LAKE PLACID – Documentaries, Canadian films, and canonical classics, including a free outdoor screening of the ultimate underdog story. Welcome to the Lake Placid Film Forum 2016.

The LPFF, organized by the Adirondack Film Society, returns for its fifteenth outing since its inception in 2000, according to a press release from AFS. This year’s forum, screening at Mid’s Park, the Lake Placid Center for the Arts and the Palace Theatre, promises a wide variety of cinematic gems, everything from a silent era masterpiece to current documentaries and features sure to inspire thoughtful discussion.

“We really focused on programming this year, and it has paid off: we have a bounty of great films,” said AFS co-founder and Chair John Huttlinger in a press release.

The five-day event kicks off Wednesday with a free outdoor 40th anniversary screening of “Rocky,” the Academy Award-winning film directed by John G. Avildsen that launched Sylvester Stallone’s career, at Mid’s Park. It will close Sunday, June 12, with “By Sidney Lumet,” a documentary on the veteran director of “Network,” featuring an intro via Skype by director Nancy Buirski and commentary by actor James Tolkan.

Highlights of the event include a Canadian double feature screening of “The Forbidden Room,” directed by Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson, and “Sleeping Giant,” directed by Andrew Cividino, curated by AFS Board Member Tom Hanrahan, a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Kid” with live piano accompaniment by Ben Model, and a special screening of Carol Reed’s “The Third Man,” starring Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles, moderated by Jeremy Arnold, author of “The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter.” Arnold will be joined by producer, director and former industry executive Larry Jackson, who worked with Welles on his unfinished masterpiece “The Other Side of the Wind” and “Filming Othello,” and AFS Artistic Director and former New York Daily News film critic Kathleen Carroll for a discussion of the “The Third Man” and what exactly makes a film “essential.”

The forum will feature several question and answer sessions and panel discussions, either live or via Skype, by exhibiting filmmakers Marshall Fine, Gwendolen Cates, Laura Israel, Buirski, Brian Brown and comedian Robert Klein. It will also feature the talents of Cate Blanchett, Robert Budreau, Andrew Cividino, Stephen Elliot, Ethan Hawke, Todd Haynes, Harvey Keitel, Werner Herzog, Martin Landau, Guy Maddin, Rooney Mara, Michael Moore, Atom Egoyan, Christopher Plummer, Paolo Sorrentino and John Turturro.

“Given the lineup of films — new, classic and in between — this promises to be one of our best years yet!” said AFS Vice Chair Nelson Page in a press release.

Times, locations, guests and films/events are subject to change. Visit www.adirondackfilmsociety.org for more information and schedule updates.