BAM blog: BAMcinemaFest Opening Night

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

BAMcinemaFest Opening Night

BAMcinematek Program Director Florence Almozini, BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins, filmmaker Mike Birbiglia,co-writer Ira Glass and Wall Street Journal Editor Christopher Farley (Photo: Elena Olivo)

Wednesday night we celebrated the launch of BAMcinemaFest 2012 with a BAM-wide party and screening of comedian Mike Birbiglia’s film Sleepwalk with Me. The film’s cast and crew celebrated with movie-goers late into the night at one of the season’s wildest parties!

For more on this exciting event click ahead and to see a full Event Album click here.

The night began with an exclusive pre-screening reception for the festival sponsor, Wall Street Journal, BAM Movie Moguls & Generation Advance members, and the entire creative team of Sleepwalk With Me in the gorgeous Lepercq Space. Guests were then led to the Howard Gilman Opera House where over 1,500 audience members enjoyed complimentary popcorn for the screening of Sleepwalk With Me.

The screening portion concluded with a fun surprise as co-writer Ira Glass (and beloved This American Life host) used the momentous occasion to celebrate Mike Birbiglia’s birthday (occurring that same day) and present him with a cake in the likeness of a pizza, Mike’s favorite food.

Following the screening, the over 1,500 moviegoers were welcomed into the lobby for the after party, which took over both the Dorothy W. Levitt Lobby and Lepercq Space. Guests munched on a variety of tasty snacks from the hot dog stand, pretzel and pizza tables and ice cream sandwich cart, served by Great Performances. Complimentary beer was donated by Brooklyn Brewery and soda was generously provided by GuS- Grown up Soda, which guests enjoyed on it’s own as well as configured into cocktails. DJ Duane Harriott kept the music going and the people dancing.

BAMcinemafest runs until June 30 and features over 20 New York premieres from Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, and SXSW film festivals. To find out more and get tickets go here.