The MVFF's main event is its winter festival in March, a long weekend of film screenings and discussions historically held at the Chilmark Community Center.
[1] In addition to screenings and discussions with guest filmmakers and film subjects, the winter festival includes food prepared by Vineyard chefs, art installations, and performances by local musicians.
In addition to live-action and animated films for children, Cinema Circus events include performances by musicians, clowns, acrobats, jugglers, hula hoopers, unicyclists, stilt walkers, and puppeteers, along with face painting, costumes, and snacks and meals.
[3] The MVFF occasionally screens films “down-island” at Vineyard Haven's historic Capawock Theatre or Edgartown Cinema.
In addition to post-screening and panel discussions with featured filmmakers, the MVFF has hosted talks by other members of the film world.
MVFF Managing Director Brian Ditchfield began teaching the class at the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School in the winter of 2010.
[7] The eleventh annual MVFF winter festival[8] opened with Charlotte, a special sneak preview of Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte's new documentary about the Vineyard's Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway.
Other attending filmmakers and film subjects included Yoav Potash (Crime After Crime), Marilyn Sewell (Raw Faith), Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman, and Nev Schulman (Catfish), Laura Israel (Windfall), Sam Feuer (The First Grader), Anne Makepeace, Tobias Vanderhoop, and Wenonah Madison (We Still Live Here), and Peter Richardson (How to Die in Oregon).