2006 Woodstock Film Festival Maverick Awards

Group of six people standing in front of a banner at the Woodstock Film Festival, with some holding awards and smiling.

Honorary Maverick Award

WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL TO HONOR
BARBARA KOPPLE WITH MAVERICK AWARD
Kopple’s Dixie Chicks Doc “Shut Up and Sing” Wraps WFF with Closing Night Film

MAV-ER-ICK, adj. 1. Being independent in thought and action or exhibiting such independence. 2. One who refuses to abide by the dictate of a group.

(WOODSTOCK, NY) – Sept. 11, 2006 – The Woodstock Film Festival, celebrating its seventh year October 11 - 15, 2006, today announced that its Annual Honorary Maverick Award will be presented to two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple on Saturday, October 14, 2006. Kopple’s much-anticipated documentary about the Dixie Chicks, “Shut Up and Sing,” will close the Woodstock Film Festival when the film is screened at Tinker Street Cinema in Woodstock on Sunday, October 15, 2006. Barbara Kopple produced and directed “Harlan County, USA” and “American Dream,” both winners of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Dixie Chicks “Shut Up and Sing” is her most recent work. Her other work in film, documentaries and television includes “Havoc,” “Bearing Witness,” “The Hamptons,” “A Conversation with Gregory Peck,” “ Wild Man Blues,” “My Generation,” “Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson,” “American Standoff,”“Winter Soldier,” “Oz,” and “Homicide: Life on the Street.”

Meira Blaustein, Woodstock Film Festival executive director and co-founder said, “The Maverick Award was derived from its symbolic meaning to the Woodstock arts colony, representing an individual whose life and work is based on creativity, independent vision, and social activism. Barbara Kopple has made a tremendous contribution to the filmmaking community that she influences, to the audiences who appreciate her work and to the many individuals whose lives are directly touched by her vision.”
Past recipients of the Woodstock Film Festival’s Honorary Maverick Award include Steve Buscemi, Woody Harrelson, Tim Robbins, D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, Les Blank, and Mira Nair.

Ms. Kopple has been awarded the Human Rights Watch Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Award, National Society of Film Critics Award, the SilverDocs/Charles Guggenheim Award, New York Women in Film & Television Muse Award, the Maya Deren Independent Film and Video Award, and the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, Filmmakers Trophy & Audience Award. Ms. Kopple currently serves as a board member for the American Film Institute and the American University Center for Social Media, and actively participates in organizations that address social issues and support independent filmmaking. Ms. Kopple was born in New York and studied clinical physiology at Northeastern University.

Blaustein added, “We’re proud to screen Barbara Koppel’s ‘Shut Up and Sing.’ I can’t think of a better way to wrap up the Woodstock Film Festival than with this highly entertaining and very powerful documentary.”

Shut Up and Sing, by Kopple and director Cecilia Peck, travels with the Dixie Chicks, from the peak of their popularity as the national-anthem-singing darlings of country music and top-selling female recording artists of all time, through the now infamous anti-Bush comment made by the group’s lead singer Natalie Maines in 2003. The film follows the lives and careers of the Dixie Chicks over a period of three years during which they were under political attack and received death threats, while continuing to live their lives, have children, and of course make music. The film ultimately presents who the Dixie Chicks are as women, public figures, and musicians.

Honorary Trailblazer Award

JONATHAN SEHRING TO RECEIVE TRAILBLAZER AWARD AT
SEVENTH ANNUAL WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL

/Trail-blaz-er /: an innovative leader in a field; a pioneer

/Jonathan Sehring /: a trailblazing force in independent film and television; pioneer in indie media production and distribution

(Woodstock, New York) August 24, 2006 — The Seventh Annual Woodstock Film Festival (October 11-15, 2006), announced today that its honorary Trailblazer Award will be presented to Jonathan Sehring, president of IFC Entertainment. Meira Blaustein, executive director and co-founder of the Woodstock Film Festival, said, “We are thrilled to recognize Jonathan Sehring with the Woodstock Film Festival’s honorary Trailblazer Award. He embodies the essence of the Award, which is designed to honor a distinguished industry member who, through his or her pioneering approach, has carved new and uncharted territories in the film world.”

Sehring is one of the most well-respected film executives in New York and considered a maverick among his peers for bringing Independent Films to audiences. He launched THE INDEPENDENT FILM CHANNEL, IFC PRODUCTIONS, and IFC FILMS, and in the past year opened the IFC CENTER (a three screen state-of-the-art theater complex in lower Manhattan) and announced a second distribution label, IFC FIRST TAKE. IFC also launched the trailblazing digital production company InDigEnt with partners Gary Winick and John Sloss.

Since its creation in 1997, IFC Entertainment has been a leader in the Independent Film Industry, producing and distributing such groundbreaking films as “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (distribution), the Academy Award®-winning “Boys Don’t Cry” (production) foreign language hits “Y Tu Mama Tambien” (distribution) and “Monsoon Wedding” (production), doc smash “Touching the Void” (distribution), and recent hits “Me and You and Everyone We Know” (production and distribution), “Fahrenheit 9/11 (co-distribution), “Transamerica” (co-distribution), and “Wordplay” (co-distribution).

Jonathan has served as executive producer for numerous productions, including the award-winning films “Boys Don’t Cry,” Karyn Kusama’s “Girlfight,” John Sayles’ “Men With Guns,” Richard Linklater’s “‘Waking Life,” Mira Nair’s “Monsoon Wedding,” Errol Morris’ “Mr. Death,” Stephen Soderbergh’s “Gray’s Anatomy,” Gary Winick’s “Tadpole,” Rebecca Miller’s “Personal Velocity” and Miranda July's award-winning “Me and You and Everyone We Know.” He also served as executive producer on original programming produced for IFC Network including: John Favreau’s “Dinner for Five,” Isaac Julien’s “Baaadassss Cinema,” Albert Maysle’s “With The Filmmaker,” Adam Simon’s “The American Nightmare,” and Errol Morris’ “First Person.”

“Mr. Sehring is uniquely responsible for the widespread popularity and respect that independent film and television enjoys today,” said Blaustein. “Independent film has flourished in great part thanks to Jonathan Sehring’s unrelenting will and commitment to the independent creative voice and his innovative approach to the industry.”

The Trailblazer Award was presented for the first time last year, in 2005, when the Woodstock Film Festival honored the groundbreaking achievements of entertainment attorney/executive producer/producer John Sloss of Sloss Law and Cinetic Media.

“Jonathan Sehring is an ideal recipient for the Woodstock Film Festival Trailblazer Award,” said Sloss. “Through his work at IFC, he has helped to broaden the opportunities for filmmakers while expanding the audience for independent film.”

The 2006 Woodstock Film Festival Trailblazer Award will be presented to Jonathan Sehring on Saturday, October 14 in Woodstock.

Sehring stated, “I’m honored to be the recipient of the Woodstock Film Festival’s Trailblazer Award and look forward to continuing IFC's mission of providing a voice to independent filmmakers worldwide. I’m in good company with John Sloss and future trailblazers who will continue to pave the way for independent film.”

Prior to the creation of IFC Entertainment, Sehring oversaw all programming and production activities for Bravo Networks, where he was responsible for creating and launching several award-winning shows and series, including Bravo’s Emmy-nominated series “Inside the Actors Studio,” the network’s CableAce Award-winning series “The South Bank Show,” and The Independent Film Channel’s CableAce Award-winning profile of Sam Fuller, “The Typewriter, The Rifle and The Movie Camera.”