Debuting in 2016, the Student and Emerging Filmmaker Competitions gives filmmakers the opportunity to use cinematic storytelling to answer important themes like “what’s your civil right?” and “speaking truth to power.” The annual short film competition receives over 150 submissions from across the world. An esteemed jury of civil rights, industry leaders, and established filmmakers select the winners, and the shortlisted films are screened during the festival. Now in its eighth year, the competition has continued to attract industry supporters, including a diverse portfolio of funders. Prizes for this competition are funded in part by the generosity of Deborah Zipser and Craig Emanuel.
SEPTEMBER 16-21, 2025
The March On! Festival strives to increase awareness of the events and heroes of the Civil Rights Era and inspire renewed passion for activism. The festival uses the power of film, music, and the arts to share these important stories.
The Festival continues its Competition for Emerging and Student filmmakers to submit short form content, both narrative and documentary, which focuses on civil rights movements, the civil rights era and social justice issues.
Opal H. Bennett is the Emmy-winning Executive Producer at POV Shorts and Senior Producer at POV. Under her curation, POV Shorts won the 2020 and 2022 IDA Award for Best Short Form Series and the series broadcast the 2021 News & Documentary Emmy winner for Short Documentary, The Love Bugs.
Previously, Opal was Shorts Programmer and Director of Artist Development at DOC NYC and Senior Programmer at Athena Film Festival. Prior to that, Opal also worked with Nantucket Film Festival, Aspen ShortsFest, Tribeca Film Festival and consulted for The Gotham (formerly IFP). She is a Programming Consultant for March On!. Opal is a member of the AMPAS Documentary branch. She has served on juries for SxSW, HotDocs, Aspen & Palm Springs ShortsFests, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Seattle International Film Festivals and IndieMemphis Film Festival among others. She has also served on the shorts selection committees for Cinema Eye Honors and the IDA. Opal has participated on various selection committees for film programming and grants.
A Columbia Law grad, Opal holds a Masters in Media Studies from the London School of Economics, and received her B.A. from New York University.
The MOFF Student and Emerging Filmmaker Competitions will award 8 prizes, as follows:
4 Jury Awards for Best Narrative and Documentary Short, Student and Emerging Artist Jury Award Prizes:
4 Special Mentions for Narrative and Documentary Short, Student and Emerging Artist Special Mention Prizes:
The 8 Prize winners will be selected from a Shortlist of 12 finalists. All Shortlisted films will have a public screening at the 2025 March On! Festival.
All Shortlisted filmmakers will also receive:
Awards subject to change.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:
Applicants will be notified of the festival’s decision by the end of July.
Mon Afrique is an experimental student short, shot on film, that explores the experience of diaspora and longing through the journey of a hand-carved traditional African mask. (USA, 4 MIN)
An energetic, young, white chick blurs the lines of black culture appreciation with appropriation, now she must avoid losing her dream job and her dignity. (USA, 11 MIN)
Alex is an activist who moved from Hong Kong to the US in fear of political persecution. As he is trying to rebuild his life, his ex-boyfriend Brandon unexpectedly visits him, rekindling unresolved desires. (USA, 18 MIN)
Amidst the gentrified remnants of Chicago's Cabrini Green, For Those That Lived There captures the haunting displacement of Black legacies and the emergence of migrant narratives, offering an evocative exploration of a community in metamorphosis. (USA, 6 MIN)
Inspired by sit-in campaigns of the South, Velma Murphy and Norman Hill organized wade-ins at Chicago's Rainbow Beach, braving mob violence. (USA, 15 MIN)
While documenting the birth of his niece, Director William Jenkins leads a series of intimate conversations with his father and half-brother — both named Ronald — as he confronts the impacts of Ronald’s incarceration on family dynamics. (USA, 27 MIN)
Mississippi civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer gives an impassioned speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention and a prophetic warning to America. (USA, 10 MIN)
A privileged, Black law student, trying to escape pressure from his dad, finds himself in a potential police violence situation. (USA, 18 MIN)
On the day of their green card interview, a young couple confronts a dangerous immigration process. (USA, 15 MIN)
Through the intimate lens of eight Black & Brown Trans, gender-diverse people, and masculine-presenting women, the social concept of gender is challenged. (USA, 10 MIN)
Born with a disability, a young music enthusiast is lured into a life of crime and spends a decade in jail after hanging with the wrong people. He discovers his purpose in jail: to help at-risk youth and prevent them from making the same mistakes he did. (USA, 10 MIN)
Explore the careers of the daughters of Title IX through the experiences of surgeons facing pervasive stereotypes and gender-based discrimination. (USA, 24 MIN)
A spunky girl helping her mother in the fields must choose between putting soccer or family first. (10:46 MIN)
An Asian American single mother seeks a way of abortion in recent Texas after her recent divorce. (13:18 MIN)
When a Black teen is pulled over by an angry cop, he must use his father’s advice to navigate the struggle and quiet his own rage in order to survive the traffic stop that threatens to put an end to his night and possibly his life. (15:02 MIN)
“On Language” is an essay film that combines archival footage, video, and on-screen text to discuss the intersections of language and culture and race in everyday life. (06:10 MIN)
A poetic tribute to writer, poet and environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed alongside eight other activists for opposing the environmental damage done in their oil-rich homeland, Ogoni. (24:00 MIN)
The life of Francis Uyemastu, a Japanese immigrant, told through the words of Mary Uyematsu Kao, his granddaughter, and Chuck Currier, a local historian and former teacher. Francis Uyematsu created a successful flower nursery, owning over 130 acres of land, until the Japanese Internment during World War 2, where he was forced to sell his land. Entire neighborhoods now sit on his former land, filled with hundreds of homes and high schools, and the flowers he created are no longer his. (07:42 MIN)
(13:37 MIN)
Samantha is the strong-willed first-generation Latina daughter of an immigrant who is passionate about alternative punk rock music. Much to her mother’s disapproval, she has a band performing at the local Battle of the Bands. Rosa is a stoic immigrant mother who has held various labor jobs in her lifetime and holds traditional Mexican values. Will Rosa ultimately accept and support her daughter’s journey? (12:41 MIN)
July 2020, at the peak of the pandemic in the city of Los Angeles, misunderstandings and conflicts between a Chinese immigrant father, a white restaurant owner, and a young black man escalate into a tumultuous climax… (28:53 MIN)
The Black String Triage Ensemble, an all-African American string orchestra in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, performs on the scene in the immediate aftermath of incidents of gun violence, altering the notion of “first responders.” In a city with such a troubled relationship with violence, can this ensemble transform the traumatized public space into a place of recovery, healing and hope? (12:00 MIN)
Over 50 years ago, New York State assemblyman George Michaels cast a single vote that changed the course of American history but destroyed his political career in the process. For the first time, Deciding Vote shares the story of how Michaels defied his conservative constituents by casting the critical tie-breaking vote on a bill which legalized abortion in the state of New York, laying the groundwork for Roe v Wade. The film is a moving tribute to a now-forgotten act of political courage. (20:00 MIN)
Troubled Waters is an experimental short that examines the relationship between the black community and water, how it has both been weaponized against us, and employed by us, to empower and resist oppression. (04:34 MIN)
