New York’s 4th Annual Athena Film Festival, which is being held Thursday through Sunday at Barnard College, is set to celebrate women and their leadership roles in filmmaking. The festival was co-founded by Kathryn Kolbert (Constance Hess Williams Director of the Athena Center) and Melissa Silverstein (founder of Women and Hollywood), in an effort to highlight women’s leadership in real life and the fictional world.

The 4th Annual Athena film Festival is set to include feature films, documentaries and shorts. The four-day festival will include conversations with directors, producers and actors, as well as activities for filmmakers.

Some of the films that will screen at this year’s festival include: ‘Belle,’ ‘Decoding Annie Parker,’ ‘Geraldine Ferraro: Paving The Way’ and ‘Short Term 12.’ Several women will also be honored this year at the festival: Sherry Lansing (Former Chair & CEO of Paramount Pictures and former President of 20th Century Fox); Callie Khouri (Academy Award winning screenwriter of ‘Thelma and Louise,’ and creator of the series ‘Nashville’); Kasi Lemmons (Actress, director and writer of ‘Black Nativity,’ ‘Talk to Me,’ ‘Eve’s Bayou’ and ‘The Caveman’s Valentine’) and Keri Putnam (Executive Director of the Sundance Institute). For more information on the 4th Annual Athena Film Festival, visit it’s official website.

Written by: Karen Benardello