August 4th, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EMPIRE STATE FILM FESTIVAL LAUNCHES AT CINEMAPOLIS
CONTACT: digitalguerrillacinema@gmail.com
Empire State Film Festival will screen films
produced in New York State.
Ithaca, New York – Empire State Film Festival, which will exclusively screen films produced in New York State, launches at Cinemapolis in Ithaca on Friday, October 23rd and runs through Sunday, October 25th. ESFF will screen narrative shorts and features of all genres, with special categories for Ithaca filmmakers and students. An awards presentation will be held at TreeHouse Studio & Lounge on Cayuga Street at the conclusion of programming.
Festival director Gregory Lamberson will conduct a workshop, “How to Produce a Feature Film,” at Tompkins County Public Library, 101 E Green Street in Ithaca, from 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm on Thursday, October 22nd, the evening before the festival, with a meet-and-greet scheduled at 5:30 pm. The seminar is free to public and is sponsored by the library.
Lamberson is a member of the Producers Guild of America, with four decades of experience as an independent filmmaker. He has produced and directed 10 feature films of his own; worked in different capacities on many other films; authored 15 published books, including Cheap Scares: Low Budget Horror Filmmakers Share Their Secrets; taught screenwriting at University of Buffalo; and has run Amazing Fantasy Fest in Buffalo for 16 years.
Tamar Lamberson, also a film producer, is Empire State Film Festival’s organizer. She and her daughter Kaelin, a junior at Cornell University, run Valkyrie International Film Festival, also in Buffalo, showcasing films directed by women. Kaelin will assist her parents in this new Ithaca venture.
“I’ve lived in New York State my whole life and have been thinking about a festival just for films produced here for a while now,” says Gregory. “I originally thought we’ hold it in Buffalo like our other festivals, but my wife and I visit our daughter in Ithaca so often that the idea of holding it here appealed to us. Once we checked out the Cinemapolis there was no other consideration.”
Filmmakers can submit their work for screening consideration via the film festival submission platform FilmFreeway until September 6th: https://filmfreeway.com/Empirestatefilmfestival .
Gregory is seeking financial sponsors for the event. “We’re going to grow this festival into a destination festival that will attract filmmakers from across the state, and we want sponsors who will grow with us. New York City is a lot closer to Ithaca than it is to Buffalo, with buses running every hour. Visiting filmmakers need places to stay, places to eat, places to drink, and will love the local scenery. A successful festival can benefit the whole community.”
Prospective sponsors can visit www.empirestatefilmfest.com for more information or contact digitalguerrillacinema@gmail.com .
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