[2][7] Nordstrom has previously worked as an assistant to Richard Roud, the co-founder and program director of the New York Film Festival.
[2] Despite a slow start, the festival was considered a success by many members of its audience and its organizers by its end, having a sold out final week.
[9] Features included Mai Zetterling's The Girls, Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7, Ida Lupino's The Bigamist, Nelly Kaplan's A Very Curious Girl, Barbara Loden's Wanda, feminist writer Kate Millett's documentary Three Lives, and Leontine Sagan's Mädchen in Uniform.
[10][8] Shorts programmes were thematically organized under titles such as "Camaraderie," "The Feminine Mystique," "Eroticism and Exploitation," and "The Cycle of Life.
[11] One panel discussion featured Warren Beatty, Molly Haskell, Arthur Penn, and Jeanne Moreau.
[13] Filmmaker and video artist Joan Braderman criticized the programme of the first festival for the "haphazard collection of films," and characterized it as a "misguided attempt to find a female sensibility.