The Woodstock Film Festival Launch Party took off Tuesday night attracting a Who’s Who from the independent film world to Libation NY. The party, sponsored by Ciroc Vodka, Stella Artois, and Teany marked the one week count down until the kick-off event of the 10th Annual celebration on September 30 in Woodstock, NY.

The attending “fiercely independent” filmmakers and honorary Award recipients included Alessandro Camon, Ben Foster, Ted Hope, Lucy Liu, Oren Moverman, Ira Sachs, Tze Chun, Peter Callahan, Josh Zeman, Josh Braun, Katherine Dieckmann, Bill Plympton, Larry Fessenden and many more.

Co-Founder & Executive Director Meira Blaustein took the opportunity of the launch party to welcome filmmakers and industry members to the gathering and to announce the Closing Night Film – Jason Reitman's UP IN THE AIR.

Click here to view photos from the launch party

CLOSING NIGHT FILM
UP IN THE AIR
directed by Jason Reitman, featuring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.

The 2009 Woodstock Film Festival proudly announced its closing night film, Paramount Pictures’ UP IN THE AIR , co-written by and directed by Jason Reitman.

"We are thrilled to close this year’s festival with the newest work by one of today’s sharpest directors” stated Woodstock Film Festival Co-Founder/Executive Director Meira Baustein. “By exploring the lives of the people affected by socially relevant issues, Reitman’s films uncover the unexpected human aspect so easily overlooked.UP IN THE AIR’s beauty comes from that human perspective.”

From Jason Reitman, the Oscar®-nominated director of Juno, comes UP IN THE AIR, the timely odyssey of Ryan Bingham (Oscar® winner George Clooney), a corporate downsizer and consummate modern business traveler who, after years of staying happily airborne, suddenly finds himself ready to make a real connection. When he falls for a simpatico fellow traveler (Vera Farmiga), Ryan’s boss (Jason Bateman), inspired by a young, upstart efficiency expert (Anna Kendrick), threatens to permanently call him in from the road. Faced with the prospect, at once terrifying and exhilarating, of being grounded, Ryan begins to contemplate what it might actually mean to have a home.

UP IN THE AIR received all-around outstanding reviews at the recently concluded Toronto Film Festival. Richard Corliss of Time Magazine wrote that it was “one of the festival’s and the year’s best movies”…with Clooney offering the “sharpest and most nuanced performance of his career… He and Reitman could close the sale on Oscar night.”

OPENING NIGHT FILM
THE MESSENGER

East Coast Premiere of award-winning powerhouse drama marks directorial debut of award-winning screenwriter Oren Moverman (I'm Not There) and features two past Woodstock Film Festival honorary Maverick Award recipients.

Hailed for its riveting performances by Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton and Steve Buscemi, the East Coast Premiere of Oren Moverman's THE MESSENGER will kick off the 10th Anniversary Woodstock Film Festival, Thursday night, October 1, at the Tinker Street Cinema in Woodstock, followed by a Q&A and reception with the director and select cast.

Woody Harrelson was WFF's 2003 honorary Maverick Award Recipient. Steve Buscemi received the honorary Maverick Award in 2005 and director Oren Moverman co-wrote the Bob Dylan bio-pic I'm Not There, which closed the 2007 Woodstock Film Festival.

Reviewed as "a moving and elegant film that is an elegy of our time," the film embodies Woodstock's independent, political spirit, and dedication to excellence in filmmaking, according to WFF Executive Director and co-founder Meira Blaustein.

CENTERPIECE FILM

YOUTH IN REVOLT, directed by Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl, Chuck and Buck), is based on C.D. Payne's cult-hit novel of the same name, and stars Michael Cera in a unique and outrageous coming of age story. Nick Twisp (Michael Cera), is a hapless youth who creates a bad-boy alternate persona Francois Dillinger (Michael Cera) to attract love interest Sheeni (Portia Doubleday). Despite his success with Sheeni, Francois may prove to be more trouble that Nick can handle. The all-star ensemble cast includes Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta, Fred Willard, Zach Galifianakis, and Mary Kay Place, among others.

EYES WIDE OPEN (U.S. Premiere/World Cinema) directed by Haim Tabakman. Aaron, a respectable butcher in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community, is married to Rivka and a dedicated father to four children. He hires young Ezri, a handsome and homeless Yeshiva student to help in the butcher shop. Aaron becomes Ezri's patron, but when they go together to a remote "Mikve" (sacred ritual bath), an intimate moment occurs between them. From that moment on, Aaron is swept away in a whirlpool of love and lust for Ezri. When Aaron is threatened by the "Modesty Guards" of the Ultra-Orthodox community, he comes to a decision to commit an irreversible act.

ME AND ORSON WELLES (US Premiere) directed by Richard Linklater. In 1937, a teenage Richard Samuels (Zac Efron), brimming with directionless passion, stumbles upon Orson Welles (Christian KcKay) on the streets of New York. He is miraculously cast as Lucius in Welles' Mercury Theater production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - the play that would catapult the twenty two year old Welles to Broadway and later Hollywood fame. Fast paced, funny and inspired, the film is based upon author Richard Kaplow's experience, and is a coming of age story set amidst the dramas of the theater, both on and off stage.

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (Sneak Peek Screening) Directed by Grant Heslov. This story explores the "unbelievable" events inspired by the true story of the U.S.military's unit of pyschic soldiers. Staring Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey and a star-studded ensemble cast, the film follows Bob Wilton, (McGregor) a reporter in search of his next big story and out of commission psychic soldier Lyn Cassady (Clooney) as they search for Cassady's former commanding officer Bill Django (Bridges), founder of the top secret psychic soldier's program, who has recently gone missing.

MOTHERHOOD directed by Katherine Dieckmann. Eliza wants it all -- motherhood, a writing career, an egalitarian marriage. Her search for identity presents as a faceless woman beginning her day. When finally we meet Eliza “head on,” it’s at high speed, a pace which generally typifies Eliza’s daily life in the West Village walkup she shares with husband Avery (Anthony Edwards) and their two young children. This particular day is fraught with preparations for the party she’s throwing for daughter Clara, about to turn six. A “writing career” translates into a few scattered moments blogging to other mothers, but the blogging also offers the potential to become a paid position if the deadline can be met. The accumulation of minor crises, familiar to any urban dweller, is perfectly expressed by Uman Thurman’s frantic, fragile and frustrated Eliza. Newly separated, very pregnant single mom Sheila (Minnie Driver) serves as witty counterpoint, and Jodie Foster is hilarious in a brief cameo. A wise, warm and gentle comedy, “Motherhood” has much to teach about finding meaning and passion in the shared sacrifices of parenthood. (Barbara Pokras)

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE (East Coast Premiere) Directed by Rebecca Miller. Based on Miller's own novel, the film follows Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) as the devoted wife of an accomplished publisher (Alan Arkin), thirty years her senior. Though Pippa dutifully follows her husband to a new life in a Connecticut retirement community, she must confront both her past and the hidden resentment of her seemingly perfect life in order to find her true sense of self. Also features Keanu Reeves and Julianne Moore.

WOODSTOCK: NOW & THEN directed by Barbara Kopple) Featuring never-before-seen footage, photographs and illustrations of the '69 concert, this documentary examines Woodstock and the extent of its influence through today's musicians, artists, and political figures. Following the film, there will be a special reception attended by Executive Producer and '69 Woodstock promoter Michael Lang and two-time Academy Award winning director Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA, American Dream).

NARRATIVE FEATURES:
(Untitled) directed by Jonathan Parker; 2B directed by Richard Kroehling; Against the Current directed by Peter Callahan; Caprica directed by Jeffrey Reiner; Children of Invention directed by Tze Chun; Dear Lemon Lima directed by Suzi Yoonessi; Don't Let Me Drown directed by Cruz Angeles; Easier with Practice directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez; The Eclipse directed by Conor McPherson; Entre Nos directed by Paola Mendoza and Gloria La Morte; Eyes Wide Open (Einaym Pkuhot) directed by Haim Tabakman; Harlem Aria directed by William Jennings; Harmony and Me directed by Bob Byington; Me and Orson Welles directed by Richard Linklater; The Men Who Stare at Goats directed by Grant Heslov; The Messenger directed by Oren Moverman; Motherhood directed by Katherine Dieckmann; The Overbrook Brothers directed by John Bryant; The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll directed by Scott D. Rosenbaum; The Private Lives of Pippa Lee directed by Rebecca Miller; Ricky directed by Francois Ozon; Splinterheads directed by Brant Sersen; (Untitled) by Jonathan PArker. White On Rice directed by Dave Boyle; Up in the Air by Jason Reitman; Youth in Revolt directed by Miguel Arteta.

NARRATIVE COMPETITION FINALISTS: (Untitled), Against The Current, Children Of Invention, Dear Lemon Lima, Don't Let Me Drown, Harmony and Me, The Overbrook Brothers

WORLD CLASS SHORTS

Shorts are among the festival's most popular offerings. This year, more than 50 world-class shorts will be screened in seven different program sets including:
FLAK (Flak, A Time Comes)
LIFE (A Horse Is Not A Metaphor, Birth, Suspended)
LOVE IS... (Adelaide, First Time Long Time, Kindness, Lost Paradise, Stooge, Unmoored)
NURSERY CRIMES (The Bell, Limo, Miracle Fish, Morning Echo, tripoli, QUIET)
OUT OF OUR MINDS (OOOM-Our of Our Mings, The Grass is Greener, Killer)
PATHS (The 4th of July Parade, Knife Point, Path Lighs)
ROAD RAGE (Eiko, Love and Roadkill, Maso, On the Road to Tel Aviv, Qulaity Time)
SINNER (Pinhas, Sinner)
TEEN FILMS

Also featured, our heralded ANIMATED Shorts program (Backwards, Birth, Cosmic Honeymoon, Dahlia, Divers, Hunger Like The Wolf, Incident at Tower 37, Machine, The Man In The Blue Gordini, Mother's Day, Santa: The Fascist Years, The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9!, Unnatural History of Wallstreet) The program is curated by the incomparable Bill Plympton (SANTA: The Fascist Years) and Signe Baumane (Birth).

Shorts screening prior to feature films include A Lot of Chocolate, Annie Leibovitz – So There You Go, Christopher Dispossessed, No Good Reason, Q&A, Royal Nightmare, Unbelievable 4, and four films about the Hudson River (Ice Sailing on the Hudson River, Lighthouse Keeper, Rocking the Boat, Shad Fishing)

2009 AWARDS CEREMONY

The 10th annual Woodstock Film Festival Awards Ceremony will take place Saturday, October 3 at Backstage Productions in Kingston. Awards will be presented in the categories of Feature Narrative, Documentary Narrative, Best Cinematography, Best Editing in Documentary and Best Editing in Feature Narrative, Animation Shorts, Short Film, Student Shorts. Jurors including Actors, Directors, Film Critics, Producers, and other distinguished members of the industry will present the Awards to the winning filmmakers.

Special Honorary Awards will be presented to maverick filmmaker Richard Linklater and trailblazer producer Ted Hope.

OPENING NIGHT FILM PARTY

The Writers Guild of America, East invites you to join us to celebrate the opening night film THE MESSENGER and to welcome all the filmmakers to Woodstock and the Hudson Valley. Scrumptious appetizers provided by New World Home Cooking and lager from Stella Artois World Draught Master.