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 Crested Butte is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality located in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 1,639 at the 2020 United States census. A former coal mining town ...

History

Celebrating it's 15th Anniversary in 2025, the Crested Butte Film Festival (CBFF) was founded b
Michael Brody
and Jennifer Brody in 2011 who were looking for new creative work together following their careers in filmmaking and education. In February 2025 the CBFF Board of Directors hired long-time Colorado nonprofit and local government leader
Scott Robson
as Executive Director. In the years prior to 2010, the Town of Crested Butte previously hosted ''Reel Fest'', a shorts film festival that lasted a decade but eventually was discontinued. The first installment of th
Crested Butte Film Festival
had an audience of 1,500 or approximately the full-time population of the town. By 2013 the attendance doubled and as of 2025 the Festival regularly draws attendance regionally and from across North America. The Festival is known for year-round programming of film in a funky unique mountain community which is a both a National Historic Landmark District and Colorado Creative District, and for offering unique opportunities for Festival attendees to meet and interact with filmakers. The Crested Butte Film Festival also has a reputation for programming a diverse array of unique short and full-length films during it
annual festival
which occurs during the peak of the autumn leaf changing season in Colorado (September 24-28, 2025).

Program

Crested Butte Film Festival programs artful, moving, creative and provocative films, in both short and full-length programs. Preference is given to creativity, daring, great storytelling, and bravery. The top selections are awarded to ACTNow, to the best

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...

and

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

features, best documentary short, and to those chosen by the audience.

Awards

Action and Change Together (ACTNow)

Awarded to a nonprofit organization linked to a call-to-action documentary.

Juried Awards

Audience Choice

Other awards

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"''

References

External links

Official site of the CBFF

CBFF page at IMDb
{{Colorado Film festivals in Colorado