This fall, visitors to Woodstock will see the last of one festival, the beginning of a new film series and the continuation of a festival that is almost two decades old.

The 14^th Annual Woodstock International Film Festival, Sept. 21-25 was the last for the Classic Cinemas’ Woodstock Theatre. Each year, the Theatre hosts award-winning films from around the world.  This year the films included:

• “A War” from Denmark (R), nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards;
• “The Second Mother” from Brazil (R), won Best Foreign
  

  Dozens of feature-length films and shorts will play throughout the day and evenings Oct. 13-16, during the 17th Annual Woodstock Film Festival. Venues include eight theaters in Woodstock and the surrounding area.

  Film at the Women Film Critics Circle Awards;

• “Theeb” from United Arab Emirates (Unrated), nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at the Academy Awards;
• “Mustang” from France (PG-13), nominated for Best Motion Picture at the Golden Globe and Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at the Academy Awards;
• “The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared” from Sweden (R), won Audience Choice Award at the Chicago International Film Festival.

The theater showed films at 1 and 7 p.m. each day of the Festival. In the future, instead of a weeklong Festival, Classic Cinema owner Mark Marimas plans to feature documentaries and art films on the first Monday of each month.

The first of the series is planned for Nov. 14. The featured film is a documentary of Woodstock resident Erane Elizabeth Scully’s internment in a Siberian detention camp during World War II.  The one-hour documentary is based on Scully’s memoir, The Carrion Vine, and bears the same name.

“I was flabbergasted,” said 91 year-old Scully, at the announcement.  “I was so excited my jaw dropped, and I was speechless.”

Scully plans to be at the showing, for a question-and-answer period.

Ellie just passed her 14th birthday, in 1939, when she begged her Polish diplomat father and Swiss mother to take her to her uncle’s farm in Poland. She earned perfect grades, and a visit to Uncle Anton’s horse was to be her reward. Her cajoling ultimately led to her and her mother’s capture and internment.

The first of a new series of documentaries to be shown Nov. 14 at Classic Cinemas will feature a documentary about Woodstock resident Erane Elizabeth Scully’s internment in a Siberian detention camp during World War II.

Spry and nimble-witted, today Scully says she doesn’t know the secret to her long life. According to her long-time friend and helper, Anya Scheibe, Ellie’s secret is her undying love of life and her unwillingness to sit still. It’s common for Scully to speak to area school children about her early teen life in a Russian labor camp. Sometimes she speaks for eight hours in a single day. Scully wrote two memoirs about her life:  The Carrion Vine and Scattered by the Winds of War.  She may have one more book to write. Her third book will be about how she came to live in Woodstock.

The series will be similar to those hosted at other Classic Cinemas.

While one Woodstock film event breathes its last, another is born, and a third lives on. Oct. 13-16 is the 17^th Annual Woodstock Film Festival. Dozens of feature-length films and shorts will play throughout the day and evenings of the festival. Venues include eight theaters in Woodstock and the surrounding area. Ticket information and schedules are at www.woodstockfilmfestival.com.