Happy New Year from Friday Harbor Film Festival

||| FROM FRIDAY HARBOR FILM FESTIVAL |||

Dear FHFF Friends, Filmmakers & Film Enthusiasts,

Happy New Year from all of us at the Friday Harbor Film Festival! We hope the beginning of 2025 finds you well, inspired, and ready for another remarkable year of documentary film. Thank you for being part of our global community.

Celebrating Academy Shortlist Success

We’re thrilled to congratulate directors Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev for their documentary Porcelain War and directors Emily Kassie & Julian Brave NoiseCat for their documentary Sugarcane — both have been shortlisted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Best Documentary Film Oscar at the 97th Oscars, airing March 2nd.

Both films screened at the 2024 Friday Harbor Film Festival in October.

Porcelain War

Porcelain War is a stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, embodying the passion and fight that artists put into the world crumbling around them. Extraordinary footage filmed by everyday civilians tells an unforgettable story about Ukraine and all of us. The film won the 2024 FHFF Audience Choice Award for Best Overall Feature Documentary and was sponsored by A Waterworks Gallery.

Sugarcane

An investigation into abused and missing children at an Indian residential school sparks a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve. The film illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding strength to persevere. The festival screening was sponsored by Chicago Title of Washington.

2025 Best of the Fest Series

We’re welcoming the new year with our Best of the Fest (BOF) series—free monthly screenings from January through September.

Each month, we’ll present an award-winning and thought-provoking documentary from the 2024 festival lineup. Whether you’re a local or planning a weekend getaway to Friday Harbor, these screenings make for a perfect free movie night out!

Stay Tuned

The full 2025 BOF schedule of monthly screenings and events will be published in early January on FHFF.org.

Series Sponsor

A big thank-you to The Journal of the San Juan Islands for sponsoring our 2025 Best of the Fest series, and to our BOF Series screening partners, the SJI Grange and the San Juan Island Library.

Thank You & Happy New Year

On behalf of the entire FHFF team, we wish you a wonderful start to 2025 filled with hope, creativity, and of course—great films! Your support makes our festival community possible. Stay tuned for more announcements, and we look forward to seeing you at our monthly screenings and special events throughout 2025. Here’s to an extraordinary year of storytelling and film!

Cheers to 2025,

Your Friends at the Friday Harbor Film Festival