Big wins at the Big Sky Film Festival

Every February, the Big Sky Film Institute puts together a ten day festival of non-fiction films to share during the Big Sky Film Festival. What’s usually a large festival of 20,000 people gathering together in downtown Missoula was hosted as a ten day online event to accommodate for COVID-19 restrictions.

This year, the festival ran from Feb. 19-28 and offered over 75 different films to be enjoyed via Apple TV, Roku device, Chromecast or any internet-connected device. The festival also presented live, interactive Q&A sessions with filmmakers.

The film lengths varied anywhere from three to 110 minutes, and featured what the website described as “non-fiction films that have the power to transform our world, our culture, our youth and ourselves.”

While it provides viewers with hours of entertainment and new information, the festival was also a competitive event to spotlight superior work in filmmaking. The competitive categories included the Best Feature, Best Short, Best Mini-Doc (films under 15 minutes) and the Big Sky Award. The films that are awarded must “artistically honor the character, history, tradition and imagination of the American West,” according to the Big Sky Film Institute’s website. Winners in the Best Short and Best Mini-Doc categories both qualify for Academy Award nominations in the short documentary category.

Testimonials off the website from years past sing high praises of the festival, with one reading, “Big Sky was an incredible experience. I left feeling inspired and was humbled to be a part of such a passionate group of filmmakers. Big Sky's focus on community was on display in every aspect of the festival and I look forward to future collaborations with people I met there. A must for documentary filmmakers."

Although the festival looked a little different this year, it still offered exceptional films and the added ability to watch in the comfort of your living room.