Mountainfilm Announces 2026 Commitment Grant Recipients

Mountainfilm Supports Documentary Filmmakers with a Record Amount of Funding

Telluride, Colorado (September 14, 2026) – Mountainfilm is awarding a record amount of funds to a slate of 26 documentary film projects this year through its grant initiatives: the Mountainfilm Commitment Grant and Emerging Filmmaker Fellowship. This year’s grantees spotlight vast stories that embody Mountainfilm’s mission to inspire audiences to create a better world. Selected projects include both Mountainfilm alumni and first-time filmmakers, with themes spanning thrilling adventures, urgent stories of human and animal migration, aging with indomitable spirit and the fight to protect wild places. These stories will take viewers from the high peaks of Pakistan to a refugee camp in Beirut, the coal country of western Colorado and the ski runs above Telluride.

Mountainfilm drew hundreds of exceptional applications from filmmakers around the world this year, leaving the grant review committee with the difficult task of narrowing them down. Over $90,000 will be awarded across 20 shorts and six features. One of them, Shroompa Walks to Telluride, was directed by Caroline Locke, who was also named this year’s Emerging Filmmaker Fellow. Funding for these initiatives is provided by Mountainfilm’s Filmmaker Fund, the Borsecnik/Weil Family, the Larry Hopkins Fund and TranSending7, along with Jess Stevens and Stephen Pollard in honor of the life of Isabella de la Houssaye.

“The Commitment Grant process is one of my favorite things we do all year. The caliber and creativity of the applications we receive are incredible, and reading through them is a reminder of how much powerful work is out there just waiting for the support to get made,” said Lauren Howie, Mountainfilm’s program manager.

Mountainfilm has supported independent filmmakers through its Commitment Grant initiative since 2010, and many past grantees have gone on to screen their work at the festival and far beyond. Eleven grant-funded films screened at this May’s festival: Best Day Ever, Buckskin, Frost: The Story of a Lifetime, Gladice, Guardians of Anatolia, A New Inferno, Panther Pat, Papertown, Sonia, Stalin Boys and Yu & Me.

The 2026 Commitment Grant recipients are:

AZADI ON ICE
Leah Varjacques

Nick H. only learned to ice skate at 22, and just a few years later made it onto Iran’s first national ice hockey team. But he soon quit, speaking out against the Islamic regime. Now in exile, he chases his hockey dreams in Colorado, as war rocks his home country.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
Eliana Lafone

Colombia’s coal region is rich in resources, but has long been forgotten by the state. Today, it’s caught in the middle of a global transformation. Coal mines are closing and solar and wind may take their place, as the world begins the shift away from fossil fuels. This film is a portrait of three people living inside this change, fighting to secure their place in an uncertain future.

BIG WALL BATS
Nina Riggio

Yosemite wildlife biologist and climber Dr. Shannon Joslin mobilizes climbers and citizen scientists to document bats threatened by white-nose syndrome. After Joslin is fired for hanging a trans flag, the largest flag ever flown from El Capitan, a First Amendment case asks who gets to speak, dissent and care for public lands.

CITY OF WILD ANGELS
Michiel Thomas

A hidden world of wildlife emerges across Los Angeles, revealing a fragile coexistence woven into the rhythms of a sprawling metropolis.

THE COURSE
Jordyn Romero

After her father is suddenly killed, filmmaker Jordyn Romero rides with his mountain biking crew through the trails he loved. As they move through the stages of grief together, she discovers that shared loss becomes connection, and that her father’s legacy lives in every pedal forward.

DANCING WITH SNOW
Els Remijn

High in the mountains of northern Pakistan, 13-year-old Khushim dreams of becoming the country’s first female Olympic skier. On the slopes, she finds a freedom that seems impossible in her conservative village, but when violence, family tragedy and financial hardship strike, growing pressure to marry threatens to take her dream away.

DIARY OF A DERBY DAD
Grant Robbins, Sara Robbins

14-year-old Ukrainian-born Dasha Driscoll is a champion soapbox derby racer. With her father Jon by her side, she’s used her skills behind the wheel to raise over $100,000 for Ukrainian families fleeing the same war that, without him, could have been her story too.

ELIZA
José Jesús Zaragoza, Max Maldonado

After her parents are swept into immigration detention, 21-year-old Eliza Perez becomes her family’s default parent — running their landscaping business and raising her younger siblings while the courts decide her mother’s fate. As the case drags toward its final hearing, Eliza confronts the harder question underneath it: whether to stay in the only home she’s ever known, or go.

THE INVISIBLE VALLEY
Elivia Shaw

The Invisible Valley is a lyrical documentary set in California’s Central Valley, where the rhythms of agricultural labor, illness, activism and care unfold in a landscape pushed to its limits, offering a poetic meditation on how environmental harm imprints itself on both land and body and how medicine must rise to meet these challenges.

THE LAST CRAFTSMAN
Jordan Fatke

The Last Craftsman follows inventor Fron Reilly as he creates the Fron2, a one-of-a-kind instrument embraced by artists including Fred again.., M83 and The Barr Brothers. Through his work, the film explores craftsmanship and the value of making by hand in an increasingly digital world, and a relationship between hands, tools and imagination that may be quietly fading.

METHANE RISING
Matthew Talarico

Chemist-turned-entrepreneur Chris Caskey risks everything to destroy methane leaking from abandoned coal mines in the rugged mountains of western Colorado, betting on an unlikely climate solution that slows global warming while revitalizing landscapes and communities once shaped by coal.

MOTHER CINDY / LA MADRE CINDY
Cady Voge

She named herself after Cinderella, but Cindy never waited for a fairy godmother. These days, she is one. In her 60s, in a community where few trans women reach old age, she’s ‘Madre’ to dozens of chosen daughters in Bogotá, launching a career in fashion design, and discovering what she wants her legacy to be: teaching her ‘hijas’ to save, invest and plan for a future she never expected to have.

PRIDE & HONOR
Mai Iskander

Lilly Steffanides is a terminally ill Navy veteran who rose from 24 years of homelessness to help lead a landmark federal case that restored honor and benefits to over 100,000 LGBTQ+ veterans, the largest LGBTQ+ military victory in U.S. history, achieving their own dying wish of a discharge upgrade and funeral with full military honors.

RECURRENT
Leslie Ramos

A passionate whitewater kayaker, Rafael Gallo dedicated his life to protecting the Pacuare from dams, deforestation and development. After his sudden passing, his son now leads the push to pass Bill 25.189 through the Costa Rican Parliament and gain permanent legal protection for the river where his father’s spirit lives on.

REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE: BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT
Loren Waters

Katherine Paul, the acclaimed musician behind Black Belt Eagle Scout, is forced to reimagine her life after a multiple sclerosis diagnosis interrupts the height of her career. As she embraces motherhood and confronts an uncertain future, she discovers new ways to create, endure and redefine what it means to move forward.

RIVER BEYOND SUMMITS
Ben Ayers, Joanna Suchomska

After surviving a Taliban massacre, grieving the loss of her brother and rebuilding her life as a refugee in Australia, journalist River Ahmad sets out to become the first Afghan woman to climb Mount Everest. The ascent turns her lifelong search for freedom into a message to women far beyond her homeland: they have the right to decide how far they can go.

RUNNING FOR JUSTICE
Jordan Whetstone

Running for Justice follows runners completing a 113-mile journey in memory of Emily Pike, a 14-year-old Indigenous girl whose murder devastated her community. Held on May 5th, the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, the run transforms grief into remembrance, solidarity, healing, visibility and a call for justice.

SHE TRAVELS WITH MOON DOGS
Princess Daazhraii Johnson

In a journey back to her Alaska homelands, Han Gwich’in musher Jody Potts-Joseph pursues her childhood dream of competing in the 2026 Iditarod, providing an intimate look into her Indigenous lifestyle, navigating a rapidly changing climate and ban on salmon fishing, while living in symphony with her dogs.

SHROOMPA WALKS TO TELLURIDE
Caroline Locke (Emerging Filmmaker Fellow)

On his 80th birthday, poet Art Goodtimes journeys on foot through Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, reflecting on aging, mortality, friendship and the wild landscape that has shaped his life.

SOCKO: JUSTA PATROLLER
Morgan Bradley

Evolving from a sleepy mining town to a luxury resort community, Telluride, Colorado, has seen a lot of change over the last 50 years. One man has lived through it all, with his skis on his feet. Socko: Justa Patroller is a portrait of a life dedicated to a career in ski patrol, a passion for the sport of skiing and a love of the mountains and the people who call them home.

SON OF THE STREETS
Mohammed Almughanni

Born without legal identity in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp, Khodor has spent his life waiting for Lebanon to recognize that he exists. Filmed across nearly a decade, his journey from childhood to adulthood becomes a search for family, belonging and the right to have a future.

SUCK IT UP, KID
Greg Balkin, Tim Kressin

Every two years, over 11,000 athletes between the ages of 50 and 100 come together for the largest multi-sport event for seniors. Suck it up, Kid follows six competitive athletes who are breaking records and going for gold on the track, reminding us that it’s never too late to try something new.

TESZTPÁLYA (TEST TRACK)
Lydia Cornett

At dawn in western Hungary, 14-year-old Hunor and his family bring their greyhound dogs to clear wildlife from ZalaZone, one of Europe’s most advanced autonomous vehicle test tracks. Their ancient knowledge quietly makes way for a militarizing future.

THUNDAH
Daniel Mitchell

Born in the Jim Crow South, Sylvester ‘Thundah’ Mitchell traveled from the cotton fields to the record books, revealing the transformative power running had on his life.

THE WEIGHT OF THE LETTERS
Grant Conversano, Adam Conversano

After surviving the Israeli airstrike that killed his wife and two of his children, a Palestinian father builds a new life with his surviving family in a quiet Boston suburb. He meets a former Israeli settler who is now a conflict-resolution specialist. Together they start a podcast where they explore Gaza, Israel-Palestine, the wider region and the conflict’s growing presence in American public life.

WHITE WATER: LEGENDS RUN IN THE FAMILY
Shawna Brakefield-Haase

Considered the “Michael Jordan of kayaking,” Eric “EJ” Jackson, at age 59, returns to the Freestyle Kayaking World Championships to compete alongside, and against, his own children, including his son Dane, who is poised to surpass his father’s record. As kayaking’s first family continues to make history, EJ reflects on a life lived without compromise and a family legacy still in motion.

About Mountainfilm: Established in 1979, Mountainfilm is one of North America’s longest-running documentary film festivals, held annually over Memorial Day weekend in Telluride, Colorado. Mountainfilm is dedicated to using the power of film, art and ideas to inspire audiences to create a better world. The festival offers an immersive experience featuring a wide range of filmmakers, speakers, adventurers and activists in addition to screening cutting-edge, award-winning documentary films from around the world. Mountainfilm is an Academy Award® Qualifying Festival in the Documentary Short Film category. Mountainfilm on Tour also reaches audiences year-round through its global film program, and through Mountainfilm for Students, an educational outreach initiative for youth. Simply put, Mountainfilm has the power to change lives. To learn more, visit www.mountainfilm.org. To join the conversation, please read Mountainfilm’s news and follow @mountainfilm on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and LinkedIn.