Woodstock Film Festival To Honor Ethan Hawke, Awkwafina, ‘Leave No Trace’ Director Debra Granik And IFC Films Chief Arianna Bocco
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
EXCLUSIVE: The Woodstock Film Festival will give honorary awards to Ethan Hawke, Awkwafina, Leave No Trace director Debra Granik and IFC Films president Arianna Bocco this fall.
The festival’s 23rd annual edition is set to run from September 28 to October 2. The awards ceremony, a consistent industry draw over the years given the fest’s location two hours north of New York City, is also set to feature appearances by actresses Amanda Seyfried and Vera Farmiga as well as filmmaker Marina Zenovich.
More from Deadline
Hawke is receiving Woodstock’s Maverick Award, which goes to “a leader and a visionary in the film and media arts who exhibits fierce and independent spirit, strong artistic vision, and the pursuit of positive change.” The four-time Oscar nominee is also a screenwriter, director, producer, and best-selling novelist. He recently directed the well-received HBO Max docuseries The Last Movie Stars, about Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. Hawke’s recent onscreen roles were in the TV series Moon Knight, the horror film The Black Phone, and The Northman. He can soon be seen in Raymond and Ray and Leave the World Behind.
Awkwafina will get the Transcendent Talent Award, which is given to “a creative who breaks through the boundaries of their artistic field, be it in acting, writing, directing, or more.” The actress, writer, producer and native of Queens, New York most recently voiced a role in Universal’s The Bad Guys, appeared in two seasons of Comedy Central show, Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, which she created, as well as Disney’s Shang Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. She will next be seen in Renfield next April.
Bocco, who is getting the Trailblazer Award, headed acquisitions at IFC Films before being named president of the specialty distributor in 2020. She has overseen the acquisition of more than 800 films at the company. Prior to IFC, she led the independent feature packaging division of the Gersh Agency, and was SVP of acquisitions at Miramax Films and VP of acquisitions and co-production at New Line and Fine Line.
Granik is set to receive Woodstock’s Fiercely Independent Award. She directed and co-wrote Winter’s Bone, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2010 en route to four Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. In 2015, her feature documentary, Stray Dog, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Her most recent film, Leave No Trace, premiered at Sundance 2018 and was included in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes 2018. She is currently editing a longitudinal documentary shot over the past five years about the experiences of people reentering New York City life after incarceration. Her next project is an adaptation of Barbara Ehrenreich’s nonfiction bestseller, Nickel and Dimed.
In addition to revealing the honorary award recipients, festival organizers also said the Best Documentary Feature Award has been renamed for late documentary filmmaker Leon Gast. The Best Narrative Short Film Award is being renamed for Mark Braunstein, an early benefactor of the festival.
The fest also hands out the Change Maker Award to a filmmaker whose narrative or documentary work “most effectively delves deep into a pressing contemporary issue and generates a constructive conversation.”
Those additional award winners as well as the slate for this year’s festival will be announced in the coming weeks.
Best of Deadline
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
