Premieres and Festival Highlights
Daughters of the Forest celebrated its world premiere at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) earlier this March.
Soon after, the film held its North American premiere at the SXSW Film & TV Festival, where it was awarded the 2026 Visions Audience Award!
Check out this interview with filmmaker Otilia Portillo Padua discussing Daughters of the Forest.
Derek vs. Derek, a 2024-2025 Redford Center grantee, held its world premiere at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece, and two weeks later, also participated in Movies That Matter Festival in the Netherlands.
The protagonists of the film, Derek Gow and Derek Banbury, were present for the world premiere alongside the filmmakers.
The [Conserv]atives held its world premiere at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF) this past Monday as one of DCEFF’s Centerpiece selections.
Following the screening, filmmakers Dominic Gill and Nadia Gill, film subject Dr. Rev. Jessica Moerman, and more had the opportunity to discuss their film and its potential impacts.
DCEFF Screenings
Additional Redford Center–supported films screened at DCEFF earlier this month, including A Life Illuminated, Vs. Goliath, Bee Wild, and Between Moon Tides.
See DCEFF’s Film Guide for more info on each film.
The festival also featured a foundational Redford Center film at a special retrospective screening of Watershed: Exploring a New Water Ethic for the New West. The screening was followed by a conversation with the film’s director Mark Decena and Watershed case study author Maggie Stogner, reflecting on the film’s lasting influence and the conversations it continues to influence about water in the American West.
Upcoming Screenings
If you’re in Northern California this weekend, you have another great opportunity to see a couple of Redford Center–supported films on the big screen. At the Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF) on Saturday, March 28, two supported films will be screening: A Life Illuminated, and Fork in the Road, celebrating its world premiere!
A Life Illuminated follows pioneering marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder who, after a lifetime of unveiling the deep sea’s most elusive secrets, descends 3,300 feet into the ocean’s depths on her most groundbreaking mission yet: to capture a bioluminescent phenomenon that could transform our understanding of life on Earth.
Fork in the Road is an intimate documentary that explores the profound connections between people, the land, and the future of our food system that reveals the authentic, lived realities and unprecedented challenges of those working against the tide of escalating industrialization in agriculture. If you’re in the area, check out its very first public screening in Sonoma.
Updates from The Redford Center
In case you missed it, we released our 2025 Impact Report, and we’re incredibly grateful to everyone who has taken the time to read it and share it with their communities. If you haven’t already, check out the report to see how independent environmental films, when strategically supported, can move beyond the screen to spark narrative shifts, build collective power in communities, and help drive systemic change.
Last but most definitely not least, keep your eyes peeled for our upcoming announcement for The Redford Center’s next open call opportunity. Since launching the program, Redford Center Grants have supported 60 projects and awarded more than $2 million in funding to environmental films and filmmakers.
We’re excited to begin the search for the next round of stories, so stay tuned for more details soon!
About The Redford Center
Co-founded in 2005 by activists and filmmakers Robert Redford and James Redford, The Redford Center is a nonprofit that advances environmental solutions through the power of stories that move. As one of the only US-based nonprofits solely dedicated to environmental impact filmmaking, The Redford Center develops and invests in projects that foster action and strengthen the reach of the grassroots efforts powering the environmental movement. Over the years, The Redford Center has produced three award-winning feature documentaries and more than 40 short films, supported over 150 film and media projects with grants and other services, inspired the creation of 550 student films, and disbursed more than $20 million to environmental film projects, amplifying change-making environmental solutions to millions of people worldwide.
