Host & Emcee: Tim Guinee
8pm: Doors & Musical Performance by Charu Suri
9pm: Show

This year’s special honoree recipients include:

Fiercely Independent Award: Ira Sachs, presented by Larry Fessenden (Habit).
The Fiercely Independent Award is presented to a filmmaker whose singular vision has advanced the field of independent filmmaking while serving as a role model for others. This year’s honoree is NYC-based indie icon Ira Sachs, acclaimed for Passages, Little Men, Love is Strange, and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize–winning Forty Shades of Blue. A Guggenheim Fellow and founder of Queer|Art, Sachs has work in the permanent collections of MoMA and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His film Peter Hujar’s Day will also screen at this year’s festival.

Art of Activism Award: Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, presented by Pamela Yates (Granito: How to Nail a Dictator) and Paco de Onis (State of Fear: The Truth About Terrorism)
Acclaimed filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, directors of Steal This Story, Please! which first premiered at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival and will screen at this year’s festival, will receive this year’s Art of Activism Award. Their Oscar-nominated Trouble the Water won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and a Gotham Award, while Citizen Koch was shortlisted for an Oscar. Lessin also co-directed the Emmy-winning The Janes, and together the pair produced Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Where to Invade Next, and Fahrenheit 11/9.

Freedom of Expression Award: Laura Poitras, presented by Jehane Noujaim (The Square)
Presented to a filmmaker whose work demonstrates courage, creativity, and an unflinching commitment to truth, the Freedom of Expression Award honors storytelling that challenges power, amplifies silenced voices, and defends free speech in the face of censorship. Laura Poitras, an Oscar and Pulitzer Prize–winning filmmaker and journalist, received the Golden Lion for All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, won an Oscar for Citizenfour, which also earned BAFTA, DGA, and Emmy Awards, and was recognized with the Pulitzer for her journalism exposing NSA global mass surveillance. Her film Cover-Up will also screen at this year’s festival.

Additionally, jury award winners will also be presented across multiple categories including Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Ultra Indie, and Best Short Documentary, and more!

The Woodstock Film Festival is an Academy Awards® qualifying festival in the categories of Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, and Documentary Short Film.

This year the Woodstock Film Festival will introduce the inaugural Laurent Rejto Made in the Hudson Valley Award. Named in tribute to the late Rejto, co-founder of the festival, head of the Hudson Valley Film Commission, and a tireless champion for regional filmmaking, the award celebrates a filmmaker whose work was produced in the Hudson Valley. The trophy was crafted and donated by Steve Heller of Fabulous Furniture.

Visit woodstockfilmfestival.org for the full schedule of events. Email tickets@woodstockfilmfestival.org with any questions.