Tony Bennett's Daughter Johanna Announces First Time Fest Will Take Place In New York In March

First-time filmmakers will be celebrated at the inaugural First Time Fest, a film festival that will take place March 1-4, 2013.  At a reception at the Players Club in Gramercy Park on Thursday night, FTF founders Johanna Bennett, the actor and philanthropist daughter of singer Tony Bennett, and producer Mandy Ward (Palestine Blues), announced that they are seeking submissions for the fledgling festival, which will be based out of the arts organization that was founded by Edwin Booth and Mark Twain.  (Films will be screened at the Loews Village VII on Third Avenue and East 11th Street.) David Schwartz, the Artistic Director and Head Curator of Museum of the Moving Image is the festival's director of programming, and Mitch Levine, CEO of The Film Festival Group, will serve as an adviser. The festival's Grand Prize winner will receive an offer of theatrical distribution through Cinema Libre Studio (Fuel, Bloodline) in Canoga Park, CA.