About the 2024 Winter Film Awards
| Event Name | Winter Film Awards 12th Annual International Film Festival |
| Event Focus | Diversity in Film, Emerging Filmmakers from around the World. |
| Event Dates | February 21-25 2023 |
| Press Releases | Winter Film Awards International Film Festival 12th Annual Celebration Of The Best Of Indie Film February 21-25 2024 “Maoussi” And “The Ball” Take Top Honors At 12th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival |
| More Links |
WFA 2024 Directors Spotter Sheet WFA 2024 Sponsors WFA 2024 Speakers |
| Short Description | The 12th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival runs February 21-25 2024 in New York City and includes 82 outstanding films, a diverse mixture of animated films, documentaries, comedies, romances, dramas, horror films, music videos and web series of all lengths. Our five-day event is jam-packed with screenings and Q&A sessions at NYC’s LOOK Cinemas, six Education sessions/workshops and a variety of filmmaker networking events all coming to a glittering close on February 25 with our red-carpet gala Awards Ceremony. Winter Film Awards is dedicated to showcasing the amazing diversity of voices in indie film and our 2024 lineup is 58% made by women and half by or about people of color. Filmmakers come from 23 countries and 41% of our films were made in the New York City area. 13 films were made by students and 26 are works from first-time filmmakers. 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. Visit www.WinterFilmAwards.com for tickets, details and schedule! #WinterIsComing #CelebrateDiversity |
| Event Artwork | WFA2024 Official Artwork was designed by Johana Kroft. Official Image (square) Official Image (horiz) Official Image (poster) WFA Logo |
| Opening Party | February 21 2024, 7pm-11pm — Somewhere Nowhere, 112 W 25th Street. (FREE, 21+ w/ID) |
| Screenings | February 22-24 LOOK Cinemas, 657 W 57th St. Screening blocks are 1 ½ – 2 ½ hours long and include a mix of shorts and feature-length films. Documentary Day – February 24th |
| Awards Show/Red Carpet Gala | February 25 2024, 5pm-11pm at Club 230FIFTH, 230 Fifth Avenue. With live performances from local NYC talent and appearances from film industry veterans. This event is free and open to the public (21+). 5pm – Red Carpet 7pm – Awards Ceremony featuring live entertainment 9pm – After Party |
| Education | Daily sessions February 22 & 23 from 12:45-5PM at LOOK Cinemas, 657 W 57th Street. The Festival’s six sessions cover topics of interest to emerging filmmakers and are free and open to the public.
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| Tickets | Tickets are available for purchase at https://wfa2024.eventcombo.com/ Parties are FREE before 11pm. Education and Meetups are FREE. Weekday Matinee screenings are second showings of shorts films and are $5. These matinees do not include Q&A. Screenings each night and all weekend $12.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door ($5 at the door w/Student ID) |
| Festival Benchmarks | 677 … 2024 Total Submissions 82 … 2024 selected Films 23 …. Countries 10 …. Animated films 12 ….. Documentaries 9 …. Feature narratives 11 …. Horror films 8 …. Music Videos 27 …. Narrative shorts 4 …. Web series 53% …. Films directed or produced by women 58% …. Films by or about people of color 40% …. Films by New Yorkers or shot in New York City 13 …. Student films 26 …. First time directors 9 …. Returning WFA Alumni |
About Winter Film Awards
| Leaders | George Isaacs (Founder/CEO), Steffanie L Finn (Executive Director) |
| Social Media | Website: https://winterfilmawards.com Facebook: @WinterFilmAwardsGala Instagram: @winterfilmawards Twitter: @WinterFilmAward YouTube: WinterFilmAwards |
| About Us | 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. |
| Demographics | Winter Film Awards showcases the eclectic diversity and excitement of independent arts in the Indie Film capital of the world. Our event sees 4500+ attendees, 12k+ social media fans and 60k+ website visitors. Our fans are 45% women, 8% LGBT, 15% Latino, 20% African-American, 20% Asian. 75% come from the tri-state area. 1/3 are students, 15% are ages 18-24, 35% are ages 18-34, 23% are ages 35-44. Via our partnerships with Yelp, local universities and film schools, and other partners, Festival notices reach over 1.5million people. |
Press Coverage
Wealth of Geeks, NYC’s Winter Film Festival Showcases Movies of All Genres by Emerging Filmmakers
Film Daily, Indie Film Fest of the Day: Winter Film Awards International Film Festival
Film Festival Reviews, “Interview with Festival Executive Director Steffanie Finn”
UrbanGlobal Magazine, “A Look Into Winter Film Awards With Steffanie Finn | Interview”
Film Daily, Film Festival of the Day: Winter Film Awards
Kering Magazine, “The Winter of Content”
PopMatters, “The Winter Film Awards Indie Film Festival Depicts Characters in Unfamiliar Worlds”
Film Daily, Let it snow: The Winter Film Awards Indie Film Festival
DNAInfo, International Indie Film Festival Heads to Cinema Village
Black Star News: “The 2016 Fifth Annual Indie Film Festival and Winter Film Awards Extravaganza!”
Quotes
“Congratulations to the organizers of the Winter Film Festival on their 12th year and thank you for once again choosing NYC as the backdrop to this incredible celebration of independent filmmaking,” said Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Pat Swinney Kaufman. “Our office is proud to support this event and its efforts to spotlight diverse filmmakers and storytellers from around the world.”
Festival Founder George Isaacs says “Emerging filmmakers with low budgets and no connections are so often ignored in favor of the standard big budget generic action films. Diverse, exciting low budget films are created all over the world; it is critical for film festivals to showcase them. Indie film festivals are often the sole means for the community to share personal stories from around the world, and WFA’s location in the center of the action provides our filmmakers with a dazzling chance to begin their careers in the film industry.”
“Winter Film Awards International Film Festival has been one of the best festivals experience I have ever had. Organisers were pure souls, friendly, supportive who supported and helped indie and diverse filmmakers until last minute. For me and my team, it is definitely the best Indie film festival in the world who is running this for the sake of love, grow diverse stories, support indie film community, great networking. I will def attend the festival next time.” — Veemsen Lama, director of “The Puppet”, WFA2021
“This festival was such a great experience for me and my team. Steffanie was easy to reach, helpful and encouraging. The energy of their volunteers is remarkable – they interview, they moderate, they host the festival with a lot of zest. The people who attended our screening were well informed and stayed around for the Q & A asking really solid questions about our film. It was really worth the trip to NYC!” — Richard Hall, Executive Producer “The 600: The Soldiers’ Story”, WFA2020
“On behalf the girls and I at Gladiolus Productions , I’d just like to say a big thank you for your wonderful organization and professionalism with the Winter Film Awards Film Fest. The venue, the warm greeting and the quality of the selected films have all been top notch. With our film “Moral Compass”, we have attended seven festivals and Winter Film Awards is leaps and bound ahead of the others (no offense to the other festivals!). I can honestly say that we, and all of the guests that came to see our film were delighted by the films the staff and the venue.” — Kylie Garcelon, director “Moral Compass”, WFA2017
“A great festival which truly gives the stage to some fantastic filmmakers and some of the best and most unique indie films I’ve seen!” – Karni Hanema, director “F*ck You Jessica Blair”, WFA2017
“The entry fee is 100% worth it for this festival. From the get-go Steffanie and her team are incredibly communicative and welcoming. The festival is also very well organized and the events are loads of fun! These guys just love watching films and they show it by putting together a great festival for the filmmakers.” – Cinder Chou, director “What Happened to Susan”, WFA2016
“How do you find the right film festival for your film with so many to choose from? When I attended Winter Film Awards with our music video “Too Blonde” in 2013 I experienced fast and friendly e-mail response, I met a lot of wonderful film makers and I made a lot of great new friends, we were interviewed several times (3 of them on camera), we were part of a very well organized and very very classy award ceremony with several of my heroes from the industry. And I got to show our music video to a wonderful audience. Winter Film Awards is by far the best film festival experience to date!” — Bjarke de Koning, director “Too Blonde” WFA2013 and “The Last Girl” WFA2016
