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And the Tropfest judges are…Leonard Lopate! Oh, and Malcolm Gladwell

Gravitas, thy name is Lopate

So there’s already a couple things we know about Tropfest, the world’s largest short film festival making its home in Prospect Park this summer. We know that Brotherhood of Mutants heavy Hollywood bigshot Liev Schreiber will be hosting it. We know it has an awesome music lineup. And now we’ve had more info come our way, with a press release dropping into our inbox letting us know that WNYC’s own Leonard Lopate will be one of the judges in the festival. Man, these guys know how to appeal to the hometown crowd.

Lopate, who will be on hand to provide the gravitas that only a WNYC host can, will be joined by The Cove producer Fisher Stevens, actor and writer Lake Bell and neoliberal master of the obvious Malcolm Gladwell, who will presumably be on hand to tell filmmakers how to get money from the tobacco industry and explain how having a college basketball team full of future pros is the way to win a basketball game.

Tropfest also announced that they’ve picked their 16 finalists for the competition, and hey, five are from Brooklyn! And in addition to then, another five are from New York City. Go us! Go out short film makers, beat those lousy Canadians and Los Angeles-ites! If you want to check Tropfest out, it all goes down on Saturday June 22 starting at 3pm.

The full list of the finalists is below:

Across the Pond directed by Jessica M. Thompson (Brooklyn, USA)
Apart directed by Nick Baker and Tristan Klein (NSW, AUST)
Ben directed by Tom Lipinski (Brooklyn, USA)
Bridget directed by David Eisenberg and Kaela Wohl (Astoria NY, USA)
Capture directed by Jennifer Gerber (New York, USA)
Innocent Creep directed by Nick Petrie (Brooklyn, USA)
Pocket Money directed by Scott Holgate (NSW, AUST)
Rooftop King directed by Carmine Famiglietti (Flushing NY, USA)
The Hardest Part directed by Eve Danzeisen (Los Angeles, USA)
The Pencil directed by Christo Erasmus(Gauteng, South Africa)
The Possibilities directed by Alexander Poe (New York, USA)
The Snatcher directed by Maria Gordillo (Brooklyn, USA)
The Unlikely Maestro directed by Nick Baker and Tristan Klein (NSW, AUST)
University Glimpse (The Musical Movie) directed by Max Damashek (New York, USA)
Wet Dreams directed by Timothy Blackburn and Lyndal Moody (Ontario, Canada)
When The World Is Done With You directed by Jonathan Emmerling (Brooklyn, USA)

David Colon :