The WFF Story (Continued)

"At WFF I got to say "I feel truly honored to be here" and mean it."
Clark Lee Walker, levelland

Executive Director Steve Lawson, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman

Fifth Anniversary Season was the culmination of all that had gone before. Finding places to lodge the guest artists was a major challenge - 30 were in residence, driving from New York, Boston, and Maryland and flying in from Halifax, Austin, and San Francisco. They represented a record 40 films, among them the highly-praised The Station Agent and Off the Map. Having inaugurated a shorts series the year before, the Festival doubled the number onscreen in 2003, with a breakfast seminar devoted to "The Art of the Short" and short films playing before every feature, in the popular All-Shorts Slot, and in a raunchy Seven Deadly Sins slot at midnight on Halloween. Another innovation in 2002, documentaries, proved a draw this time around with Bluegrass Journey, A Boy’s Life, and Broadway: The Golden Age. Two striking films, The Event and Levelland, were brought up from the Tribeca Film Festival, while No Sleep ‘til Madison came in over the transom and became a sleeper hit of the Festival. Finally, major artists joined the fun. Campbell Scott, who had scored in the title role of 2002's Roger Dodger, returned as a director this year with Off the Map and told a packed lunch seminar all about "The Hyphenate Life." Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman launched WFF's new Classic Slot with a completely sold-out screening of Mr. & Mrs. Bridge at MASS MoCA, delighting the crowd with observations on the film and their careers at large. After negotiations with Miramax, the schedule wrapped with the Berkshire premiere of The Human Stain. Overall attendance jumped 14%. And local banks and hotels - loyal sponsors since the charter season, joined later by HBO - were augmented by A & E, The Coca-Cola Company, and the Writers Guild of America, East.

"Finally, a festival with brainpower. Bravo, Williamstown!"
John Kirby & Libby Handros, The American Ruling Class

Oren Rudavsky and Chris Eigeman in their Q-&-A after The Treatment

In 2004, some of the most challenging indie films to date were on the schedule - among them Primer (the out-of-left field Grand Prize winner at Sundance), Down to the Bone, The 24th Day, Speak, and Imaginary Witness. Other films which delighted the audience were Word Wars, p.s., Eulogy, Lonely Place and A Touch of Greatness. The hilarious short film Strindberg and Helium proved so popular that it rescreened the second weekend by popular demand... and went on to play at off-season events in New York, L.A., and Boston. Alec Baldwin kicked off a new “Artist’s Choice” event. And as the entry period for new films began it seemed that a record number of submissions would come in for the 2005 season.

"The ideal environment to show films that mean a lot to me."
Campbell Scott, Roger Dodger, Off the Map, The Dying Gaul

This proved to be the case. Entries shot up, and a record 37 artists were in residence, with actress Patricia Clarkson honored at the Gala with a clips reel of her career and notable films such as Duane Hopwood, The Tenants, Alchemy, Lonesome Jim, The Puffy Chair, SHOW Business, The American Ruling Class, Shakespeare Behind Bars (first film at Williams’ new ‘62 Center, sponsored by The Gaudino Fund), and The Dying Gaul, which played at WFF the same day it opened in New York and L.A. The Endeavor Agency and IAC InterActive Corp. joined the ranks of Sponsors. And the Festival ended up in the black for a seventh straight year.

"The most fun I've had at a film festival."
James Ponsoldt, Off the Black

Shut Up and Sing director Bruce Leddy on closing day

Season Eight in 2006 set new attendance records, with 3,200 people surpassing the previous high-water mark. Sellouts included the American premiere of 10 Items or Less on opening night, a joint screening of Alfred Hitchock's Blackmail with MASS MoCA, the romantic comedy The Treatment starring Chris Eigeman and Ian Holm, and the season finale Shut Up and Sing. Other popular titles were Wide Awake, Islander, Little Fugitive, 21 Up America, Full Grown Men, the annual all-shorts slot, Off the Black with Nick Nolte and Trevor Morgan, and Stephanie Daley, winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance.

For the first time the Festival gave a prize: the Christopher and Dana Reeve Audience Award, named for two major supporters of WFF. The winner - announced at the Gala by Reeve's son Matthew - was William Dixon's short Trailer Talk, which edged out Gayle Knutson's If There Were No Lutherans, Would There Still Be Green Jell-O? and David Dean Bottrell's Available Men. Dixon received an original artwork painted for the occasion by WFF board member Stephen Hannock.

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