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.
History Celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2025, the Crested Butte Film Festival (CBFF) was founded in 2011. 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 was discontinued. The first installment of the 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 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 filmmakers. The Crested Butte Film Festival also has a reputation for programming a diverse array of short and full-length films during its 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 and documentary 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. + ACTNow Year Winning film Director(s) Country 2012 Bidder 70 Beth Cage; George Cage 2013 Blood Brother Steve Hoover 2014 Virunga Orlando von Einsiedel 2015 Racing Extinction Louie Psihoyos 2016 Newtown Kim Snyder 2017 Bending the Arc Kief Davidson; Pedro Kos A Plastic Ocean Craig Leeson 2019 Santuario Pilar Timpane; Christine Delp 2020 Mossville: WhenGreat Trees Fall Alexander Glustrom 2024 Mr.Cato Ryan Ross
Juried Awards
+ Best Narrative Feature Year Winning film Director(s) Country 2013 De rouille et d'os(Rust and Bone) Jacques Audiard 2014 The One I Love Charlie McDowell 2015 Kumiko, theTreasure Hunter Nathan Zellner; David Zellner 2016 The Lobster Yorgos Lanthimos / 2017 A Ghost Story David Lowery 2019 Parasite Bong Joon-ho 2020 Bait Mark Jenkin 2024 Los Frikis Michael Schwartz & Tyler Nilson + Best Documentary Feature Year Winning film Director(s) Country 2012 Bidder 70 Beth Cage; George Cage 2013 Chasing Ice Jeff Orlowski 2014 The Overnighters Jesse Moss 2015 Almost Holy(Crocodile Gennadiy) Steve Hoover 2016 LoveTrue Alma Har'el / 2017 Whose Streets? Sabaah Folayan; Damon Davis 2019 Storm the Gates Daniele Anastasion; Catherine Yrisarri; Josie Swantek 2020 Us Kids Kim Snyder 2024 CHAMPIONS OF THE GOLDEN VALLEY Ben Sturgulewski & Katie Sternholm
+ Best Comedy Short Year Winning film Director(s) Country 2017 ImmaculateMisconception Michael Geoghegan 2019 Hot Dog Alma Buddecke; Marleen Valin 2020 Olla Ariane Labed 2024 Cheat Meal Drew Bierut + Best Documentary Short Year Winning film Director(s) Country 2015 Our Curse Tomasz Śliwiński 2016 We All We Got Carlos Javier Ortiz 2017 Woody's Order Ann Talman 2019 All Inclusive Corina Schwingruber-Ilić 2020 Huntsville Station Jamie Meltzer and Chris Filippone 2024 #WAY_AURELIO Alan Rexroth
+ Best Narrative Short Year Winning film Director(s) Country 2015 La Hija Jazmín Rada 2016 Situational Scott Simonsen; Alyssa Skoller Stutterer Benjamin Cleary 2017 American Paradise Joe Talbot 2019 Moon and the Night Erin Lau 2020 Monstruo Dios(Monster God) Agustina San Martín 2024 Cheat Meal Drew Bierut
Audience Choice + Audience Choice Year Winning film Director(s) Country 2012 Kumaré Vikram Gandhi 2013 Blood Brother Steve Hoover 2014 About Alex Jessie Zwick 2015 Unbranded Phillip Baribeau 2016 Jim: The James Foley Story Brian Oakes 2017 Band Aid Zoe Lister Jones 2019 Peanut Butter Falcon Tyler Nilson;Michael Schwartz 2020 High Country Conor Hagen 2024 CHAMPIONS OF THE GOLDEN VALLEY Ben Sturgulewski & Katie Sternholm
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"
See also List of film festivals
References
External links Official site of the CBFF CBFF page at IMDb