15th Annual Winter Film Festival,

About the event

WINTER FILM FESTIVAL is NEW YORK CITY. Like the city itself, we showcase the eclectic diversity and excitement of the independent arts world.

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.

Filmmakers who attend our events enjoy truly amazing indie films, fabulous parties, useful educational panels and professional development workshops plus the opportunity to meet and learn from other artists — an experience that comes from a premiere showcase dedicated to emerging artists.

We are an all-volunteer, minority- and women managed 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2011. This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Winter Film Festival programs 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.

15th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FEBRUARY 24-28 2027. Each year, we screen 70-90 outstanding films, a diverse mixture of animated films, documentaries, comedies, romances, dramas, horror films, music videos and web series of all lengths. Winter Film Festival is dedicated to showcasing the amazing diversity of voices in indie film and our lineup is half made by women and half by or about people of color. All selected films are screened at Regal Union Square Cinemas, in the heart of NYC.

We believe that industry knowledge is critical, and our annual event includes 7-10 free professional development workshops on topics of interest to emerging filmmakers. The event concludes with a glittering awards ceremony and red-carpet gala at one of NYC’s premier nightclubs. We award over $50,000 in cash, prizes and distribution opportunities! Winter Film Festival is an IMDB-qualifying festival.
 

Why should you sponsor?

We are open to cash and in-kind sponsorships of all kinds and at all levels.  

Winter Film Festival seeks long-term partners, and we are proud that the organizations we work with benefit from our audiences and promotions throughout the year. We offer a variety of partnership packages; we will work with your marketing staff to craft a partnership plan which will be strategic and achieve the results you want.

By sponsoring our rapidly growing festival, your company gains an inexpensive means to reach a high-value yet elusive market. By tailoring your sponsorship to your company’s needs, we can help you reach our young, hip and diverse audience.

WinterFilm Festival

We are 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 recognize excellence and diversity in cinema, with a special emphasis on supporting women and minority filmmakers. We focus on nurturing emerging filmmakers from all genres from around the world. 

WINTER FILM FESTIVAL is devoted to sharing the stories of a diverse group of emerging filmmakers. WFF sponsors gain access to our audience of emerging filmmakers, entertainment industry professionals and connoisseurs of the arts. WFF fans encompass a broad range of education and income levels, cultural associations and industry experience. Our members come from 87 countries, are evenly gender mixed, and 60% are under age 40. Over 60% of our members are POC.

We showcase creative fresh voices from emerging filmmakers worldwide in all genres and lengths – feature length and shorts, narrative fiction, documentary, animation, horror, web series and music videos.

People are making films in the world’s biggest cities and tiniest villages. We believe that everyone deserves a fair shot to get their voice heard! We seek to show different genres, different viewpoints, different stories, different perspectives and different countries. We seek to show the work of men and women and non-binary, gay and straight and bi and other, and the work of black, white, Asian, Latino and everyone else in any combination. We seek to show the work of people from right here in New York and also from every corner of the world. We seek to show comedies and romances and dramas and horror and documentaries and experimental and the weird and the unusual and the universal and the controversial. We seek to show films made for virtually zero budget and films made with multi-million dollar budgets. We seek to show you something you haven’t seen before or didn’t realize exists. We want you to laugh, cry, dance, learn, hide in terror and/or have your mind blown.

Winter Film Festival is an IMDB-qualifying Festival. 

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