1998-2000: Ellen Geiger, Board President
- 1998 Muse Awards gala holiday luncheon and presentation to Candice Bergen, actor; Sheila Nevins, VP, documentary and family programming, HBO; Dyanna Taylor, cinematographer; and our first Special Lifetime Achievement Muse Award presented posthumously to Ida Lupino, accepted by Gena Rowlands on behalf of the Lupino estate. 1,500 guests attended at the New York Hilton and Towers
- NYWIFT’s 20th anniversary year is celebrated with The Feminine Eye: Twenty Years of Women’s Cinema, an 8-day international film festival held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, programmed by a panel of leading women film programmers and led by Joy Pereths. Participating filmmakers included Suzana Amaral, Chantal Akerman, Kathryn Bigelow, Helga Sanders Brahn, Jane Campion, Julie Dash, Claire Denis, Safi Faye, Lana Gogoberidze, Marleen Gorris, Angieszka Holland, Ana Hui, Barbara Kopple, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Márta Mézáros, Kira Muratova, Ulrike Ottinger, Euzhan Palcy, Sally Potter, Yvonne Rainer, Moufida Tlatli, Margarethe von Trotta, Ning Ying and Byun Young Joo
- In June 1999, NYWIFT embarks on a strategic planning process to develop a 5-year plan to guide the organization into the next millennium
- 1999 Muse Awards gala holiday luncheon and presentation to Mary Lea Bandy, chief curator, department of film and video, Museum of Modern Art; Angelica Huston, actor/director; Barbara Kopple, director/producer; Marquita Pool-Eckert, producer; and Cicely Tyson, actor. 1,500 guests attended at the New York Hilton and Towers
- In May 2000, board approves new 5-year strategic plan
