Preview: 5th Annual Albany Film Festival
03/29 @ University at Albany
“Highlights of the festival will include screenings of both feature-length and short films with subsequent conversations with the filmmakers involved with those productions.”
On March 29, 2025, the NYS Writers Institute’s 5th Annual Film Festival will return to the University of Albany. The will be a day-long celebration of film and storytelling featuring appearances from award-winning actors, writers and filmmakers as well as screenings of both feature length and short films. The festival will culminate in the presentation of the Ironweed Awards for Exemplary Achievement in Film as well as The Short Film Awards.
The Ironweed award was created in honor of Albany author William Kennedy, who’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Ironweed, was adapted into an Academy Award nominated film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.
The festival will run from 10:30am to 7:00pm on Saturday, March 29, at the University of Albany’s Campus Center West, located at 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany NY 12222. All events are free and open to the public with no registration required.
Highlights of the festival will include screenings of both feature-length and short films with subsequent conversations with the filmmakers involved with those productions. Susan Seidelman’s iconic 1985 film, Desperately Seeking Susan, starring Rosanna Arquette and Madonna, will be receiving a special screening 40 years to the day of its original release. Seidelman will be receiving one of this year’s Ironweed Awards for Exemplary Achievement in Film.
A second Ironweed Award will be presented to Frank Whaley, a University of Albany alumnus and legendary character actor who famously played Brett, lover of Big Kahuna Burgers for breakfast, in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, in addition to roles in the academy award nominated Ironweed and the 1989 blockbuster hit Field of Dreams. In true SmAlbany fashion, Whaley’s Q&A will be moderated by his first grade classmate, Janet Topal.
Other notable screenings include When My Sleeping Dragon Awoke, actress Sharon Washington’s childhood tale of living with her family in the New York City Public Library, and The Neighborhood That Disappeared, Mary Paley’s 2014 film about the destruction of the cultural and ethnic heart of Albany, NY due to the construction of Empire State Plaza.
Another UAlbany alumnus, Gregory Maguire, author of the book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, will also be on hand to discuss the story that was the basis for the hit Broadway musical and Academy Award nominated film, Wicked, starring Cynthia Ervio and Ariana Grande. Maguire’s 2025 novel, Elphie: A Wicked Childhood, expected to be published on March 25th, will be the final book in the Wicked cycle.
Even more than the feature films and famous UAlbany alumnus, the Short Film Awards are the real “heart and passion” of the Albany Film Festival according to Opalka Endowed Director of the New York State Writers Institute, Paul Grondahl.
This year’s competition will include submissions from a number of student filmmakers from around the state, including UAlbany, Skidmore, and RIT, amongst others. Local filmmakers also comprise a large number of the submissions, including Victoria Diana’s comedic film Second Coming and Ryan Jenkins’ dramatic film, Anomaly.
The selected short films will be screened throughout the festival and at the end of the day, a winner in each category - Experimental, Animated, Horror, Documentary, Comedic, Dramatic - will be announced alongside the Ironweed Award winners.
“We award a cash prize to the winner of each category, and that’s my favorite part of the day,” Grondahl said. “To see these young people with their friends and families or people who helped them get the film made and to be able to give them an award and a little cash prize, it’s really beautiful.”
For more information on the 5th Annual NYS Writers Institute’s Film Festival visit www.albanyfilmfestival.org.
