Save the Date!
February 6-9, 2014
Barnard College
www.athenafilmfestival.com
A four-day festival held annually in February, the Athena Film Festival, A Celebration of Women and Leadership, is an engaging weekend of feature films, documentaries and shorts that highlight women’s leadership in real life and the fictional world. Since our inaugural festival in 2011, the festival has attracted record audiences, screened feature-length narratives, documentaries and shorts, and held stimulating panels and discussions. In 2012, the festival introduced filmmakers' workshops produced by the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women and sponsored by the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms.
Athena Center Interns Profiled on MTVu -- watch the video!
Highlights
In our first three years, the Festival has quickly established itself as one of the most prestigious festivals of its kind. Our programming has included:
- 2 Academy Award-winning films including Brave and Inocente
- 4 Academy Award-nominated films including Winter’s Bone, Poster Girl, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and The Invisible War
- Presentations and conversations with activist Gloria Steinem, journalist Katie Couric, directors Debra Granik, Ava DuVernay, and Paula Van Der Oest, actor Greta Gerwig, industry exec Tom Rothman and the Sundance Institute’s Keri Putnam
- World, U.S. and New York premieres including Granny’s Got Game; Women Aren’t Funny; Fast Girls; I Stand Corrected; and Mo: The People’s Politician
- Sneak previews of Hannah Arendt, Brave Miss World, Half the Sky, and Ann Richards’ Texas
The Athena Film Festival Awards
The Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award, created in honor of Hollywood producer Laura Ziskin (1950-2011), honors a woman in the film industry whose leadership demonstrates vision and courage and sets an example for others to emulate. Gale Anne Hurd, CEO of Valhalla Entertainment (Aliens; Terminator; The Walking Dead), was the 2013 recipient.
Athena Film Festival Award Winners: Given each year to demonstrated leaders, the 2013 Awards were presented to director Ava DuVernay (Middle of Nowhere), film critic Molly Haskell, Rose Kuo of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of the Paley Center for Media. Since 2011, the Festival has honored 26 distinguished women in the film industry, including directors Julie Taymor, Debra Granik, Dee Rees, and Chris Hegedus; screenwriters Delia Ephron, Diablo Cody, and Theresa Rebeck; and producers Rachael Horovitz and Debra Martin Chase. LEARN MORE
Athena Film Festival Goes Global
Athena Global Shorts: A collaboration with UN Women, Athena Global Shorts includes four short films that celebrate the power, audacity and creativity of international women leaders. First shown at the 2012 Athena Film Festival, the films are now compiled onto a 56-minute DVD, ready-made for a film screening. LEARN MORE
In 2012, the Athena Film Festival helped to launch the International Women’s Film Festival Network to support and promote women’s voices, visions and leadership, both onscreen and behind the scenes. Membership in the network is open to any independent film festival that has staged at least one festival within the last three years with programs dedicated to screening films by or about women and girls. As of March, 2013, there are 35 members from 23 countries and 6 continents. The website for the network is housed at the Athena Film Festival. LEARN MORE
