Most of you dear loyal readers and friends know that I am the artistic director of the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College. It is something very near and dear to my heart and keeps me quite busy this time of the year. The second annual festival will take place from February 9–12.

We released our awardees and the lineup yesterday. Go to the website to read all about the great films and we will be rolling out other things that are happening in the coming days including filmmaker workshops which will take place on the afternoon of Friday, February 10 and will be free.

Here’s all the info. I’d love to see people attend. If you are interested, we still need volunteers.

THE ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL:

AND SPECIAL CONVERSATIONS

2012 Athena Award Winners: Julia Barry accepting The Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of her late mother; Rachael Horovitz; Julie Taymor; Dee Rees; Nekisa Cooper; Theresa Rebeck and The Fempire: Diablo Cody, Dana Fox, Liz Meriwether, Lorene Scafaria

New York, NY — The Athena Film Festival: A Celebration of Women and Leadership, announces its 2012 lineup of narrative and documentary films, as well as this year’s recipients of the Athena Film Festival Awards. Now in its second year, the Festival runs from Thursday, February 9 through Sunday, February 12 on the Barnard College campus in Morningside Heights.

A production of Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies and Women and Hollywood, the Festival boasts a diverse range of films that exemplify its mission — to illuminate the stories of courageous women who have made a difference across the globe.

The Athena Film Festival Awards honor extraordinary women for their leadership and creative accomplishments. This year, the Festival is creating The Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award, in memory of Hollywood producer and founder of Stand Up to Cancer who died in June 2011. Her daughter, Julia Barry, will accept the award on behalf of her mother. In future years, the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to a trailblazer in the film industry who sets an exemplary standard for other women to emulate.

Additional awardees include Rachael Horovitz (Moneyball, Grey Gardens) for her exceptional talents as a motion picture producer; Julie Taymor (SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark, Across the Universe, Frida) for her vision and courage as an exemplary director; Dee Rees and Nekisa Cooper (Pariah) for their impact as an emerging writer/director and producer; The Fempire: Diablo Cody (Young Adult, Juno), Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas, Couples Retreat), Liz Meriwether (No Strings Attached, New Girl), and Lorene Scafaria (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Seeking a Friend at the End of the World) for their creativity and panache as screenwriters; and Theresa Rebeck (Seminar, Omnium Gatherum, Smash) for her leadership as a playwright and author of films, books and television.

The Athena Film Festival Awards will be presented at the Opening Night Celebration on Thursday, February 9.

The lineup of features, documentaries and shorts that are set to screen at the Festival includes The Whistleblower starring Rachel Weisz, Wish Me Away, the coming out journey of country singer Chely Wright, Black Butterflies starring Carice Van Houten, who won the best actress award at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, and HBO’s Gloria: In Her Own Words, a documentary about Gloria Steinem. The Lady starring Michelle Yeoh as Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi will serve as the closing film of the Festival.

“This year’s lineup is a diverse lot from numerous countries in multiple languages: women firefighters and aviators; women who made peace, who made music and who used their “naked power” to stand up to injustice, says Kathryn Kolbert, co-founder of the Festival and the Constance Hess Williams Director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College. “We have been inspired as we watched so many extraordinary films about courageous women,” says Melissa Silverstein, co-founder and artistic director of the Festival and head of Women and Hollywood, an online leader in the conversation about women’s roles in the film industry. “We hope the festival will encourage more filmmakers to tell these remarkable stories.”

FILMS AND PANELS

ALL SHE CAN

Benavides Born (original title)

Director: Amy Wendel

Sneak Preview of a Work in Progress

ANN RICHARDS’ TEXAS

Directors: Keith Patterson and Jack Lofton

APACHE 8

Director: Sande Zeig

BLACK BUTTERFLIES

Director: Paula van der Oest

BORGEN

Series Creators: Adam Price, Tobias Lindholm and Jeppe Gjervig Gram

DAISY BATES: FIRST LADY OF LITTLE ROCK

Director: Sharon La Cruise

THE EDUCATION OF DEE DEE RICKS

Director: Perri Peltz

GLORIA: IN HER OWN WORDS

Director: Peter Kunhardt

Sneak Peek of A Work in Progress and Discussion

HALF THE SKY

Director: Maro Chermayeff

A HOLLYWOOD CONVERSATION:

WINNIE HOLZMAN AND SAVANNAH DOOLEY

THE LADY

Director: Luc Besson

THE LEGEND OF PANCHO BARNES

Director: Amanda Pope

A MARINE STORY

Director: Ned Farr

THE NAKED OPTION

Director: Candace Schermerhorn

OFF THE REZ

Director: Jonathan Hock

ORANGES AND SUNSHINE

Director: Jim Loach

THE RESCUERS

Director: Michael King

SHORTS COLLECTION I

THE DIRECTOR, Director: Destri Martino; EQUALITY, I AM WOMAN, Director: Al Sutton; SLAYING THE DRAGON RELOADED, Director: Elaine Kim; TASNIM, Director: Elite Zexer; UMOJA: NO MEN ALLOWED, Director: Elizabeth Tadic

SHORTS COLLECTION II

ABUELAS, Director: Afarin Eghbal; HARRIET RETURNS, Director: Marquis Smalls; JUNKO’S SHAMISEN, Director: Sol Friedman; NURSES FOR AFRICA, Directors: Benjamin and Robert Clyde; T’AIN’T NOBODY’S BIZNESS: QUEER BLUES DIVAS OF THE 1920s, Director: Robert Phillpson; UNCHASTENED, Director: Brynmore Williams

TOMBOY

Director: Celine Sciamma

WHO TOOK THE BOMP? LE TIGRE ON TOUR

Director: Kerthy Fix

WISH ME AWAY

Directors: Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf

THE WHISTLEBLOWER

Director: Larysa Kondracki

WOMEN, WAR & PEACE: WAR REDEFINED

Executive Producers of the Series: Abigail Disney, Pamela Hogan and Gini Reticker