Crested Butte Film Festival

The Crested Butte Film Festival is a celebration of international films, held annually over four days in the last weekend of September, in Crested Butte, Colorado.

History
Michael and Jennifer Brody established the Crested Butte Film Festival in 2011, looking for creative work together following careers in filmmaking and education. Crested Butte previously had Reel Fest, a shorts film festival that lasted ten years, but which was discontinued in 2010. The first installment of the Crested Butte Film Festival had an audience of 1,500 or about the population of the town; two years later attendance doubled. The festival is held just as the aspens turn into their imperial gold.

Program
Crested Butte Film Festival programs artful, moving, creative and provocative films. Preference is given to creativity, daring, great storytelling, and bravery. The top selections are awarded to ACTNow, to the best narrative and documentary features, best documentary short, children's films, and to those chosen by the audience.

Action and Change Together (ACTNow)
Awarded to a nonprofit organization linked to a call-to-action documentary.

Special Jury Prize

 * 2012 – Alexander Gaeta, "Outstanding achievement, directorial debut"; Shoot the Moon
 * 2014 – Martin Rath, "Outstanding achievement, breakthrough filmmaker"; Written in Ink and Arena
 * 2015 – Yana Novikova (Яна Новикова), "Outstanding achievement, debut performance in a feature film"; The Tribe (Плем'я)
 * 2016 – Leonor Caraballo, Mattero Norzi, Abou Farman, and Adella Ladjevardi, "Artistic accomplishment"; Icaros: A Vision
 * 2016 – Ashley Valenzuela, "Filmmaker to watch"; Warm Waves
 * 2017 – David Byars, "Excellence in filmmaking"; No Man's Land
 * 2017 – Nancy Liu, "Filmmaker to watch"; Angeltown
 * 2017 – Dana Romanoff, "Embodying the spirit of activism in the arts"; Storytelling and the Spirit of Activism in Cinema
 * 2019 – Nancy Dionne, "Achievement in social impact and activism"; All I See is the Future
 * 2019 – Zack Gottsagen, "Outstanding debut performance"
 * 2020 – Mohammad Rasoulof, "Courage in filmmaking"
 * 2020 – Ashley Williams, "Outstanding achievement, directorial debut"

Spirit of the Festival

 * 2013 – Jack Hanley
 * 2014 – Scott Aigner and Marcelo Mitnik
 * 2015 – Jennifer Brody
 * 2016 – Jeramiah Friesen
 * 2017 – Stacey Donaldson and Kat Cooke