2025 Films

Life After Larry Larson

dir. Caroline Larson

Larry Larson always wanted a story made about him. After passing away in the house of a family farm that he grew up on in 2022, a filmmaker tackles a mission to fulfill his request. Life After Larry Larson follows the filmmaker’s journey back at the family farm as she tries to uncover the mystery of her grandfather. Through candid moments on a farm that is lingering with memories of a once full household, the film delves on the intricate life of Larry and the hardship of having to accept that he will forever be known as the man he once was.

Caught In The Current

dir. Nick Ginter

Lifelong Oregonian, Andy Karlovic, spent most of his career as a salesman, wearing a suit and tie and working 70 hours a week. Desperate for a new direction, he turned to the ocean. What many fishermen refer to as “the big pond” became more than casting a line for Andy: the water became his peace and meditation, driving him to retire from his nine to five to start a charter fishing business and catch a new attitude toward life.

Absolute Necessities For Success

dir. Sophia Douglas

In a world where success is the ultimate prize, a bold, thrill-seeking entrepreneur sets out to revolutionize social connection. Yaro and his best friend build a platform designed to bring people together, only to see their own bond fall apart. His relentless pursuit of success forces him to confront his identity and question the cost of his dreams, and he must walk the line between success and self-destruction.

Burn Control

dir. Tommy Gleason

For centuries fire burned across Missouri’s prairies and forests, creating a flourishing ecosystem. But American expansion west and decades of fire suppression altered the landscape and our perceptions of healthy forests. Missouri’s trees are aging and native prairies have been decimated. Today, fire is returning as a tool in conservation. Landowners, government agencies and conservation organizations are sending fire through the landscape to promote open, healthy forests, deer and turkey populations and insects foundational to the ecosystem. They are navigating the right fire in the right place at the right time, but fire remains a dangerous beast.

WINNER: STACEY WOELFEL PRIZE FOR INNOVATIVE JOURNALISM

What Can You Hear?

dir. Molly Fox

Grappling with a genetic hearing loss disorder, a young filmmaker seeks answers for how to cope with her inevitable deafness. To connect with her hearing-impaired family, she embarks on a road trip across the country with her grandma, mother, and sister in search of her great-grandmother’s memorial. Along the drive, the three generations explore their past, present, and future on the road to silence.

WINNER: BEST DIRECTOR

Perspectivism

dir. Kyle Maki

Perspectivism is a meditation on activism’s quiet battlegrounds. While coastal activists face deportations and arrests, the University of Missouri silences opposition through investigations, exclusions, and gradual erasure. The film follows the president of Mizzou Students for Justice in Palestine, as she navigates a homecoming ban, GOP accusations of terrorism, and her own growing isolation on campus. When her satirical protest draws administrative wrath, a deeper question surfaces: What does resistance mean when it’s met not with batons, but with administrative codes? When the audience isn’t the state, but a community conditioned to look away?

The Long Game

dir. Benjamin Zweig

The Long Game explores Jewish women’s enduring relationship with mahjongg — a game that became more than a pastime. What began as a night carved out for companionship— while their husbands played poker— evolved into a forty-year gathering of connection, laughter and therapy. The film reflects on how cultural rituals endure — and what they quietly hold over time.

WINNER: BEST FILM

Maya Grace

dir. Rilee Malloy

Best friends Maya Collins and Rilee Malloy had a lot of big dreams. Their biggest? To make a movie together. But when Maya passed away from AML complications at fourteen, their dream was left unfinished. Now nearly eight years later, the discovery of Maya’s old vlog camera and bucket list has given Rilee the chance to do the impossible: make a movie with her best friend from beyond the grave.

Pass Time

dir. Jj Measer

Pass Time explores the passive absorption of breaking news and political discourse during one of the most charged elections in history. How did we arrive at this moment, where truth and narrative blur? What forces have shaped our perceptions, and what consequences lie in wait as we drift through an ever-shifting landscape of information? Where are we headed, and can we even see it coming?

WINNER: SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR EDITING

The Hole He Dug

dir. Elise Wilke-Grimm

An aging man who was once surrounded by family now faces the idea of dying alone, the consequence of choices that fractured his relationships beyond repair. As he reflects on his life, he finds an unlikely connection with the filmmaker, a young woman who listens as he revisits the past and searches for meaning in the present. In a story about loss, redemption, and human connection, the film asks the question, is it ever too late to make peace with the choices we make?