East Hampton knows how to close a festival. As the 34th Hamptons International Film Festival wrapped up its run from October 2 to October 12, Antonella Bertello and Jean Shafiroff welcomed friends to The Baker House 1650 for an autumn reception that mixed cinema talk with fashion, French wine, new art and a very Palm Beach promise for February.
Bertello owns the historic boutique inn, a 17th-century Cotswold-inspired house on Main Street that has become one of the village’s favorite gathering places. Shafiroff, one of New York’s best-known philanthropists, joined her as co-host. Together they gave filmmakers, artists and festival guests a softer landing after eleven days of screenings – a room full of conversation instead of a red carpet, and a toast instead of a speech.
A festival week that filled the East End
This year’s festival was the 34th edition, and it spread across the Hamptons with screenings and talks in East Hampton, Sag Harbor and Southampton. Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky opened the festival, and Wicker was set as the closing-night film on October 12. The Conversations With series brought names such as Amanda Seyfried, John Turturro, Jesse Eisenberg and Ron Howard to local stages.
That is the crowd Bertello and Shafiroff were celebrating. Their reception landed as a stylish finale to the East End social season – the point in October when the summer houses get quieter, the light turns golden, and the people who stayed for the films get one more evening together. Readers who follow the season’s cinema news will also enjoy our report on a Wyoming story headed to theaters on November 6.
A filmmaker’s wine, poured by the glass
The pour of the night came from Provence. Guests tasted wines from Mas des Infermières, the Luberon estate that filmmaker Sir Ridley Scott and his family have owned since 1992. Scott bought the property as a quiet retreat, and the estate has grown into a serious winery – roughly 30 hectares of vines on the cooler northern slopes of the Luberon, planted with Syrah, Grenache and Carignan for the reds and Roussanne, Clairette and Rolle for the whites.
The estate carries High Environmental Value certification and Bee Friendly accreditation, and it uses no insecticides. Even the labels carry Scott’s own hand, sketched by the director himself. For a film festival crowd, that detail landed well: here was a director whose second career fits in a glass, made with the same patience he brings to a set.
Art on the walls, thanks to Ashley Medici
Artist Ashley Medici added the visual note. Her photography and artwork were showcased during the evening, giving guests something to discover between conversations. It was a smart pairing. A house built in the 1600s, hung with contemporary work, has a way of making both look better.
The East End has a long habit of putting art at the center of its gatherings, and this reception followed that instinct. Our recent coverage of young reporters stepping inside a 1,200-year-old treasure house in Japan showed the same idea from the other side of the world: objects and images start conversations that small talk never reaches.
One eye on Palm Beach, and a date to save
Shafiroff used the evening to point guests south. The reception highlighted the Old Bags Luncheon, the signature fundraiser for the Center for Family Services of Palm Beach County. The 2027 luncheon takes place on Wednesday, February 17, 2027, and Shafiroff will co-chair it with Lora Drasner and Marzia Precoda.
The luncheon’s recipe is simple and proven: supporters bring designer handbags, the bags raise money, and the money funds programs for children, families and individuals across Palm Beach County. The Center has served the county since 1961. Today it runs eight core programs and has served more than one million clients, offering counseling, parenting education, recovery support and family services regardless of a family’s ability to pay.
That track record is why the luncheon has become a fixture on the Palm Beach philanthropic calendar – and why a room in East Hampton in October was a sensible place to talk about it. Many of the guests split their winters between the East End and Florida, so the invitation travels well.
The hostess behind the house
Bertello’s own story explains why the evening worked. Born in Lima, Peru, she earned a degree in economics, management and finance from Babson College and built a career as a real estate entrepreneur. She is a licensed agent with the Corcoran Group, a member of its Multi-Million Dollar Club and President’s Council, and she works across New York City, the Hamptons and Miami. She speaks English and Spanish fluently, with conversational French and Italian on top.
At The Baker House she hosts often, and usually with a purpose. Her calendar supports causes tied to Peru, cancer research and the arts, along with Guild Hall, the film festival itself and the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons. She serves as a Hamptons ambassador for Mission Huascarán, a Peruvian nonprofit whose Knitting Hope program supports rural communities, and she sits on the boards of the East Hampton Village Foundation and the Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce.
Her next family project reaches even further: Marina Coast Peru, a residential and boating destination planned for northern Peru and scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2027, with luxury accommodations, an inland superyacht marina, a yacht club and a retail Marina Village.
Who was in the room
The guest list read like a cross-section of the East End at festival time. Alongside Bertello, Shafiroff and Medici, attendees included Maria van Vlodrop, James McCartney, Meghan McCartney, Frederico Azevedo, Sarah Kautz, Caroline Rhoad, David McMaster, Donna Rubin, Joni Fischer, Christopher Fischer, Frank Cilione and Katrina Peebles.
Photography from the evening was credited to BFA / Skylar Searing.
Festivals end. The films go home, the projectors cool, and the villages get their streets back. What lasts is the network of people who keep showing up for each other – for a film, for a painting, for a cause two states away. On that count, the reception at The Baker House 1650 did its job beautifully. It sent the Hamptons film season out with a raised glass, and it gave February in Palm Beach a head start.
Photo credit for event photography in the original alert: BFA / Skylar Searing. Featured image: editorial illustration for News Today World.
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