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Winter Film Awards Is New York City. Like the city itself, the organization showcases the eclectic diversity and excitement of the independent arts world. The 11th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival runs February 16-25, and includes awesome film screenings, cool discussion panels, career-building professional development workshops and super-fun parties at venues throughout NYC. The Fest celebrates the outstanding work of emerging filmmakers in all genres from around the world, with an emphasis on highlighting underrepresented and marginalized artists. The Festival’s 2023 lineup includes 73 outstanding films from 21 countries; half of the films were created by women, half were created by or about people of color.
For our 2023 program, Winter Film Awards is honored to screen an incredible collection of six films focusing on social justice issues, including race relations, police brutality, the Holocaust, Ukrainian refugees and NYC gentrification.
All screenings take place at CINEMA VILLAGE, 22 East 12th Street, New York NY 10003
Two descendants of the infamous 1857 Dred Scott Decision meet in a cafe off the New Jersey turnpike. Jim Taney, a descendant of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney who penned the opinion, offers an apology from his family to the family of Walter Scott, a descendant of the formerly enslaved Dred Scott. Through a vulnerable conversation about racism in America, Jim awakens to his own ignorance and discovers why an apology alone just won’t cut it. This film is an adaptation of a short play written by Kate Taney Billingsley.
Wanda Johnson and Angela Williams, mothers of young Black men victimized by police brutality, come together and build a network of community-led support, mutual aid, and healing in Débora Souza Silva’s trenchant documentary spanning Oakland’s Fruitvale to the American South.
Long before George Floyd’s murder and the BLM protests in 2020, Oscar Grant’s 2009 killing by a BART police officer seeded public awareness and cultural consciousness of systemic racism and its discontents. Paying forward lessons learned and advocating against anti-Black violence in memory of her son, Oscar, Wanda Johnson holds space for Angela Williams, whose teen son, Ulysses, survives a brutal police attack in Troy, Alabama, living to tell his story.
Amy is a young Chinese-American girl working at her local grocery store during the height of the pandemic. Amy must confront growing racism towards Asian-Americans, while at home, she must mitigate her mother’s expectations and personal bias towards African-Americans. After a brutal assault, Amy and her family must reevaluate their perceptions, and Amy must come to terms with who she really is and what she really wants.
FINDING LIGHT is a multi-faceted film, which at its core seeks to use dance as a convener of conversation around issues related to the protection of human rights against bigotry and hate. The film explores how the events of 9/11 led a dance choreographer to seek deeper meaning in his work. Illuminated through the story of Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren, the film takes the audience on a journey that is simultaneously situated in the past while making relevant connections to the present told through the lens of dance.
Studio Ukraine, a collective of artists from Ukraine who have found refuge in Berlin, are working together to make a political statement about the war, using scrap fabric to create cathartic works of art that express their situation. This short documentary introduces the viewer to three members of the group and gives us a glimpse into their lives after recently being displaced in Berlin.
New York City is currently undergoing a period of Hyper-Gentrification. This is a portrait of the communities that are fighting back.
About Winter Film Awards
Winter Film Awards is an all-volunteer, minority and women-owned registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2011 in New York City by a group of filmmakers and enthusiasts. Our mission is to promote diversity, bridge the opportunity divide and provide a platform for under-represented artists and a variety of genres, viewpoints and approaches. We believe that only by seeing others’ stories can we understand each other and only via an open door can the underrepresented artist enter the room.
Winter Film Awards programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Promotional support provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment.
For more information about Winter Film Awards events and sponsors, visit www.WinterFilmAwards.com.
For more information about the Winter Film Awards judging process, visit our FAQ.
