WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL EXPANDS SUMMER YOUTH FILM LAB INTO A YEAR-ROUND PROGRAM AND RENEWS FILMMAKERS RESIDENCY FOR 2022
Woodstock, NY (December 10, 2021) - The Woodstock Film Festival (WFF) is pleased to announce the expansion of its annual Summer Youth Film Lab into a year-round program and the renewal of its month-long Filmmakers Residency / Incubator with White Feather Farm for 2022. These two initiatives will continue to build on WFF’s mission to provide free educational opportunities for emerging filmmakers and the local community.
2022 YOUTH FILM LAB
The Woodstock Film Festival’s Youth Film Lab began as a free three-week filmmaking program for teens living in the mid-Hudson Valley region interested in pursuing careers in film and media. For the past four years, students and instructors have met during the summer to conceptualize, shoot and edit their own original film projects while receiving creative guidance from a roster of accomplished guest mentors, including actor Kelsey Grammar (CHEERS, FRASIER, HANK, BOSS), cinematographer Michael Simmonds (HALLOWEEN, THE LUNCHBOX, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2), veteran casting director Ellen Chenoweth (TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, DOUBT) screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (PHILADELPHIA, RAY DONOVAN, HOMELAND) and many more. Youth Film Lab alumni have gone on to study film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Bard College and SUNY Purchase.
Starting in January of 2022, the Youth Film Lab will meet twice a month after school in Kingston, New York where the students will learn about the art of filmmaking and develop their projects before transitioning in July to a three-week intensive course where they will produce and shoot their films. Confirmed mentors for the 2022 academic year include Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry (THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW, STREET FIGHT), editor Sabine Hoffman (PASSING, THE GLORIAS) as well as animators Joy Buran and Noelle Melody with more to be confirmed in the near future. Applications for the 2022 Youth Film Lab are currently open and will close on December 22, 2021.
"We’re very excited and grateful for the opportunity to expand the Woodstock Film Festival Youth Film Lab into the school year,” said the Lab’s Program Director Megan Sperry. “We’re looking forward to working with 12 students on their original stories which will be produced during our three-week summer intensive. This is a really great opportunity for local teens to learn about filmmaking from concept through distribution from industry professionals while being mentored by instructors throughout the entire process.”
2022 Filmmakers residency
Launched in the spring of 2021 in collaboration with White Feather Farm, WFF’s Filmmakers Residency / Incubator is a month-long program that serves visual storytellers from underrepresented communities who are in the middle of developing film projects with social justice themes. Attending filmmakers stay at a residential property in Woodstock, New York where they spend the month of May participating in group workshops and one-on-one sessions with mentors from all over the entertainment industry. Mentors for the 2021 Residency included Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair (MONSOON WEDDING, QUEEN OF KATWE), writer / director Matty Rich (STRAIGHT OUTTA BROOKLYN) and Academy Award-nominated producer Julie Anderson along with award-winning documentary filmmaking duo Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís. Filmmaker and professor Alex Smith will return as the Residency’s Artistic Director for 2022.
ABOUT THE WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL
The Woodstock Film Festival (WFF) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that nurtures and supports emerging and established filmmakers, sharing their creative voices through an annual festival and year-round programming to promote culture, diversity, community, educational opportunities and economic growth.
WFF provides innovative mentoring and inspired educational programs benefitting filmmakers, students and diverse audiences, while serving as a powerful cultural and economic engine for New York’s Hudson Valley and beyond. Such efforts have consistently resulted in the festival being hailed as one of the top regional film festivals worldwide.
The 23rd Annual Woodstock Film Festival will return to the Hudson Valley next fall, from Sept. 28 - Oct. 2, 2022. For more information about submissions and the organization’s year-round event calendar, visit woodstockfilmfestival.org.
