3rd Annual Albany Film Festival
The NYS Writers Institute at the University at Albany proudly presents the 3rd Annual Albany Film Festival, a celebration of the convergence of film and storytelling featuring a lineup of award-winning filmmakers, novelists, and screenwriters, feature-length film screenings and conversations, and a presentation of the Ironweed Awards and short film awards.
The Ironweed Award for Exemplary Achievement in Film will be presented to veteran actor Stephen Lang, most recently seen in the James Cameron “Avatar” films, and filmmakers James Schamus, Amy Carey Linton, and Keith Beauchamp. Ironweed Award winner Julie Dash (“Daughters of the Dust”) will not be able to attend and will receive her award in absentia.
The short film award winners will be announced at the closing ceremony after screenings of the Albany Film Festival’s Short Film Award finalists’ films.
The festival will include conversations with the Ironweed Award winners as well as acclaimed authors Rick Moody and Joyce Carol Oates, who will discuss film adaptations of their novels The Ice Storm and Blonde, respectively, a panel discussion on censorship in cinema, a conversation on video-making and films by visual artists Sky Hopinka and Jeffrey Gibson, and more.
“We are pleased that the Albany Film Festival provides a showcase for young, emerging talent. It also creates a space for aspiring directors and audience members to interact with acclaimed filmmakers, screenwriters, and novelists whose work has been adapted for the screen,” said NYS Writers Institute Opalka Endowed Director Paul Grondahl.
Screenings of the Albany Film Festival’s Short Film Award finalists’ films will take place throughout the event, and the short film award winners will be announced at the closing ceremony.
Feature-length screenings and discussions include the documentaries “Witness,” with producer/director Masood Haque; “The Chosen” with director Joseph Juhn; “Outta the Muck” with co-directors Bhawin Suchak and Ira McKinley; “The Inheritance” with director Ephraim Asili; the comedy “Good Egg” with director/writer and UAlbany alum Nicole Gomez-Fisher; and the psychological thriller “Follow Her” with director Sylvia Caminer and writer/actor Dani Baker. Schenectady-based director Prince Sprauve will attend a screening and discussion of his short film “The Last Shot.”
Francis Ford Coppola launched the inaugural Albany Film Festival event in 2019 when he was presented with the first Ironweed Award for Exemplary Achievement in Film. Previous Ironweed Award winners include Stanley Nelson, director of “Attica”; James Ivory, co-founder of Merchant Ivory Productions; Derek Cianfrance, director of “I Know This Much is True,” “Blue Valentine,” and “The Place Beyond the Pines”; and Darnell Martin, director of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “I Like it Like That.”
