"Honoring the young and the old, endorsing community, advocating inspiration and lauding humanitarian gestures — all sentiments that sum up Woodstock and its 'Fiercely Independent' film festival quite well." - Hollywood Reporter
The Woodstock Film Festival has established itself as one of the best independent film events in the country by premiering exceptional films by established and emerging filmmakers. The fest also presents A-list concerts, parties, panels, and creates innovative and stimulating programming including Focus on Music, Exposure and the Youth Initiative.
The festival has drawn rave reviews nationwide from filmmakers, industry members, film lovers and the media alike. indieWIRE named WFF one of the top 50 film festivals in the world and Moviemaker included WFF on of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World.
"It's a great festival... It's what a film festival should be, which is really independent films showcasing the work of filmmakers you might not know about… I love that, and Woodstock is a town that goes hand in hand with that. I can't think of another place that seems better suited to have an independent film festival than Woodstock." -Paul Rudd
"The Woodstock film festival is a haven for those who love independent and challenging cinema. The spirit of the Namesake of the festival is in the very fiber of the festival itself-freewheeling, experimental, searching and visionary.” - Julie Taymor
Esteemed participants from the film world have included Karen Allen, Darren Aronofsky, Kevin Bacon, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Signe Baumane, Elmer Bernstein, David Bromberg, Eamonn Bowles, Bob Berney, Bruce Beresford, Joe Berlinger, Les Blank, Peter Bogdanovich, Benjamin Bratt, Steve Buscemi, Paul Cantelon, Jennifer Connelly, Courteney Cox, Michael Cristofer, Paul Dano, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jonathan Demme, Matt Dillon, Donovan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Olympia Dukakis, Griffin Dunne, Mark Duplass, Steve Earle, Giancarlo Esposito, Susie Essman, Edie Falco, Vera Farmiga, America Ferrera, Larry Fessenden, Bela Fleck, Ben Foster, Cary Fukunaga, Liz Garbus, Peter Gabriel, Andy Garcia, Leon Gast, Alex Gibney, Debra Granik, Shep Gordon, Jonathan Gray, Adrian Grenier, Bruce Greenwood, Arlo Guthrie, Marcia Gay Harden, Catherine Hardwicke, Woody Harrelson, Ethan Hawke, Todd Haynes, Matthew Heineman, Gill Holland, Ted Hope, Timothy Hutton, Alejandro G. Inarritu, Jim Jarmusch, Tony Kaye, Sally Kirkland, Jason Kliot, Barbara Kopple, Ray Kurzweil, Tony Kushner, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, Ang Lee, Melissa Leo, David Linde, Richard Linklater, Laura Linney, Jeff Lipsky, Lucy Liu, Christopher Lloyd, Albert Maysles, Ron Mann, Hugh Masekela, Angela McCluskey, Rebecca Miller, Brett Morgen, Oren Moverman, Mira Nair, Tim Blake Nelson, Ron Nyswaner, D.A. Pennebaker, Rosie Perez, Pinetop Perkins, Lydia Dean Pilcher, Bill Plympton, Parker Posey, Natalie Portman, Bill Pullman, Aidan Quinn, Tom Quinn, Bingham Ray, Norman Reedus, Keanu Reeves, Tim Robbins, Sam Rockwell, Sonny Rollins, Paul Rudd, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Saraf, Ted Sarandos, Nancy Savoca, James Schamus, Liev Schreiber, David Schwimmer, Annabella Sciorra, Seann William Scott, Jonathan Sehring, Susan Seidelman, Pauly Shore, Lori Singer, John Sloss, Kevin Smith, Fisher Stevens, David Strathairn, Lemore Syvan, Amber Tamblyn, Lili Taylor, Julie Taymor, Uma Thurman, Stanley Tucci, Christine Vachon, Robert Vaughn, Paul Wesley, Haskell Wexler, Jedd Wider, Todd Wider and many more.
Cash, prizes and/or services are given out for Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Shorts (Narrative, Student, Animation and Documentary), and Best Cinematography (the Haskell Wexler Award). Best Editing and Audience Awards are also presented for Narrative and Documentary features. 2014 inaugurated the Ultra Indie Award, recognizing the best ultra low budget film. Recent AWARD SPONSORS have included Gigantic Pictures, Films We Like, Markertek, Gray Krauss Sandler Des Rochers, Panavision NY, Black Magic Design and others.
