Winter Film Awards 2017 Indie Film Festival Unveils Official Poster Design

Winter Film Awards is honored to unveil the official 2017 Indie Film Festival poster, created by award winning artist and School of Visual Arts Professor, Viktor Koen.

Viktor Koen has been a strong supporter of the Winter Film Awards Indie Film Festival since its inception, by working with his design and illustration students at NYC's School of Visual Arts to develop posters from which one is picked and awarded to represent the festival. By request, this year, Mr. Koen honors the festival with an original piece specifically created to commemorate the festival's six year anniversary.

"Once you've become familiar with Viktor's work there is no mistaking it," explains board member Joseph B. Mauceri. "From his iconic subway poster designs for the School of Visual Arts, to his covers for national and international publications such as Nature, The Economist, Discover and the New York Times, once his work becomes part of your psyche you are unable to look at the world quite the same way again. There is something about his creations that are both beautiful and haunting. We are humbled by his generosity to create this work of art of this year's festival."

VIKTOR KOEN is an award winning artist and educator. He holds a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem, Israel and an MFA with honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Mr. Koen serves on the faculty of the MFA Illustration program and the BFA Graphic Design Department at SVA. His images are regularly published in the NYTimes, Wall Street Journal and Nature. His client list includes Penguin Books, Random House, Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Rizzoli, Houghton Miflin, Time, Newsweek, Esquire, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Wired, Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest, New York, Man's Journal, Bloomberg, Fortune, Money, Forbes, Smart Money, Nation, The Village Voice, Mother Jones, BusinessWeek, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Atlantic Records.

His prints and posters are widely exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and are part of private and institutional collections. One man shows include: The Benaki Museum/Athens, United Photo Industries/NY, Type Directors Club/NYC, The Coningsby Gallery/London, Strychnin Gallery/Berlin, Fraser Gallery/Washington/DC, Astrolavos Gallery/Athens/Greece, Slovak National Museum/Bratislava, Photography Center of Athens, LeVall Gallery/Novosibirsk/Russia, Eirmos Gallery/Thessaloniki/Greece, International Month of Photography/Fillipoupolis/Bulgaria, Merry Karnowsky Gallery/Los Angeles, Viridian Artists/NYC, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art/Thessaloniki/Greece. He is a TEDx Athens speaker and lectures for academic and professional institutions and conferences such as the Type Directors Club, The New York Public Library the Graphic Artists Guild, ICTVC Conference. Mr. Koen's work is regularly featured in books and publications worldwide. Distinctions include Communication Arts Award of Excellence, Graphis Gold Awards, First Prize Digital Hall of Fame and Folio Gold Awards. Go to www.viktorkoen.com for more.

Winter Film Awards Is New York City. Like the city itself, we showcase the eclectic diversity and excitement of the independent arts world. Winter Film Awards is proudly one of the Top 10 Best Reviewed Festivals on FilmFreeway.

The rapidly growing Winter Film Awards Indie Film Festival (winterfilmawards.com/wfa2017), now in its sixth year, is a dynamic and exciting event in the heart of the City. Winter Film Awards showcases films from emerging filmmakers from around the world in all genres with a special emphasis on highlighting the work of women and minority filmmakers. The Festival runs February 23-March 4 2017 in New York City.

Among the 88 Official Selections to be screened at Cinema Village in the heart of Greenwich Village (22 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10003), is a diverse mixture of 11 Animated films, 8 Documentaries, 11 Feature narratives, 10 Horror films, 12 Music Videos, 24 Narrative shorts and 7 Web series, including 12 student films and 33 first-time filmmakers. Filmmakers come from 30 countries; 42% of the films were created by women, 35% were created by people of color. Visit www.WinterFilmAwards.com for schedules, tickets and details!

Winter Film Awards is an all-volunteer, minority- and women-owned registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2011 in New York City by a group of filmmakers and enthusiasts. The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.