Coolidge Corner Theater screens some of the "Best"

If you are feeling a bit adventurous cinematically and would like to take a break from the summer “blockbusters” (you know, “Wedding Crashers” and “The 40-year-old Virgin”), consider making your way out to the Coolidge Corner Theatre (a Bostonist favorite) next Tuesday, August 30, for “The Best of Open Screen” in celebration of the one-year anniversary of Open Screen.

Open Screen is a series that CCT began a year ago that provides an opportunity for aspiring independent filmmakers and their adoring fans (also known as family and friends) to show and view film shorts (under 10 minutes) in the screening room. You bring your movie in 16mm, super8, VHS, DV, or DVD, and CCT screens the films in order of submission “until they run out of time.”

Back to the event though: “The Best of Open Screen” will obviously be showing “the best of” what has been shown throughout the program’s inaugural year. Bostonist didn’t attend any of the Open Screen screening nights in the past but attending “The Best of” is probably our time finally to get in there and see what some of the artsy Emerson kids have been up to, along with the myriad other undiscovered (and hopefully talented) directors hiding out all over Boston. Who knows - maybe the next Harvard drop-out and his childhood friend (read Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) could be hiding amongst the submissions being shown at “Best of”?

If “The Best of Open Screen” doesn’t grab your attention, there are other events being held at CCT to look forward to: “Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell will be giving a talk on Thursday, September 15 – we don’t know what the format is or even what the purpose is but it is sure to be entertaining, and Bostonist favorite Zadie Smith (remember the book “White Teeth”?) will be promoting a new book later in September as well. The list goes on and you can check it out here.

For more information on “The Best of Open Screen” and to check out what other events and films Coolidge Corner Theatre has to offer you can visit their website. Tickets for “The Best of Open Screen” will run you $7 and the event begins at 7:30 on August 30.