Hollywood comes to campus with special speakers from the Syracuse International Film Festival

The Syracuse International Film Festival kicks off Wednesday, Oct. 13 when Hollywood comes to Syracuse. And thanks to the efforts of Syracuse University professor and SYRFILMFEST Director Owen Shapiro, many of the stars in town for the festival will also be on the SU campus to speak to classes and meet students. 

On Tuesday, Oct. 12, Cynthia Slavens of Pixar will meet with College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) computer animation students. 

On Wednesday, Oct. 13, famed independent filmmaker/director/producer Robert M. Young (“Battlestar Galactica,” “Human Error”) will join actor Tom Bower (“Appaloosa,” “Crazy Heart”) in speaking to students in the VPA Transmedia program.

On the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 14, Vincent Pastore (“The Sopranos,” “Pizza With Bullets”) and writer Steve Erickson will speak with students from VPA and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Erickson, a novelist and longtime contributor to the Sunday Los Angeles Times Magazine, is also the guest speaker for the SU Library Associates lecture that same day.

At various locations on campus Oct. 13-15, screenwriters Rob Edwards (“Treasure Planet,”  “The Princess and the Frog”) and Robert Knott (“Appaloosa”) will conduct a script-writing workshop for 22 SU students.

On the morning of Friday, Oct. 15, Edward James Olmos (“Stand and Deliver,” “Battlestar Galactica”) will meet with Latino/Latin American students. At 6 p.m. that day, Bower, Young and actor Xander Berkley (“24,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”) will speak in Watson Theater in the Menschel Media Center; a special feature of the event will be a live Skype interview direct from Afghanistan with filmmaker George Gittoes, whose film “Rampage” will be shown that same evening.

Other off-campus events will enable students to meet with and hear festival guests Ed Harris, Javon Jackson, Haim Bouzaglo and Steven Bauer.

For more information on the festival, visit http://www.syrfilmfest.com. Student tickets are available at the door for each screening program for $6.