Lauren Mulvey is reporting for the Times Union the Woodstock Film Festival returns, beginning September 28 and continuing through October 2, for its 23rd year of films, special guests and more. After two years of a pandemic-constricted event, attendees and filmmakers this year can expect a “full-blown festival again,” said festival co-founder Meira Blaustein, with a lineup of 48 feature films and 98 short films. The festival opens with the world premiere of Joshua Caldwell’s “Mending the Line,” in which a young wounded Marine (Sinqua Walls) forms a bond with a Vietnam vet (Brian Cox) over fly-fishing. The closing night film is “Empire of Light,” a love story set in a seaside English town in the 1980s, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward and Colin Firth. Other headliners include the New York premieres of “Raymond and Ray;" “The Banshee of Inisherin;” and “Triangle of Sadness.” The attendee list includes Ethan Hawke, Awkwafina and Amanda Seyfried. And short films that win in the animation, documentary and narrative categories are immediately eligible for Academy Award nominations. The nonprofit Woodstock Film Festival has been celebrating independent film from both local and international filmmakers since 2000, when Blaustein and co-founder Laurent Retjo planned their first festival. With Blaustein now running the festival on her own, the organization also acts as a launchpad for aspiring filmmakers. Films will be screened at the Tinker Street Cinema, Bearsville Theater, Saugerties’ Orpheum Theater, the Woodstock Playhouse, Rosendale Theatre and more. Information is available at Woodstock Film Festival [dot] org. Read the full story in the Times Union.