Woodstock Film Festival names Jessica Edwards executive director

Jessica Edwards is the new executive director of the Woodstock Film Festival.

She succeeds co-founder Meira Blaustein, Variety reported on 18 October 2026. The announcement was made as the 27th annual festival came to a close. It puts a programmer in charge of the whole operation.

Board president Claude Dal Farra announced the appointment, according to the same report. Dal Farra leads the festival's board, the small group that oversees strategy and hires senior staff. He is himself a film producer, the festival's site notes. An executive director runs the organisation day to day, from budgets and staff to dates and venues.

Blaustein closed her tenure with an honour of her own. She was presented with an Honorary Maverick Award during the festival, Variety reported. The Maverick Awards are Woodstock's signature prizes for independent spirit. For a founder, it was a public farewell.

Edwards is a familiar face in Woodstock. She has worked as the festival's documentary programmer and is listed as senior programmer on the festival's site. That job means watching submissions and shaping one of the festival's core strands. Documentary, in festival language, means factual film rather than fiction.

She will lead a programming team that includes a dedicated fiction lead. Amir Bogen serves as feature narrative programmer, according to the festival's site. Narrative is the term festivals use for scripted, fictional features. Edwards has covered the non-fiction side. Together those two strands form the bulk of most festival line-ups.

Beyond programming, Edwards brings production experience. She is a Peabody Award-winning director, producer and distribution consultant, according to her festival biography. The Peabody Awards recognise strong work in broadcasting, streaming and digital media. A distribution consultant advises film-makers on how to get finished films to cinemas, broadcasters and platforms. It is practical knowledge of deals, dates and audiences.

Blaustein built the festival from the ground up. She holds the title of executive and artistic director, the festival's site notes, and co-founded the event. The Woodstock Film Festival was founded in 2000 as a grassroots arts organisation driven by love of film and community, according to its history page. Grassroots here means small, local and volunteer-powered at the start.

What makes this stand out is continuity. The next chapter will be led by someone who already knows the submissions, the film-makers and the regulars. For audiences, that should mean little disruption. The face changes. The address book stays.