NAME OF FESTIVAL: Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
SINCE: 2004
WHERE: Missoula, Montana, USA
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is the premier venue for non-fiction film in the American West. Big Sky offers an ideal setting for filmmakers to premiere new work and develop lasting relationships with fellow filmmakers and industry. The festival draws an audience of 20,000 and film entries from every corner of the globe to a uniquely intimate mountain town setting with a local Montana flavor.
The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival takes place February 15-24, 2013 at the Crystal Theatre and the historic Wilma Theatre in downtown Missoula, Missouri.
This year’s festival kicks off February 15 with a free screening of “First Comes Love” sponsored by HBO Documentary Films. Described as “A wry autobiographical story of a single woman choosing to have a baby on her own,” “First Comes Love” premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival announced the official selections for the 10th annual festival, being held February 15-24, 2013 at the Historic Wilma and Crystal Theaters in downtown Missoula, Montana. The 2013 program was curated from more than 1000 entries from around the globe. The opening night film, Nina Davenport’s “First Comes Love,” will be free and open to the public, courtesy of HBO Documentary Films.
In addition to special programming events and the competitive selections, the 10th Big Sky Documentary Film Festival will celebrate a decade of non-fiction movie programming with a “Best 10 of 10” series, re-screening some of the greatest films ever shown at Big Sky. This special “Best of” screening series is sponsored by Humanities Montana. Additionally, the 2013 Retrospective Series will feature MacArthur Fellow, Stanley Nelson. Nelson’s films have aired on the prestigious PBS series’ American Experience, American Masters, and Independent Lens. In 2006 his film “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple” was shortlisted for the Academy Awards in the Documentary Feature category.
The Big Sky Doc Shop, an industry-focused four-day event that offers documentary filmmakers opportunities for networking, discussion, and professional development, through workshops, panels, and the annual Big Sky Documentary Pitch session will begin Monday, February 18th. The Documentary Pitch Session panelists include some of the top non-fiction commissioning editors in television representing BBC Storyville, POV/The American Documentary, CNN, ITVS, and the Sundance Documentary Fund.
The 9th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival announced this year’s award winning films in the four competitive categories: Best Feature, Big Sky Award, Best Short Film and Best Mini Doc (under 15 minutes) on Thursday evening at a ceremony at The Loft in downtown Missoula. Each category winner will receive $500, courtesy of The Documentary Channel. FEATURE FILM COMPETITION The Best Feature prize was awarded to Jeff Orlowsskis CHASING ICE, about National Geographic environmental […]
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival has announced the official selections for their ninth annual event to be held in Missoula, Montana February 17-26, 2012, at the Historic Wilma Theatre. The 144 film program, culled from nearly 1000 entries from all over the world will feature a free opening night screening of Matthew Akers’s new film Marina Abramovi The Artist is Present .
The Festival will feature three venues this year – two screens at the Wilma and a third at the Crystal Theater, 515 South Higgins on the Hip Strip. “This is going to be an incredibly exciting year,” said Festival Director, Mike Steinberg. “The energy and joy inherent in this year’s line-up is a reflection of the enormous support we have seen from our community and our national and local sponsors”.
The Official Selections for the 2012 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival:
OPENING NIGHT FILM Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present (Director: Matthew Akers) Free Screening sponsored by HBO Documentary Films (Filmmakers in Attendance)
CLOSING NIGHT FILM Under African Skies (Director: Joe Berlinger)
FEATURE FILM COMPETITION Andrew Bird: Fever Year (Director: Xan Aranda) Battle For Brooklyn (Directors: Suki Hawley & Michael Galinsky) Calvet (Director: Dominic Allan) The Carrier (Director: Margaret Betts) Chasing Ice (Director: Jeff Orlowski) Faceless (Director: Jason Lapeyre) Laura (Director: Fillipe Gamarona Barbosa) {jathumbnail off}
The judges of the 8th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival have announced this year’s award winning films in the four competitive categories: Best Feature, Big Sky Award, Best Short Film and Best Mini Doc (under 15 minutes). The awards were announced Thursday evening at a ceremony at The Loft in downtown Missoula. The Feature Category winner will receive $1000, while the films in the other three categories will receive a cash prize of $500, […]
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival kicks off its 8th year this Friday at the historic Wilma Theatre in downtown Missoula with a FREE screening of Peter D. Richardson’s film, HOW TO DIE IN OREGON, sponsored by HBO Documentary Films. Making its Montana premiere in the festival’s American Spectrum strand, HOW TO DIE IN OREGON tells the stories of terminally ill Oregonians as they decide whether to end their life under the state’s Death with Dignity […]
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival has announced the official selections for their eighth annual event to be held in Missoula, Montana February 11-20, at the Historic Wilma Theatre. The 140 film program, culled from nearly 1000 entries from all over the world will feature a live performance by indy rock band Yo La Tengo, a free opening night screening of Peter D. Richardsons How To Die In Oregon (sponsored by HBO Documentary Films), a retrospective […]