NYWIFT @ Woodstock Film Festival – Breaking the Frame – How Far Have Women in Film Really Come?

Join NYWIFT as we head to Woodstock Film Festival 2026 for “Breaking the Frame – How Far Have Women in Film Really Come?”!

As the film industry continues to evolve, so too have the opportunities for women behind and in front of the camera. From the pioneers who opened doors to today’s filmmakers redefining storytelling, this conversation celebrates how far the industry has come, the progress being made, and the opportunities that lie ahead.

Through personal experiences and industry insights, leading filmmakers will explore the changing landscape for women in film, the conversations that can help move the industry forward, and how the next generation can continue breaking the frame and creating new possibilities for women in the industry.

Panelists include Rosanna Arquette, Gina Gershon, Rachel Grady, and Debra Granik.  Moderated by NYWIFT CEO Cynthia Lopez. Introduction by NYWIFT Board President Kim Jackson.

Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026

Time: 12 PM

Location: Utopia Studios (293 Tinker St, Woodstock, NY 12498)

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Introduction

Kim Jackson is a celebrated creative producer and co-founder of Evotion Entertainment whose work has received Gotham, Spirit, and NAACP Award nominations as well as the Grand Prize at the Deauville Film Festival. Jackson’s films have been selected for opening night at New Directors/New Films at MoMA, the London Science Museum and featured in competition at several notable festivals including Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Rotterdam, Deauville and Woodstock. Jackson is an active member of the PGA, the Artist Academy at Lincoln Center, Producers United, Women Independent Producer and is currently serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors for New York Women in Film & Television.

Panelists

Rosanna Arquette has worked with world renown directors including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, John Sayles, Luc Besson, David Cronenberg, Hal Ashby, Allison Anders, and many more. She most recently finished filming The Dizasster starring opposite of Lea Thompson and on a Charli XCX-Led Feature THE MOMENT opposite Alexander Skarsgard.

She will next be seen in Amazon’s BALLARD for season 2 opposite Maggie Q. Rosanna can also be seen in Showtime’s THE L WORD: GENERATION Q and Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series RATCHED alongside Sarah Paulson. She also played the female lead in the movie ETRUSCAN SMILE produced by Academy Award winner Arthur Cohn starring alongside Brian Cox.

Gina Gershon has been starring on stage, screen, and television for over forty years. She has recorded albums and toured across America, and performed at Carnegie Hall three times, playing her Jew’s harp with Sting, Laurie Anderson, Joan Baez, and Gogo Bordello. Gershon is the author of In Search of Cleo: How I Found My Pussy and Lost My Mind, which she also performed as a one-woman show with an accompanying album; and the young adult novel Camp Creepy Time. In 2019 she performed another one-woman show, Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues, at the Café Carlyle. Gershon’s many film credits include Bound, Showgirls, The Insider, Face/Off, and The Player. Her television credits include The A$$hole, Fisher, Club Your Enthusiasm, Riverdale, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Her Broadway credits include Sam Mendes’s Cabaret, the Tony Award-winning Boeing-Boeing, and more. She lives in New York City.

FOLKTALES (Sundance 2025, Netflix) is Rachel Grady’s most recent feature doc collaboration with Heidi Ewing. Others include JESUS CAMP (Academy Award nominee), ENDANGERED (HBO), THE BOYS OF BARAKA (Emmy nominee), 12TH & DELAWARE (Peabody Award winner), DETROPIA (Emmy winner), NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU (2016 Sundance Film Festival), ONE OF US (2017 Toronto International Film Festival), and the Showtime docuseries, LOVE FRAUD, which had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. She is the co-owner of Loki Films, based in Brooklyn.

Debra Granik is the director of WINTER’S BONE, nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture. Her other films include: DOWN TO THE BONE, STRAY DOG, and LEAVE NO TRACE. She has just finished a five-part nonfiction series called CONBODY VS EVERYBODY, shot over the past eight years about the experiences of people reentering New York City after incarceration. CONBODY, released in 2026, premiered on the Criterion Channel and is now available for streaming. Her next project is an adaptation of the non-fiction book, Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Cynthia López (moderator) is the Chief Executive Officer of New York Women in Film & Television, an award-winning media strategist, and former Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment where she implemented strategies to support film and TV production throughout the five boroughs.

López is the recipient of many coveted industry awards including: 11 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, the American Documentary: Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, three Peabody Awards, and two duPont-Columbia Awards. Prior to working as Commissioner, López was Executive Vice President and co-Executive Producer of the award-winning PBS documentary series American Documentary | POV, and was involved in the organization’s strategic growth and creative development.

She currently serves on several national boards, and is on the distinguished Peabody Awards Board of Jurors.

“AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs” by Gina Gershon

FROM A WAYWARD CALIFORNIA GIRL growing up in the heart of the porn-born San Fernando Valley, Gina Gershon found herself on a journey that has been anything but traditional. Along the way, she had to learn how to spot the toxic types—in both her personal life and her career—and figure out how to dodge, outsmart, or hustle her way through shady characters and sketchy situations, all the while fighting to protect her autonomy as a woman and as an actress.

AlphaPussy is a collection of true stories about experience, resilience, and the messy art of figuring it out as you go. They include sometimes strange encounters with such personalities as Paul Verhoeven, Tom Cruise, Sharon Stone, Prince, Bob Dylan, Sylvester Stallone, David Mamet, Bob Fosse, and so many others. Often hilarious, usually cautionary, and almost always wrapped in absurdity, Gershon’s tales examine the bad decisions, awkward moments, and cringe-worthy interactions that somehow gave rise to survival skills.

In a world full of bullies, predators, and people trying to tell her who she was, or who she should be, it was crucial for Gershon to become an AlphaPussy: a woman who navigates through this perilous jungle of a world with personal agency and responsibility.