James Goldstone Award

The James Goldstone Award is an annual award presented to an emerging Vermont filmmaker, selected from entries to the Vermont Filmmakers’ Showcase at the Vermont International Film Festival.

The Vermont Film Commission created the Goldstone Award in 1999 in honor of James Goldstone, the first president of the Vermont Film Commission’s Board of Directors.

The award recognizes Jim’s exceptional service as a founding member of the Vermont Film Commission and as a dedicated advocate of independent filmmaking in Vermont.

Goldstone’s career spanned five decades. After graduating from Bennington College, his career took him to Los Angeles where he directed eleven feature films, including Rollercoaster starring Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark, and The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight starring a young Robert DeNiro. His work in television included the pilot episode of Star Trek, entitled Where No Man Has Gone Before. Goldstone won an Emmy for Best Director in 1981 for the television movie Kent State. He died of cancer at his home in Shaftsbury, Vermont on Nov. 5, 1999.

Previous recipients of the Goldstone Award include: Eleanor ‘Bobbie’ Lanahan in 2006 for The Naked Hitchhiker, Bill Simmon in 2007 for Digital Pamphleteer, Adam Beamer & Evan Beamer in 2008 for Knock Knock, Who’s There, and the award was split in 2009 between Meredith Holch for her animated film, Neighbors, and Cory Lovell for his documentary, Deer Tick.