The Woodstock Film Festival (WFF) will return to using indoor venues in Woodstock, Kingston and Saugerties for its upcoming 22nd anniversary slated for September 30 – October 3, 2021. Tom Quinn, CEO and Founder of the groundbreaking film distribution company NEON, will be the recipient of the Woodstock Film Festival’s 2021 Honorary Trailblazer Award.
The upcoming fall film festival will be the first time WFF has used sit-in movie theaters in over a year after adopting a hybrid drive-in and online model for its 2020 edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to in-person screenings and events, the 2021 festival will also include an online program of shorts, feature-length films and live-streamed panels that can be watched from home.
“2020 was a challenging year that pushed us to think outside the box and create innovative new programming while exploring new platforms to host our events,” said Woodstock Film Festival Co-Founder & Executive Director Meira Blaustein. “I look forward to welcoming back filmmakers and audiences to a full blown film festival that is stronger than ever.”
The Woodstock Film Festival’s Honorary Trailblazer Award is given to a leader in the film and media arts industry who has carved innovative paths in the business, establishing independent vision, affecting social change, and creating strong and widespread appreciation of quality, substantive filmmaking. The award was originally planned to be presented to Tom Quinn in 2020, but was postponed to this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Quinn was chosen for his commitment towards taking bold, creative risks through acquiring and distributing films that exist outside of cookie-cutter Hollywood conventions, like Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which made history in 2020 with four Academy Awards®, becoming the first non-English-language film to claim best picture.
The official poster for the 22nd Annual Woodstock Film Festival was created by former WFF employee McKenna Wood. A graphic designer and artist based out of Highland, New York, Wood started as an intern in WFF’s operations department while completing her undergraduate studies at SUNY New Paltz. After graduating in May of 2020, she joined the Woodstock Film Festival team as the Volunteer & Hospitality Coordinator for the festival’s 21st anniversary.
“The natural beauty of the Hudson Valley has inspired artists for generations,” said Wood. “I wanted to communicate through this poster the layers of connective tissue that link the region’s scenic landscapes to the people who use them as a basis for their own creative work.”