This announcement for the Urbanite Arts & Film Festival provides details about the festival's third annual event to be held at the Hudson Valley MOCA Museum in Peekskill, NY on August 1-3, 2025. The festival aims to showcase new voices, particularly focusing on young women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and neurodiverse communities, providing a platform for diverse young artists to exhibit their art across various disciplines.
The festival will feature works by creators aged 13 to 26 in categories such as short film, photography, music videos, short screenplay writing, and spoken word poetry. An interesting requirement is that we allow entries in the photography, music video, short film, screenplays and spoken word poetry categories to be created using a smartphone or tablet.
Alex A.Torres, the President and Founder of the Urbanite Arts & Film Festival, highlights the capabilities of smartphones in capturing high-quality images and videos, emphasizing their role as an equalizing tool that enables artists to focus on their creative potential.
Hudson Valley MOCA(Museum of Contemporary Art) and Studio Theater in Exile are located inPeekskill, New York, and serves as a vibrant hub for contemporary art in theHudson Valley region. The museum showcases a diverse range of contemporary artwork, including exhibitions and installations. Studio Theater in Exile, housed in HVMOCA’s Black Box develops original scripts, collaborates with performance and literary artists in the community to develop new works and educational programs that engage and inspire.
Hudson Valley MOCA andStudio Theater in Exile are committed to fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of contemporary art and performance while supporting emerging and established theater artists, playwrights, choreographers, and musicians Both in collaboration have created a space for innovative and thought-provoking artistic expressions that reflect the cultural and social landscape of our time.
HudsonValley MOCA was founded by Livia and Marc Straus, well regarded collectors.Marc Straus is the owner of Marc Straus Gallery in NYC. Studio Theater in Exile was founded in 2005 by Mara Mills and Jeremy Gratt. HVMOCA and STIE seek to serve two communities: the artist community and the public community. They are committed to working with underrepresented voices, both in the arts and theater.
In honor of celebrating young filmmakers and artists we will have three artists at the opening night reception of the third annual Urbanite Arts & Film Festival. Featuring live music by Alexandra Haberman, a high school student at a local Westchester County High School as well as a poetry performance from headline performance from Philadelphia-based spoken word artist Ciara Chantelle. In addition to these performers we will have Fiona Makris who is a local NYC poet from the Poetry Society of NY. She will be creating original works for guests with her antique typewriter.
For inquiries, please reach out to info@urbanitefest.org.
The Urbanite Arts and Film Festival is a vibrant showcase of smartphone photography, filmmaking, poetry, screenplay writing, and music videos. Now in our fourth year, we will allow submissions with any camera form as well as smartphone options.
To learn more about The Urbanite Arts and Film Festival, please click this link: www.urbanitefest.org
