Lights! Camera! Lawn Chairs!

This festival is completely free to the public, and will feature 46 short films from around the globe as well as some by local filmmakers. Shorts from Italy, Spain, Japan, Rwanda, India, Ireland, England, Australia and across the US will compete in 12 categories. (See www.bspafilm.com for complete schedule.)

Selected films and notable highlights include:

• Porque Hay Cosas Que Nunca Se Olividan by Lucas Figueroa set in 1950's Naples, Italy which has won awards in over 100 festivals to date.

• Returning to the Ballston Spa Film Festival is director Doug Karr. In 2008 his film took the BSFF best actor award. His new entry Ten For Grandpa was a selection in the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

• Watergate figure and Talk Radio host G. Gordon Liddy will be onscreen at this year's festival as an awkward amateur actor trying to make his move in Silvana Jakick's comedy, The Rehearsal.

• A few more celebrities will be seen in Boyz Up, directed by Max Kugar, a risque send up of Boy Band-mania featuring Ray Liotta and Henry Rollins in a story of pop idolatry gone too far.

• Gone Fishing is Chris Jones' charming big fish tale; it has won over two dozen awards and was short listed for the 2008 Oscars. The cast includes Devon Murray from the Harry Potter films.

• The festival has added a third night (Thursday, August 6th)  to present the world premiere of eScape season 2 - a local production with a cast and crew of students ages 5-16.

Festival organizer Daniel DeFabio observes: "I think in our first year a lot of people weren't sure what to expect in terms of the scope of the event or the quality and diversity of the films. Because we emphasize local and student films alongside those of professionals in the field some people may have had ...[the wrong impression]. But just because it's held in a small town doesn't mean its small time. We have films from 10 countries this year, and I think we'll see not just larger crowds this year but people coming into the village from farther away. The real goal is to make this a destination event each year."