Join NYWIFT at the 2025 Winter Film Festival!
Meet your fellow NYWIFT members at the 13th Annual Winter Film Festival and celebrate the work of NYC women filmmakers! NYWIFT is proud to co-present a panel on film fundraising and fiscal sponsorship, plus a networking mixer and film screening.
All events take place at:
LOOK Cinemas
657 W 57th St
New York, NY 10019
Friday February 21 2025 – Education Session
3:45PM – 5:00PM | EDUCATION: Navigating Film Fundraising with NYWIFT
Raising funds for your indie film is so hard and confusing! Meet NYWIFT’s Director of Artists Programs Finance Easmanie Michel and filmmaker Joanna Rudolph and get all of your questions answered! This event is FREE and open to the public but you must REGISTER IN ADVANCE.
Easmanie Michel manages NYWIFT’s fiscal sponsorship program; works closely with NYWIFT’s CEO and treasurer on the monthly profit and loss statement and annual budget; handles the day-to-day tasks of recording financial transactions; works with the Finance Controller on reconciliations and the yearly audit; co-produces the Muse Awards and Designing Women; coordinates the Animation Series; and curates the Immigrant Screening Series. Easmanie has worked continuously in the film and television industry since 2004. She worked in the production office for the feature films Transporter and Miami Vice. She worked as the location assistant on the film Hoot. She worked as the assistant production coordinator on TV Series Miami Ink. She also worked on TV show Burn Notice and CSI: Miami. Easmanie is currently producing the feature Caroline’s Wedding, which she co-wrote. The script was a finalist for the New York University Fusion Film Festival and it was also one of the scripts selected to participate in the Women at Sundance Financing and Strategy Intensive in 2016. In February of 2018 the script was the Grand Prize Winner of the American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest. The script was also a finalist for the New Renaissance London Film Festival in 2021. Easmanie also received the New York Council on the Arts Individual Artist grant for Caroline’s Wedding. She has MA in Cinema Studies from New York University and and she is currently completing a Certificate in Financial Accounting at NYU. A list of Easmanie’s production credits can be found at https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm1890668
Joanna Rudolph is a producer of several short films and is an executive producer of the indie feature film “Burning Annie,” which was acquired by Lightyear Entertainment for distribution, and later self-released on TVOD platforms via Sundance Institute’s Creative Distribution Initiative. A member of New York Women in Film & Television and The D-Word, Joanna is currently producing the feature documentary “The Co-op: The Kids of Dorie Miller.” The film is supported by Firelight Media Documentary Lab, California Film Institute’s DocPitch Competition and New York State Council on the Arts. She has written articles for NoFilmSchool.com and Agnes.com and is currently in development on “Beachwood,” a feature length screenplay she co-wrote. Joanna has a B.S. from Union College and an MSW from Fordham University.
Saturday February 22 – NYWIFT Mixer and Film Screening
Before the films, meet the filmmakers and enjoy drink specials with your screening ticket at our free NYWIFT Meetup.
1:00PM – 2:30PM | Meetup and Networking
2:25PM – 5:00PM | FILMS: Saturday Afternoon Feature & Shorts Program + QA, featuring My Heavenly City (Feature Film, 120 mins, Directed By Sen-I Yu).
My Heavenly City is the three interrelated stories about life as transplants in New York City: A lonely Mandarin-English interpreter who witnesses the suffering of others, gains new perspectives on her own life; two young hip-hop enthusiasts who become disenchanted by their New York adventure, find tender love within each other; and a middle-aged couple struggles to keep family intact as they cope with their mentally ill young son. Three sets of characters connect and inspire one another in their journey to find hope in this heavenly city.
The first five members to email us at membership@nywift.org can take advantage of a pair of free tickets to this screening.
Tickets are $12.50
Take 20% off your screening ticket with this exclusive NYWIFT code: WFF25GRP20
About the Winter Film Festival
Celebrate Diversity in Film with New York City’s WINTER FILM FESTIVAL! The 13th Annual Winter Film Festival runs February 19-23 2025, showcasing creative fresh voices from emerging filmmakers worldwide. Our outstanding 87 Official Selections are a diverse mixture of animated films, documentaries, dramas, comedies, horror films, music videos, and web series of all lengths, including 16 student films and 26 first-time filmmakers. Filmmakers come from 20 countries; half of the films were created by women, half created by or about people of color.
membership@nywift.org
Join the conversation on social media:
#nywift | @nywift
NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
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