Previous Festivals: 2000

Gwyneth Paltrow and Executive Director Steve Lawson share a laugh at our opening night party

John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire

Under the leadership of Steve Lawson - our first Executive Director appointed in March - WFF expanded in several directions. Original partnerships with Images Cinema and the Clark Art Institute were augmented by new links with the Williamstown Theatre Festival (reading of a new screenplay, with 13 actors playing 59 roles) and MASS MoCA (the final film and closing party). There were lunch seminars, dinners, and parties at Main Street Cafe, Water Street Grill, Meeze, Wild Amber Grill, and The Orchards.

On Tuesday, October 31, Halloween night, WFF and MASS MoCA teamed up for a special joint event - a one-night-only advance screening of Shadow of the Vampire, the talk of last year's Cannes Film Festival and a new take on the classic Dracula story.

The premise is both grisly and hilarious: What if the actor you hired to play the lead in your undead flick really is a vampire? With John Malkovich portraying celebrated director F.W. Murnau (who made the original silent Nosferatu in 1922) and Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck (the creepy star of that version), the scene is set for comic mayhem. Shadow is not only a fiendishly clever tribute to horror movies, but a parody of modern-day movie-star ego trips.

Passing off the actual vampire as an obsessed method actor who never sheds his "look," Murnau - a perfectionist who wants to make the most authentic vampire flick ever - is willing to put his actors at risk to get results. But he soon realizes he needs to wrap up shooting, and fast... before his bloodsucking leading man kills off the whole cast.

Directed by E. Elias Merhige (Begotten) and produced by Jeff Levine and Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage (who marks his producing debut here), the film has a script by first-time screenwriter Steven Katz. Shot in Luxembourg, it also features Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride), Catherine McCormack (Braveheart), and Eddie Izzard (Velvet Goldmine). WFF executive director Steve Lawson is grateful to both the distributor and to MASS MoCA. "Thanks to Lions Gate Entertainment, had a privileged preview - the New England premiere outside Boston, in fact - of what promises to be a major release. The industry's already buzzing about an Oscar nomination for Dafoe. And I'm happy that WFF's building on its important new partnership with MASS MoCA through what was a knockout event."

In a gala evening at the Clark, WFF saluted one of America's most versatile performers - David Strathairn - in film clips and conversation. And writers, actors, directors, and producers of indies from all over America converged on the Berkshires to talk about their films, three of which will have their theatrical release this fall and winter - an affectionate look at the L.A. gay scene (The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy), a gripping murder mystery (A Stranger in the Kingdom), a bittersweet reunion of old pals (Origin of the Species), a blistering modern take on Hamlet (Let the Devil Wear Black), a delightfully wacky crime caper (Fools Gold) and a haunting parable on the power of imagination (Anima).

WFF's success in 2000 wasn't only artistic. The generosity of our contributors, many of them new this year - Executive Producers, Directors, Screenwriters, Cinematographers, Editors and Key Grips, as well as our Corporate Sponsors - ensured a Festival that ended up in the black. THANK YOU! to all the participating artists and partners, venues, distributors, merchants, press, and donors who made our hot second season possible.

Three days instead of two, half a dozen provocative films, twice as many artistic partners as in 1999, and a deliciously horrifying Halloween premier of Shadow of the Vampire, the Williamstown Film Festival's second season marked a distinctive leap not only in quantity but quality.