Back Again: Reflecting on the 2025 Winter Film Festival
At the pre-festival extended interviews
I’m writing this reflection veeeeeerrrryyyy late. But better late than never, right?
This year, for the third year in a row, I was blessed to be able to participate in the Winter Film Festival here in New York City. For those who don’t know, in previous years I was a filmmaker interviewer, Q&A moderator, and an awards presenter at their festival-end awards ceremony in both 2023 and 2024. This year, my contribution was still all of those things, but I also added another role to my resume: red-carpet interviewer!
As an actress, I had never imagined myself being in an “interviewer” capacity. However, the beautiful thing about the Winter Film Festival is that it gave me the opportunity to talk about the process of making a film with up-and-coming filmmakers and simply enjoy this wonderful thing that we all do in a non-pressurized environment.
At the opening night party with Steffanie Finn and Delfine Paolini
Pre-Festival
Prior to the festival actually starting, I was contacted by Steffanie Finn, the Executive Director of the festival, to help conduct extended interviews. Of course I jumped at the opportunity! I was lucky enough to get to interview Delfine Paolini, the writer and director of A Wonderful Way with Dragons. It was amazing speaking with Delfine, especially off-camera, because we got to talk about the film, her process, her inspiration behind it, and so much more! Due to the time limit of the video itself, it couldn’t include everything we talked about, but the official interview itself was also incredibly informative. I feel lucky that I got Delfine as my interviewee. Delfine is smart, intentional, and approached the film with such care and attention, especially when it came to the child actors and the vulnerable scenes with the grown actors. It truly was a privilege to conduct this interview. (Check out the video below!)
During the Festival
I was able to attend two out of the three days of the festival. The first night, I conducted a Q&A session post-screening for one of the short films blocks. This block contained such amazing filmmakers, including Safiyah Chiniere of You Don’t Have to Like Me, Alicia J. Rose of “Girls in Trouble: The Series,” Mrunal Mestri of “Malti,” among several others. It was a new challenge for sure since, prior to this, most of my post-screening Q&As have been with just one or two filmmakers, but now… I think in total there were ten filmmakers on stage with me! That certainly tested my ability to moderate, to make sure I was asking questions that would apply to multiple films, that all of the filmmakers had equal amounts of talking time, and that even with the volume of filmmakers I had, still being able to end on time. Unfortunately, there is no video of this post-screening Q&A, which is such a shame!
Immediately after the screening, however, something surprising did happen. Due to the amount of filmmakers present, and due to the fact that multiple screenings let out at the same time, the person doing the red carpet interviews was incredibly overwhelmed and asked me to step in to help share the load. Despite never having done this before, and despite not having prepared for this, I launched myself into this new challenge, determined to help these films and filmmakers shine. And it went well! It went so well, that I also did the red carpet interviews for the following night, and had a lot of fun doing so! I bonded with my fellow red carpet interviewer, and got to meet so many wonderful directors, writers, actors, etc. It truly was such a creative and open space.
This is what I like about the more indie-centered festivals: the room is filled with a bunch of people, usually just starting out, who want to showcase their labor of love as well as connect with other like-minded people. At the Winter Film Festival, I’ve always found the space to be open and welcoming to all. No snobs here!
Awards Ceremony
Despite not knowing if I’d be able to return to the awards ceremony this year until only a week before, I still was able to present one of the awards since Steffanie had hoped and planned for me to do so – which I’m very thankful for! The awards ceremony is always so much fun. You get to recover from the craziness of the festival, and get all dolled up! I met some more wonderful filmmakers and got to know my co-presenters very well. Katie Trubetsky is an actress and director, who is doing some fantastic work. She gave me the honor of previewing the trailer for her upcoming episodic. Gotham Sharma is a stand-up comedian currently killing it on socials and taking massive strides forward. Jonathan Burdick is an actor and model with many works in the pipeline. Those are just a few of the wonderful people that I got to connect even further with this year, go ahead and check out their work!
Overall
I had a wonderful time this year, and I sincerely hope to return again next year. I had so much fun, and I’m glad that I was able to connect with so many wonderful people.
Selma