Announcing award-winning films coming to Friday Harbor Film Festival

||| FROM ELLEN ROBERTS & KAREN PALMER for FRIDAY HARBOR FILM FESTIVAL |||

The 2023 FHFF In-Theatre Feature Film Guide, detailing the many exciting new documentaries coming to Friday Harbor on October 27-29, is now available on FHFF.org. The full 60-page interactive program flipbook is also posted, providing complete festival information. Among the 25 feature films In the line-up are notable award winners and nominees that you won’t want to miss.

Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, a career-spanning film about the celebrated Canadian musician and activist, has been nominated for a 2023 International Emmy Award. These Emmys recognize programs and performances from 20 countries. Winners will be announced on November 20 during the 51st International Emmy Awards Gala in New York City. Directed by Madison Thomas, this documentary displays the story of the Oscar-winning Indigenous artist from her rise to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene through her six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator, and artist.

Common Ground won the 2023 Tribeca Festival’s Human/Nature Award, established to amplify a film that best exemplifies solution-oriented environmental storytelling. Directed by Josh Tickell and Rebecca Tickell, this documentary explores how Americans from different walks of life, different political backgrounds, and different parts of the country share one thing in common – the very soil beneath their feet. It is a sequel to Kiss the Ground that screened at FHFF in 2021.

Wild Beauty:  Mustang Spirit of the West, directed by Ashley Avis, won Best Documentary at the Sun Screen Film Festival this summer in Florida. It is officially an awards contender for the 2024 Oscars. This documentary takes viewers on a sweeping, immersive journey into the world of wild horses that illuminates both the profound beauty and desperate plight they currently face in the Western United States. Filming it required a multi-year expedition to uncover the truth, aiming to protect the wild horses before they disappear forever.

FHFF’s printed 60-page full-color program is available on the outdoor rack at the Festival office (10 First St. in Friday Harbor) and in many businesses in Friday Harbor and around San Juan Island. They are also available in the literature racks on all Washington State ferries. Check out the online film guide, pick up a copy of the printed program, and finalize your plans to attend the Friday Harbor Film Festival.