Vermont Film Festival kicks off its fourth year this week, pressing play on a packed, two-day schedule of 24 films from the Green Mountains and beyond. This year the fest has partnered with Woodstock’s historic Billings Farm & Museum, which will host the event in its on-site theater. Attendees will experience cinema in a uniquely Vermont way: on a working dairy farm and surrounded by award-winning Jersey cows.
Running from Friday, July 31, to Saturday, August 1, the festival screens a mix of documentary and narrative shorts presented in blocks, as well as full-length feature films. Friday’s “HERSTORY” shorts block, for example, focuses on female perseverance. The lineup includes “Zina,” a documentary about Olympic gold medalist and former American tennis pro Zina Garrison; and “Queen of the Catskills,” which follows South Bronx schoolteacher Julie McGuire’s quest to become the first woman to solo backcountry ski 33 of the Catskill Mountains’ tallest peaks. (McGuire is also a familiar face at Vermont ski destinations such as Killington.)
Local personalities take the spotlight in short films including “The Dawnland Kitchen,” about Missisquoi Abenaki chef Jessee Lawyer’s exploration of ancestral food traditions and personal experience with disputes over Abenaki identity. “Claim the Lane: Becoming Roxy” follows Roxy Bombardier, a cyclist and Iraq War veteran training for Vermont’s most grueling gravel race while navigating her decision to come out to her family as transgender at age 51. There’s even a comedic take on Calvin Coolidge called “Silent Cal,” a short that reimagines the former president’s childhood in Vermont.
Feature-length films include the family-friendly Not My Dog, directed by Danny LeGare and cowritten by LeGare and Sal Rendino (who also stars). In it, a 12-year-old girl becomes the reluctant companion of a scruffy stray who decides to follow her around town while evading the long pole of animal control. Brothers of the Flesh, meanwhile, is a documentary about a rare, custom-built drum kit from 1969 that once belonged to the rock outfit MC5.
The festival culminates in the Vermont premiere of The Obelisk, a narrative feature inspired by the iconic Bennington Battle Monument and filmed in the area. Directed by Béla Baptiste, The Obelisk is an apocalyptic tale of contaminated water and misinformation, in which a drifter (Alexey Hartlieb-Shea, who cowrote the script with Baptiste) and a veteran (Gino Anthony Pesi) seek to uncover the truth about America’s downfall.
Filmmakers and cast will attend Q&As after the screenings, and each night will end with a “CineMixer” after-party at the Ottauquechee Yacht Club Bar & Grill.
“One of my main goals of the festival is people networking and forming the connections that will help bring together their next film project, ideally something made here in Vermont,” festival cofounder Matt Vita said, noting that there is no state-run film commission incentivizing productions to film locally. That’s one of the reasons he’s excited to screen The Obelisk, he added, calling it “an amazing example of what can be created here.”
Some connections forged at past festivals are beginning to bear fruit. Vita, alongside cofounder Collen Doyle and other members of the festival team, is coproducing a feature-length comedy that grew from a concept Chris Gramuglia of Brooklyn shared two years ago at the fest’s film slam. They hope to start production on BearDude here in Vermont next year. ➆
This article appears in July 29 • 2026.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!