We open on the exterior of a house at night, a man prepares a baby’s bottle. He sees the silhouettes of two people standing ominously outside. He alerts his wife, “They’re back.” Inside we see the two figures now stand near the front door. One knocks and the man quickly moves into the living room to his wife and newborn and asks, “Why won’t they leave us alone?” One of the eerie figures lurks in the window behind them. The man approaches a window, slowly pulls back the curtain and is startled by the two figures. His wife joins him and announces, “They just want to see the baby. Hi Grandma. Hi Grandpa.” It’s just the grandparents who came over for a safe behind the glass visit of their grandchild. Title. “If last year was a film, it would be playing at the Brooklyn Film Festival.” Logo, “Brooklyn Film Festival.”

The Brooklyn Film Festival is an international independent film festival in its 24th year, that showcases the unique voices and original stories of filmmakers from across the world, working in fiction, documentary, experiment and animation. Last year's festival was screened completely online and had a global audience of 39,000 viewers from 134 countries.

As we move in 2021 and reflect on a year that was stranger than fiction, with the most unimaginable script, it felt as if we were living in a dystopian sci-fi or psychological horror film. This was not fantasy; it was real life.

Using the established visual and audio language of these genres, we re-told stories from our collective experience of living through COVID, while inviting this year's audience to the festival by letting them know, If Last Year Was a Film, It Would Be Playing at the Brooklyn Film Festival.