The Arrival Opens Big Apple Film Festival with NYC Premiere

The Arrival Premieres at The Big Apple Film Festival on opening night at Cinema Village

Los Angeles, CA (Oct. 31, 2023). Stonestreet Studios and Jamaad Pictures are having their NYC premiere of their latest feature film. The Arrival is at The Big Apple Film Festival on its opening night. Which opens on Friday, November 3 at 7:30pm at Cinema Village. Click here to purchase tickets to the screening. Which is paired with shorts The Shepherd, featuring John Travolta & Ben Radcliffe. And I Am What You Imagine, written and directed by Matthew Modine.

The Arrival had its world premiere at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society Women in Film Festival. It was a semi finalist in the Austin International Art Festival. And an award winner at the Montreal Independent Film Festival. The Arrival brings an array of patrons seeking to unravel the truth. And uncover the mystery behind their origins, relationships, and boundaries crossed. Only to deeply challenge who they are and might become.

“We all need an ‘arrival’ somewhere, somehow, away from something, or leading into something new. This film allowed its characters to grapple with that,” says director, Alyssa Rallo Bennett. “I hope the audience will enjoy the different journeys, especially the two who make it to the end. Even on a very modest Covid-19 indie budget. Directing this film was like conducting an orchestra. One of stunningly different instruments in front of and behind the camera, and I loved every minute of it!”

Watch the Trailer for The Arrival from Stonestrees Studios and Jamaad Pictures

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The Arrival was directed by Alyssa Rallo Bennett, written by Gary O. Bennett, and features performances from Pooya Mohseni, Peter Bradbury, Nick Hamparyan, Daniela Urdaneta, Ines Ladha, Alice Heber Martins, Viv Helvajian, Nik Elrifi, and Deniz Bulat with cinematography by Michael Munari, editing by Amelia Annen, and music by Dan Rufolo and Adam Kromelow.

Alyssa Rallo Bennett (Director, Producer) directed and co-wrote the award-winning feature film The Pack, starring Lucie Arnaz, Elisabeth Moss, and Zach Galligan, which was accepted into the Tribeca Film Festival and featured in over a dozen others. Her film ReRUN, starring Christopher Lloyd, Teo Rapp-Olson, and Sydney Farley et al, premiered closing night of the Woodstock Film Festival and had its NYC premiere at Big Apple Film Festival. Both films are now streaming on Amazon Prime, Tubi, and AppleTV.

Alongside her partner, Gary Bennett, Alyssa developed and acted in Rain Without Thunder, starring Jeff Daniels, Linda Hunt, Steve Zahn, Ming Na Wen. The film was featured in over a dozen major international film festivals and is also now available on Amazon Prime. Consequently, she directed the pilots Paradise By The Dashboard Light (Best Pilot at Hoboken Film Festival), featuring Francesca Reale and Sea Shimooka, and Videola, featuring Gil Zabarsky, Janet Zarish and Malcom Mills.

Both are streaming on Amazon Prime. Her two latest films, Compulsion, starring Saori Goda, Mizz, and Sebastian Mora, and Crowbar, starring Rosalyn Coleman and Jaylen Axel, just world premiered at the Soho Independent Film Festival. Crowbar recently has its West Coast premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival. Alyssa is the co-founder of Stonestreet Studios.

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Gary O. Bennett (Writer, Producer) is a writer/director/producer and co-founder of Stonestreet Studios. He wrote and directed Rain Without Thunder, a feature film starring Jeff Daniels, Betty Buckley, Linda Hunt and Steve Zahn. The film was released nationally by Orion Classics after premiering at the San Francisco Film Festival and was also featured in the NY Human Rights Watch Film Festival and The Berlin International Film Festival. 

He wrote the screenplay ReRUN, featuring Christopher Lloyd, and won awards nationwide including Best Screenplay at the Los Angeles Film Awards. The film premiered closing night of the Woodstock Film Festival, and also screened at the Northeast Film Festival. The film is now available on Amazon Prime, Roku, et al. His scripted crime feature, Who Killed Juliet Matlin? won Big Apple Film Festival’s Screenplay Competition. Gary more recently produced screenplay Compulsion premiered at the 2023 Soho International Film Festival.

His films Artless, which he also directed, and Madness of Art are currently on the festival circuit with wins at Niagara Falls International Short Festival, Austin International Art Festival, Hudson Valley Film Fest, Manhattan Film Festival and New York Cinefest. Gary has written many festival shorts and Stonestreet’s branded MicroMovies, now streaming on ShortsTV and StonestreetTV.

His latest play, Colorado, was presented in a staged reading at Playwrights Horizons. Gary holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Science in Business from SUNY at Buffalo, and a Law Degree and a Master of Social Welfare Degree from the University of California at Berkeley. 

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Stonestreet Studios (Production Company) is celebrating 32 years as a New York City based fully operative, multi-purpose, visual motion picture production studio. Their work ranges from award-winning socially speculative feature films like ReRUN (Christopher Lloyd), Rain Without Thunder (Jeff Daniels, Linda Hunt, Steve Zahn) and The Pack (Luci Arnaz, Elizabeth Moss), to pilots, web series and MicroMovies featured in dozens of international festivals like Tribeca Film Festival, Newport Beach, Soho International Film Festival, Sedona, Toronto Independent Film Festival and many more.

Stonestreet has become known as an incubator of socially conscious, character driven and culturally provocative content and talent via its residency program for NYU Tisch Drama. It has developed talent including Miles Teller (Whiplash, Divergent), Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, House of Cards), Camila Mendes (Riverdale), Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick), Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart), Xosha Roquemore (The Mindy Project), Francesca Reale (Stranger Things), Ximena Lamadrid (Bardo), Idina Menzel (Frozen), Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby, Bottoms), Nik Walker (Hamilton) and more.

Jaamad Pictures (Production Company) is an independent production company that produces dramatic films, often darkly humorous and psychologically thrilling, for screen and stage by Alyssa Rallo Bennett and Gary O. Bennett.

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