Specializing in programming that celebrates women in leadership, the much beloved Athena Film Festival will kick off on February 9 at Barnard College.

The festival will open with the Athena Awards reception honoring women leaders in the entertainment business, including the creation of The Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award, in memory of Hollywood producer and founder of Stand Up to Cancer who died in June 2011.

Additional awardees include Julie Taymor (SPIDER-MAN: Turn Off the Dark, Across the Universe, Frida); Rachael Horovitz (Moneyball, Grey Gardens); Dee Rees and Nekisa Cooper (Pariah); The Fempire: Diablo Cody (Young Adult, Juno), Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas, Couples Retreat), Liz Meriwether (No Strings Attached, New Girl), Lorene Scafaria (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Seeking a Friend at the End of the World); and Theresa Rebeck (Seminar, Omnium Gatherum, Smash).

We will be screening 30 films (shorts, docs and features) directed by both men and women, each on the topic of women's leadership. Several Tribeca Film Festival alumni films are part of the lineup, including the award-winning Black Butterflies, Off the Rez and The Education of Dee Dee Ricks. Black Butterflies director Paula van der Oest and Dee Dee Ricks director Perri Peltz will participate in post-screening discussions. Dee Dee Ricks and Dr. Harold Freeman will also be a part of the conversation for that film.

In addition to these great events, there will be screenings of films like the award-winning The Whistleblower starring Rachel Weisz, Circumstance, The Naked Option, Tomboy, Wish Me Away and A Marine Story. The Lady, the new biopic about Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, will be the closing film.

Several other highlights include:

• Two free filmmaker workshops: one on producing and one on marketing

• A Hollywood conversation with Winnie Holzman and her daughter Savannah Dooley.

• A work in progress documentary on the late great Texas Governor Ann Richards

• A discussion with Gloria Steinem

• A work in progress screening of Half the Sky 

We hope you can make it up to Barnard College and join in the conversation about women's leadership.

Information on the films featured in the Athena Film Festival can be found here. For information about all-access passes and tickets, please click here.

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