Green Mountain Film Festival
The Green Mountain Film Festival is an annual film event and awards show in Vermont. The first festival took place in Montpelier, Vermont, in 1997. In March 1999, a second festival was held and it has been an annual March event ever since. In 2010, the festival was extended to include a series of satellite screenings in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. In 2018, the festival also hosted screenings in Essex Junction, at the Essex Cinema.
== Background ==
The program focuses on new work from around the world together with a few classic films. Around half the films shown are documentaries. There are also screenings of shorts and student films. Screenings are often followed by informal discussions often involving the filmmakers themselves. The festival also features special appearances by established film critics and filmmakers. Past guests have included critics Kenneth Turan, Molly Haskell, Phillip Lopate, David Thomson, Gerald Peary, and Matthew Hays. Filmmakers have included the screenwriter and director, Robin Swicord, actor/director Giancarlo Esposito, actor Michael Murphy, producer Christine Vachon, and documentary makers Albert Maysles, Les Blank and Ralph Arlyck.
The critic Stuart Klawans, writing in The Nation, described the 2003 Green Mountain Film Festival as a cinephile's utopia: a festival organized and supported by an entire community of local moviegoers.
Matthew Hays, the Montreal-based film critic, called the 2006 festival incredible ... a mind-bendingly fascinating diet of movies.
Every year hundreds of volunteers help run the festival and host special events at numerous venues across Montpelier, Vermont.
The 21st Green Mountain Film Festival was held between March 16 and March 25, 2018, and featured 82 feature films and 75 shorts, hand- on workshops, a “coming of age” film short course, and the first Vermont Filmmakers Summit. Then-current director Karen Dillon spoke about the 21st anniversary saying that she wanted the festival to “feel like a party for everyone”.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival went into hiatus. The 23rd Green Mountain Film Festival is scheduled to return to Montpelier in March 2024.
== History ==
=== Films in earlier festivals (2006) ===
=== 10th Festival 2007 ===
The 10th Green Mountain Film Festival ran from 16 to 25 March 2007. Guests included Albert Maysles, Ralph Arlyck, Rob Mermin and Kenneth Turan. The films shown includedAvenue Montaigne
Beauty in Trouble
Been Rich All My Life
Black Gold
El Carro
The Cave of the Yellow Dog
Climates
C.R.A.Z.Y.
Family Law
Flock of Dodos
Following Sean
Gimme Shelter
Gobi Women's Song
Grey Gardens
Gypsy Caravan
Holding Our Own
The Host
Into Great Silence
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Land Mines: A Love Story
The Light Ahead
Living on the Fault Line
Men at Work
Meredith Holch: Homegrown Animation
Molly's Way
Our Daily Bread
El Perro
The Refugee All-Stars
The Ritchie Boys
The Rules of the Game
Salesman
Shakespeare behind Bars
Sisters in Law
Suite Habana
Ten Canoes
Today's Man
Wondrous Oblivion
=== 11th Festival 2008 ===
The 11th Green Mountain Film Festival was held from 21 to 30 March 2008. Notable films shown includedBlame it on Fidel
China Blue
Daratt
Day for Night
The Dhamma Brothers
The Edge of Heaven
Everything's Cool
For the Bible Tells Me So
Fraulein
Honeydripper
I'm Not There
It's a Free World...
Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten
King Corn
Leonard Bernstein on Omnibus
Mother of Mine
Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
Protagonist
The Seventh Seal
The Visitor
=== 12th Festival 2009 ===
World Premiere - The Brother Who Sent His Sister to the Electric Chair (2009)
World Premiere - Numen: The Nature of Plants
=== 13th Festival 2010 ===
The festival added a new venue at the Pavilion Auditorium, and also a three-day series of satellite screenings in Vermont's North East Kingdom.
World Premiere - The Summer of Walter Hacks (2010)
=== 14th Festival 2011 ===
The 14th Green Mountain Film Festival was held from March 18 to 27, 2011.
The festival inaugurated the Green Mountain 48-Hr Film Slam, a film-making competition, and announced the Margot George Short Film Competition, both initiatives aimed at fostering emerging film-making talent.
The 14th festival Guests included Phillip Lopate, David Amram, Roy Prendergast, and Jonathan Katz.
=== 15th Festival 2012 ===
The 15th Green Mountain Film Festival was held on March 16, 2012. Notable films shown includedBeing Elmo
Boy
Gen Silent
How To Start a Revolution
In Good Time: The Piano Jazz of Marian McPartland
Lost Bohemia
Pianomania
Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
=== 16th Festival 2013 ===
The 16th Green Mountain Film Festival was held from April 4 to April 12, 2013. Notable films shown includedChildhood
Northern Borders
A Fierce Green Fire
Bert Stern: Original Madman
Beware of Mr. Baker
Girl Model
Kumare
My Worst Nightmare
Revolutionary Optimist
Sightseers
The Revisionaries
The Savoy King
The Thieves
The Waiting Room
5 Broken Cameras
=== 17th Festival 2014 ===
Green Mountain Film Festival hired a new Executive Director, Rachelle Murphy. The festival was held from March 21-30, 2014. Notable films shown were;Attic
Bread

== External links ==
Official website
A Conversation w/ Donald Rae nthWORD Magazine Shorts, July 2010
Planning a trip to the Green Mountain Film Festival