2026 FILM SELECTIONS
Congratulations to our 2026 selected films and finalists!
These films, submitted from coast to coast, best represent our theme of Environmental Resilience: “We seek films that document the complex stories of our natural world, acknowledge challenges and highlight creative efforts to transform our shared physical and social environment.”
Selected films were chosen by our Beaver Falls Film Festival team.
Finalists were chosen by an independent jury.
ACT I
Beaver County Steel: Roots and Resilience
Documentary, Student, Short
Directed by Talya Pashuta
Your environment is everything surrounding you: the air, animals, plants, water, people, history, and culture. Water is an integral part of the environment. When it is polluted, it affects the surrounding plants, animals, and people. Beaver County’s rich history of industry has deeply impacted our river systems. A story that must be told. This documentary started as an assignment created for the Beaver Falls Film Festival, but it turned into an eye-opening dive into the history of Beaver County, PA, and its long-lasting effect on the environment.
Beaver County Steel: Roots and Resilience is an informative documentary about the historical steel mills in Beaver County, PA, its part in the contamination of our rivers, and the progress our environment and community have made to combat this pollution.
Roots of Evanescence
Experimental, Short
Directed by Isabella Jeffers, Mark Owens
@IsabellaRoseFilms
When a young girl’s aggressive dancing ruins the environment around her, she’s cursed to replace the displaced earth with her body. I wanted to create a story where the power dynamic was shifted, where the environment had the power over mankind and could force the human characters to live with the consequences of their actions. To put us in Mother Nature’s shoes so that we could experience the harm that our everyday lives do to the environment around us.
Still Here: Searching for Healing in East Palestine
Documentary
Directed by Christopher Padgett
@humancitycreative | @getriverwise
www.humancitycreative.com | www.getriverwise.com
Many of the issues we face within ourselves or in our world have to do with this idea of generational trauma. This is just as true in the communities in southeast Ohio or western Pennsylvania. In these events in our histories, we come face to face with things outside of our control and are left to try to make sense of it in the aftermath. I hope that this film is a reflection on the process of trauma at both the community and individual scale, and how we live with the lingering effects (both physically and psychologically) of what it means to live in the uncertainty and still fight for the future our children deserve.
Inundations
Animation, Experimental, Short, Other
Directed by Anne Ciecko
A traveler meditates upon the unsettling discovery that climate change has transformed the American Northeast into floodlands, in a videopoetic tribute to the environment and Indigenous peoples. This layered hybrid film/video works connect original poetry and poetic interpretations with music and visual imagery for reflexive explorations of culture, identity, subjectivity, memory, and survival. They explore a marriage between digital media convergence and the vitality of hand-making during tumultuous times.
Plant
Short
Directed by Malachi Abbott
@wkend_studios
“Plant” examines the fragile relationship between humanity and the natural world through a woman’s connection to a potted plant discovered in a busy city. As she cares for the plant, she turns away from distractions and finds temporary grounding in an overwhelming urban environment. The film highlights the tension between care and control, confinement and freedom, culminating in the plant’s accidental destruction. By burying it, the woman believes it is lost, yet the final image leaves space for nature’s resilience. “Plant” aligns with the prompt by acknowledging the challenges of coexisting with nature while emphasizing how small acts of care can reshape our environments.
ACT II
First Waves Beaver County
Documentary
Directed by Rishi Sethi
@watersmithguild | @malhari.media www.watersmithguild.org
First Waves Beaver County documents the expansion of the Watersmith Guild’s groundbreaking youth environmental education program into the Beaver and Ohio River valleys in the aftermath of the ethylene cracker plant’s penalties for pollution.
Powering a Nation with the Sun
Documentary
Produced by Maya Lilly
@yearsofliving
www.theyearsproject.com
The Navajo (Diné) Nation has a long history of providing electricity to the rest of the country. Yet more than 10,000 households on the Navajo and Hopi reservations don’t even have electricity. How do we fix this inequity?
Cottonwood
Documentary
Directed by Arian Tomar
@ariantomarthefuture
In the San Fernando Valley lies a model for urban renewal that could revolutionize how vacant land is used across Los Angeles. Follow founders Elliott Kuhn and Alexys Romo as they recount the origins of Cottonwood Urban Farm, its partnership with Black Thumb Farm, and the impact they’ve had in Panorama City. Cottonwood is a community resource that seeks to educate and empower community members to take part in building something that serves them. If more people can learn from Cottonwood’s model of resource sharing and community building, I think it could mean widespread renewal.
Stranded
Documentary
Directed by Joshua Bruni
@joshua.bruni
Lauren Rust and Tracy Kowalcyzk are the only two people responsible for responding to stranded marine mammals along the entire coastline of South Carolina. They conduct a variety of research on the dolphins of South Carolina, such as boat surveys and necropsies, to further their education and awareness to the public on the human impacts on the dolphins, such as boat strikes, entanglements, and harassment.
Hallogreen
Short, Narrative
Directed by Zayan Agha
@zayanagha
Raised in Lahore, Pakistan, and currently based in Boston, Zayan’s films often intertwine climate and social justice with narrative drama. Having directed, produced, and edited several projects that have been showcased at some of the most prestigious festivals in the world. An alum of the historical National College of Arts and Emerson College, Zayan’s alter ego is making music videos for some of Pakistan’s leading artists.
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