About the 2026 Winter Film Festival
Event Name | 14th Annual Winter Film Festival |
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Event Focus | Diversity in Film, Emerging Filmmakers from around the World. |
Event Dates | February 18-22 2026 |
Press Releases | Winter Film Festival 2026 Lights Up NYC with 100+ Films & Unmissable Events! |
More Links | |
Short Description | The 14th Annual Winter Film Festival runs February 18-22 2026 in New York City and includes 103 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 REGAL Union Square, six Education sessions/workshops and a variety of filmmaker networking events all coming to a glittering close on February 22 with our red-carpet gala Awards Ceremony. Winter Film Festival is dedicated to showcasing the amazing diversity of voices in indie film and our 2026 lineup is 50%+ made by women and half by people of color. Filmmakers come from 27 countries and 25% of our films were made in the New York City area. 20 films were made by students and 35 are works from first-time filmmakers. Winter Film Festival 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.WinterFilmFest.org for tickets, details and schedule! #WinterIsComing #CelebrateDiversity |
Event Artwork | |
February 18 2026, 7pm-11pm — SOMEWHERE/NOWHERE, Top floor of the Renaissance Hotel, 112 W 25th Street (FREE, 21+ w/ID) | |
February 19-21 at REGAL UNION SQUARE, 850 Broadway Screening blocks are 2 – 2 ½ hours long and include a mix of shorts and feature-length films. Documentary Day – February 21 | |
February 22 2026, 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+). | |
February 19 & 20 from 12:00-5PM at REGAL UNION SQUARE, 850 Broadwa. The Festival’s six sessions cover topics of interest to emerging filmmakers and are free and open to the public. Visit our Education Page for more information | |
Tickets will be available for purchase at https://wff2026.eventcombo.com on January 15 | |
Festival Benchmarks | 818 … 2026 Total Submissions 10 …. Music Videos |
About Winter Film Festival
Leaders | George Isaacs (Founder/CEO), Steffanie L Finn (Executive Director) |
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Social Media | Website: https://winterfilmfest.org |
About Us | WINTER FILM FESTIVAL 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 Festival 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. Winter Film Festival is thrilled to be included in Film Festival Alliance’s Film Festival Directory, a comprehensive list of more than one hundred reputable film festivals committed to upholding the newly established best practices for professional film festivals. Explore the directory to read through our profile and learn more about our fellow member festivals, their programming philosophies, and more here: https://bit.ly/FFADirectory |
Demographics | Winter Film Festival 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
CUNY TV “Arts in The City” with Neil Rosen, interview with Winter Film Festival
Black Filmmakers Matter, Empowering Voices: Black Filmmakers Matter x Winter FF Interview w Director Steffanie Finn
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 WFF’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 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”, WFF2021
“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”, WFF2020
“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 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 Festival 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”, WFF2017
“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 Haneman, director “F*ck You Jessica Blair”, WFF2017
“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”, WFF2016
“How do you find the right film festival for your film with so many to choose from? When I attended Winter Film Festival 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” WFF2013 and “The Last Girl” WFF2016