Catherine Deneuve film opens this year's Stony Brook festival

Movies from around the world, with themes ranging from science fiction to women’s athletics to the history of Ukraine, will play at this year’s Stony Brook Film Festival, which announced its full lineup Tuesday.

The 27th edition of the festival runs July 21-30 at the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University.

The festival’s roster confirms its reputation as a showcase for foreign films and American independents. The opening night selection, “Peaceful,” about an acting teacher diagnosed with a terminal illness, features Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Magimel and Gabriel Sara, a real-life cancer specialist from Mount Sinai West Hospital in Manhattan. Brothers Ryan and Anthony Famulari, both Stony Brook alumni, return to their alma mater with “The Switcheroo,” a sci-fi comedy short created during the COVID-19 shutdown by the two (Anthony plays a man who has been cloned). Two feature-length films, “Olga” and “Berenshtein,” focus on Ukraine citizens living under oppressive regimes.

There are also 17 films directed by women in the 34-movie lineup. “The Jackie Stiles Story” and “Nasima” follow female athletes — a basketball player from a small Kansas town and a surfer from Bangladesh, respectively — who make an impact in their sports. “Image of Victory” is a fact-based drama set during the early days of the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948. The closing night film is Saskia Diesing's “Lost Transport,” a World War II drama about three very different women who must band together to survive.

“The diversity of filmmakers is a hallmark of Stony Brook Film Festival, with student filmmakers, seasoned pros, and nine first-time directors represented this year,” festival director Alan Inkles said in a statement. “We are very excited to have filmmakers from all over the world join us in-person this year for their premiere screenings.”

For passes and more information, go to stonybrookfilmfestival.com.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com@raferguzman