sunday, October 26-28; naming a Festival Director, in this case AFS Board Member Gary Smith, a first; and, organizing the selection of films around a theme.

The festival organizers are planning a gala tribute dinner to honor AFS Artistic Director and former New York Daily News film critic Kathleen Carroll on the eve of the 2018 event — Thursday, October 25th.

The gala tribute to will be held at the High Peaks Resort, which is serving as the official headquarters for this year’s Film Festival. Details will be announced soon at the Film Society’s website and at a new website in development that will be devoted to the Lake Placid Film Festival. Festival attendees should note that admission to the tribute will require a separate ticket from the all-session LPFF passes that, for $79, get bearers into all screenings over the three official days (Friday through Sunday) of the festival.

Venues for the festival include the Lake Placid Center for the Arts (LPCA), 17 Algonquin Drive and the historic Palace Theatre on Main Street.

For more information on this year’s Film Festival as well as the special tribute to Kathleen Carroll, contact Fred Balzac, AFS Operations Manager at (518) 523-3456 or adirondackfilmsociety@gmail.com, or click here.

Photo provided by Adirondack Film Society.