CHEERS TO 22 YEARS OF STARTING CONVERSATIONS

It is with the utmost pleasure that we raise a glass to our 22nd year of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, an impressive intersection of screenings, special events, educational panels, hands-on production courses and school screenings. Every year, as our programming team sifts through thousands of submissions to distill down a program of 150 films, we’re always so impressed with the scope of stories, approaches and passion that comes through. The 2025 program was a dynamic array of stories and realities that challenge conventions, our understanding of histories, how we approach relationships, and the myriad of ways we connect to place. All this and countless opportunities for community engagement, stimulating conversation and educational events. 

In our fourth year as a hybrid festival, Big Sky welcomed 24,409 attendees, a record for the festival, over 13 days of screenings (virtual and in-person), DocShop sessions, classroom events, and networking forums.

A remarkable exhibition of the power of documentary filmmaking, the 156 films in the 2025 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival program brought people together over stories of unconventional relationships, Indigenous strengths, femme empowerment, inspiring activism, elder wisdom, the beauties of the natural world, archival genius and a globalized world in flux. The film lineup included 63 features and 93 short documentary films including 47 World Premieres, 30 Northwest Premieres, 13 North American Premieres, and 8 U.S. Premieres. Each year, over 90% of the annual Big Sky program is selected from the festival's open call, which this season drew over 2,000 submissions from 105 nations.

In addition to open call selections, BSDFF was honored to welcome two heralded documentarians, Matt Wolf and Brett Story, who bookended our festival as our 2025 retrospective filmmakers. The festival spotlit nine films from Wolf’s repertoire and eight films of Story’s. Both artists provided a perfect balance to the festival, with works that are deftly skilled at revealing hidden histories and challenging conventional systems of thought. The DocShop Filmmaker’s Forum looked under the hood at the 21st Century documentary audience, bringing in experts on impact campaigns, the art of documentary form, and distribution within the documentary industry, as well as legal scholars and important case studies on the short documentary form. DocShop also featured a new cohort of filmmakers for the Big Sky Pitch, showcasing ten impressive feature-length works-in-progress. The festival welcomed six filmmakers from the Mohawk & Haudenosaunee, Kanaka ‘Ōiwi, Diné & Salvadorian, Koyukon Athabaskan, and Attawapiskat nations as part of the 4th World Media Lab. Alongside it all, the Big Sky Film Institute youth programs reached nearly 8,000 Montana students through workshops, classroom screenings, and virtual programming during the ten-day festival alone. Youth education is core to the Big Sky Film Institute's work and our pipeline of documentary and media literacy education impacts nearly 3,000 students throughout the main school year.

All this and Big Sky brought back a robust line up of documentaries to our virtual cinema, engaging individuals outside of our mountain town with world-class and award-winning films.  

Our twenty-second year was one for the books and a true celebration of the transformative power of documentary film. Thank you to all for joining us and revelling in the magic of this important and impactful form!