SIXTH ANNUAL FILMMAKER RESIDENCY

The Sixth Annual Woodstock Film Festival Filmmakers Residency / Incubator—presented in collaboration with White Feather Farm and supported by the Lozen Foundation and Gigantic Pictures—returns to Woodstock from May 4 through June 1, 2026.

This month-long residency brings together four filmmakers from diverse backgrounds to develop their full-length narrative and documentary projects, all centered on environmental and sustainability themes. The program builds on the Woodstock Film Festival’s longstanding commitment to supporting independent filmmakers whose work explores stories that impact both humanity and the planet.

Four distinguished mentors from both the narrative and documentary worlds, offering insight, guidance, and creative support throughout the residency.

Residents were selected through a comprehensive advisory process in collaboration with film organizations and industry professionals. All selected filmmakers have previously completed and exhibited at least one short or feature-length film. Final selections were based on the strength of prior work, the subject and vision of the current project, collaborative spirit, clarity of voice, and willingness to fully participate in a shared living and creative environment.

Over the course of the residency, participants take part in a series of in-person advisory sessions and craft-focused lectures designed to advance their projects. Filmmaker and educator Alex Smith returns as Artistic Director, with editor Sabine Hoffman continuing as Artistic Consultant at Large. The program remains under the leadership of Woodstock Film Festival Co-Founder and Executive Director Meira Blaustein, who also founded the residency.

Following the residency, this year’s participants will be welcomed as guests of the 2026 Woodstock Film Festival in the Fall.

Learn more about this year’s residents and mentors below.

WHITE FEATHER FARM, located in Saugerties NY, is a 66-acre organic farm and educational center in New York's Hudson Valley dedicated to cultivating connections through sustainable agriculture, experiential education, and innovative research. We aim to foster a resilient local food system that benefits both people and the environment, utilizing our 66-acre learning landscape to promote food literacy, health, wellness, the arts, and environmental stewardship.

NARRATIVE RESIDENTS

  • JUSTIN W. KIM

    Justin Kim WooSŏk is a writer-director whose work focuses on diaspora, belonging, and our changing relationship with the natural world. Born in South Korea and raised in LA, he has lived and worked across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. His short fiction film Sarajin was selected for the 2023 Indeed x Hillman Grad Rising Voices program and premiered at Tribeca. His documentary short film White Grass was selected for the 2022 Sundance Ignite program and premiered at HotDocs. He is a current SFFILM Sloan fellow and previously a recipient of the Sundance TAAF, Fulbright, Thomas J. Watson, Mortimer-Hays Brandeis, CJ x TIFF K-Story and Sony Pictures Classic x IFP Marcie Bloom fellowships. He is now working on his debut feature.

    Project: THE GREEN CORRIDOR

    Joseph Yoon, a Korean-American anthropologist, returns to his homeland on a Fulbright grant, drawn by rumors of a tiger’s reappearance in the DMZ - a creature long thought extinct on the peninsula. As he partners with a sound ecologist working along the border’s edge, their pursuit transforms into a confrontation with colonial ghosts, personal grief, and the limitations of human perception.

  • JALENA KEANE-LEE

    Jalena Keane-Lee (she/her) is a filmmaker who explores intergenerational trauma and healing. Jalena was named one of DOC NYC’s 2024 40 Under 40 Filmmakers to Watch, a 2023 Adobe x Sundance Woman to Watch, and co-founded Breaktide, an all-women-of-color video production company that uplifts stories by and for the global majority. Jalena’s first feature-length documentary STANDING ABOVE THE CLOUDS premiered at HotDocs in 2024 where it won Best Social Impact Documentary. Jalena’s work has been shown at The Kennedy Center and The New York and San Francisco Museums of Modern Art. She is currently working on a fiction feature in development with the 2026 SFFilmHouse Residency and developing hybrid and video installation work. http://www.jalenakeanelee.com/

    Project: YELLOW WINDOW

    In a world controlled by tech billionaires, a young Chinese American woman working with an Asian American vigilante group on a mission to target powerful white men who have Asian wives, infiltrates one of the most powerful families in Silicon Valley.

DOCUMENTARY RESIDENTS

  • JONATHAN PICKETT

    Jonathan Pickett is an Emmy-nominated producer and director whose documentary work captures intimate  real-time stories with curiosity and playfulness. His work has been released through The New Yorker, GQ Magazine, Documentary+, Short of the Week; premiered at film festivals like SXSW, Tribeca, Big Sky, & Palm Springs; and been supported by the Sundance Institute, Sandbox Films, Mountainfilm, and DOC NYC. His film “Deep in My Heart is a Song” won Best Shot on 16mm at HollyShorts before debuting as a Vimeo Staff Pick. “A New Inferno” (co-directed with Nita Blum-Reddick) world premiered at SXSW 2026, and will release this summer with The New York Times Op-Docs.

    Project: SING AT MY WAKE 

    At the world’s first human composting facility, a passionate team works to expand access to sustainable deathcare. SING AT MY WAKE follows their efforts while chronicling the emotional journey of a family embracing this novel end-of-life option.

  • EMILY COHEN IBANEZ, Ph.D.

    Emily Cohen Ibañez (she/her/ella) is a Colombian-American filmmaker and screenwriter. Her documentary, BODIES AT WAR/MINA, about Colombian landmine survivors premiered at Bogotá’s International Film Festival (2015). Her feature doc, FRUITS OF LABOR, about a teenage farmworker, premiered at SXSW 2021, aired on PBS POV, and was nominated for a Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award. You can find her short films online at The Intercept, TIME, PBS, and The Guardian. Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Perspective Fund, Chicken & Egg, Firelight Media, Film Independent, Cinereach, AWAW Environmental Arts Grant, BAVC and SFFILM support her filmwork. She earned a doctorate in Anthropology from NYU. www.emilycohenibanez.com

    Project: ORQUÍDEA (pronounced Or-key-dee-ah and means Orchid in Spanish)

    A film by Emily Cohen Ibañez ORQUÍDEA is a hybrid documentary set in Colombia’s Amazon in the aftermath of war. The director, a Colombian filmmaker living in the diaspora, will act as our guide as she enters a film set under construction–a mythical labyrinth of flowers. Descending into the labyrinth she encounters unexpected alliances between biologists, indigenous elders, farmers, and ex-guerilla fighters who conserve orchid-filled jungles amid mass deforestation. In the final act of the film, participants stage their own dreams for a better future of ecological restoration.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & ARTISTIC CONSULTANT AT LARGE

  • ALEX SMITH

    Artistic Director

    Alex is a filmmaker & educator. He hails from Montana. He and his twin brother, Andrew, have written and directed three award-winning feature films: WALKING OUT; WINTER IN THE BLOOD, based on the landmark First Nations novel, the film that first introduced Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone; and THE SLAUGHTER RULE, starring Ryan Gosling, which, along with WALKING OUT, was a Sundance Grand Jury nominee.

    The Brothers have written scripts and created television shows for, among other HBO, Disney, Columbia Pictures, Amazon, Focus, FX and Fox Searchlight. Alex is an Assistant Professor of Fiction Film at the University of Utah. He is also the Artistic Director of the Woodstock Filmmaker Residency. He has taught at many universities including UT Austin, where he was the Creative Director of the University of Texas Film Institute. He is a Sundance, Rauschenberg & Michener Fellow.

  • SABINE HOFFMAN, ACE

    Artistic Consultant at Large

    Sabine Hoffman, ACE, has edited award-winning feature films for over 20 years. Her credits include Rebecca Miller’s films PERSONAL VELOCITY, THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE, THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE, MAGGIE'S PLAN and SHE CAME TO ME, Julie Taymor's THE GLORIAS, Rebecca Hall's PASSING, Roger Ross Williams CASSANDRO, Richard LaGravenese's musical THE LAST FIVE YEARS, A.V. Rockwell's A THOUSAND AND ONE and Tony Godlwyn's upcoming EZRA.

    Sabine has also edited two episodes of PACHINKO and numerous documentary films including Academy Award-nominated FERRY TALES, Thomas Allan Harris' THE TWELVE DISCIPLES OF NELSON MANDELA, Laura Poitras' TERROR CONTAGION and is the co-producer of Shalini Kantayya's films CATCHING THE SUN and Emmy-nominated CODED BIAS.