Docs on the Spot

ANNOUNCING THE 2021 FILMS IN COMPETITION

The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is pleased to announce 36 films in competition at the 18th annual festival. Four award categories spotlight superior works in documentary filmmaking, including two Academy Award qualifying categories for short films. Selected by a jury of filmmakers and documentary industry professionals, winners will be announced at a special presentation during the virtual festival on Thursday, February 25. Congratulations to the finalists!

Feature Competition

Films over 40 minutes in length

A Cops and Robbers Story - Ilinca Calugareanu

A Crime on the Bayou - Nancy Buirski

Duty Free - Sian-Pierre Regis

The Falconer - Annie Kaempfer

Havana Libre - Corey McLean

Holy Bread - Rahim Zabihi

Il Mio Corpo - Michele Pennetta

The Place That Makes Us - Karla Murthy

A Reckoning in Boston - James Rutenbeck

The Snow Calls - Marjan Khosravi

Big Sky Award

 Films that artistically honor the character, history, tradition and imagination of the American West

Ale Libre - Maya Cueva

The Bears on Pine Ridge - Noel Bass

Bitterroot - Adam Meeks

Manzanar Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust - Ann Kaneko

Red Heaven - Lauren DeFilippo & Katherine Gorringe

Victoria - Sofie Benoot, Liesbeth De Ceulaer, Isabelle Tollenaere

Shorts Competition

 Films under 40 minutes in length

Arctic Summer - Daniel Fradin, Kyle Rosenbluth

Driven - Cody Wilson

The Interview - Jonathan Miller, Zachary Russo

Khoniyar's Children - Arman Gholipour Dashtaki

Meltdown in Dixie - Emily Harrold

Rust - Rafal Malecki

Say His Name: Five Days for George Floyd - Cy Dodson

Seahorse - Nele Dehnenkamp

Team Meryland - Gabriel Gaurano

We The Power - David Garrett Byars

Mini Doc Competition

 Films under 15 minutes in length

57 Days - Mario Lumbreras, Laura Brasero

Águilas (Eagles) - Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Maite Zubiaurre

Blackthorn - Dom Bush

Feelings of Invisibility - Charmaine Kachibaia

Ms Diva Trucker - Dana Reilly

My Little Hilton - Kevin Duncan Wong, Todd Sills

The Orange Candidate - Ryan Weibush

Paulette - James Gallagher

The Roots Weaver - Fernando Saldivia

View - Odveig Klyve

Special thanks to our esteemed competition jury members for their thoughtful consideration of films in competition. Click below to meet the jury members and learn more about the slate!

The 2021 DocShop conference will focus on issues of power, ethics and agency, a deep dive into the challenges and new opportunities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Big Sky is pleased to welcome industry participants from Firelight Media, Nia Tero, imagineNATIVE, Sundance Institute, Working Films, Audible, Oscilloscope, ARRAY, Utopia Distribution, Field of Vision and more. The Big Sky Pitch for documentary works-in-progress will welcome ten projects to pitch to a jury panel of funders and commissioning editors including Ford Foundation, Women In Film, Magnolia Pictures, Sundance Institute, Chicken & Egg Pictures and The Redford Center. Click below to meet the panelists and learn more about the contributors for the 2021 conference.

The DocShop conference is supported by an ArtWorks Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and can be joined via live-stream on the festival’s Eventive virtual cinema. Passes are on sale now, single session tickets available February 2nd. 

FESTIVAL SPONSORS

Great thanks to the major funders of the Big Sky Film Institute and festival sponsors

for making the 2021 virtual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival possible!