March On!™ Festival 2026   |  September 29 - October 6, 2026   |  Celebrating 250 Years of Democracy: The Unfinished Story      

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Debuting in 2016, the Student and Emerging Filmmaker Competitions give 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 90 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 their tenth year, the competitions have continued to attract industry supporters, including a diverse portfolio of funders. Prizes for the competitions this are funded in part by the generosity of Deborah Zipser and Craig Emanuel.

2026 Competitions Events

Virtual

September 8, 2026
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm EDT

A preamble to the Festival: March On! founders share candid stories from a decade — plus the live announcement of the 2026 finalists for the 10th Annual Student & Emerging Filmmaker Competition. 

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Washington, D.C.

October 3 , 2026
10:00 am - 1:30 pm EDT

This special session features seven powerful social justice short films: films by the competition’s six student winners and the winning film from March On!’s new Howard University pilot program.

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Washington, D.C.

October 3 , 2026
12:30 pm - 4:00 pm EDT

These bold narrative and documentary works capture the urgency, creativity, and conviction of a new generation of civil rights storytellers.

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STUDENT COMPETITION JURY

Anurima Bhargava

Civil Rights Advocate and Filmmaker

Anurima Bhargava is a civil rights advocate and filmmaker dedicated to promoting dignity and justice in our schools, workplaces and communities. Teaching America is her directorial debut; she has also served as a producer and advisor to numerous documentaries, including Writing With Fire (Oscar Nominated; Peabody Award), While We Watched (Peabody Award, Henry Award), The Body Politic (Emmy Nominated), the docuseries The Vow, A Shot At History, Patang and The Inquisitor.  She previously led civil rights enforcement in schools, colleges and universities at the U.S. Department of Justice; directed the education practice at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; and chaired the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. She currently chairs the U.S. Board of Doc Society and serves on the Capacity Council for Brown Girls Doc Mafia.

Louis Massiah

Filmmaker and the Founder of the Scribe Video Center

Louis Massiah is a documentary filmmaker and the founder of the Scribe Video Center.

Massiah has developed production methodologies that assist first time makers author their own stories, including the Precious Places Community History project, a collection of 150 collaborative documentaries; Muslim Voices of Philadelphia; and The Great Migration - A City Transformed. He is the artistic director of the North Philadelphia History Festival. Massiah’s documentaries, include: “TCB – the Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing”, “Tenants of Lenapehocking in the Age of Magnets,” “W.E.B. Du Bois – A Biography in Four Voices”, T”he Bombing of Osage Avenue”, and two films for the “Eyes on the Prize II” series. A MacArthur Foundation “genius award” fellow, he is currently an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

Srikanth Nandigama

Award-winning Cinematographer and Educator

Srikanth Nandigama is an award-winning cinematographer and educator. He is an Assistant Professor in Cathy Hughes School of Communications, Department of Media, Journalism and Film, and Undergraduate Film-TV Sequence Coordinator.

Professor Nandigama’s areas of teaching include intermediate to advanced level film production courses. His research focuses on the psychological impact of Cinematography and he aims to explore various interactive/immersive methods of filmmaking and implement them in presenting socially relevant narratives.

EMERGING COMPETITION JURY

Alexandra Strunin

Filmmaker, Visual Artist, and Musician

Alexandra Strunin is a Polish filmmaker, visual artist, and musician. Her award-winning short films have screened internationally and received, among other honors, the Student Short Grand Prize at March On! Festival and Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival, Best Short Film at Maryland International Film Festival, and the Audience Award at Florida Film Festival.

Jalaya Liles Dunn

Director of the Southern Poverty Law
Center’s Learning for Justice Program

Jalaya Liles-Dunn, Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Learning for Justice
program. A trailblazer in anti-bias training for educators Liles Dunn has over 20 years of
experience in social and racial justice pedagogy. She has also served as a social justice consultant for the University of Arkansas Academy for Educational Equity, and she created the House of J in South Carolina, a farm and wellness retreat to address the health disparities of poor communities of color, with a specific focus on women. Liles Dunn earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of North Carolina-Pembroke and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Spelman College.

2025 Film Competition Finalists

2026 Finalists to be
Announced September 9th

Student Narrative Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 24 mins The early days of the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian children displaced by the conflict are brought to a Russian elementary school. One of them turns out to be the long-lost nephew of Victoria, a music teacher of Ukrainian descent. Victoria awakens from the slumber of Russian propaganda and begins a desperate fight to save the boy.
Student Narrative Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 20 mins Alice Ye, Sarah Zhou. A homeless mother faces impossible choices as she fights to protect her daughter's innocence while struggling to secure shelter and survive on New York City's unforgiving streets.
Student Narrative Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 16 mins On May 21, 1990, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) stormed the DC campus of the National Institutes of Health to protest the lack of available drugs to treat AIDS. From his office, Dr. Anthony Fauci watches as the activists march around his building, chanting and shouting for his resignation. Meanwhile, a young gay filmmaker captures the events of the protest while attempting to deliver an important package to Fauci. As tensions rise and the demonstrations threaten to upend the scientists' work, Dr. Fauci is forced to reckon with his power and privilege.
Student Documentary Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 09 mins The high and low points surrounding the newly burgeoning culture of skateboarding in Lagos. From winning hundreds of thousands in prize money, to board seizure for "civil disobedience," the life of a skater in Lagos is anything but uneventful.
Student Documentary Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 19 mins The first Black collegiate polo team at Morehouse College chases national USPA certification, training a rag-tag team of charismatic cowboys into pioneering polo stars.
Student Documentary Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 21 mins Jeffery Campbell has served 24 years of a 47 year sentence for a crime he knows he didn’t commit. Accused and charged for murder, he was incarcerated in 2001, leaving behind three young daughters and his mother. Determined to reunite with his family, he applies for two legal processes that could bring him closer to freedom.
Emerging Narrative Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 13 mins Michelle, a 10-year-old survivor of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, attempts to escape both her past and her new home when she learns that her new “family” is not what they seem.
Emerging Narrative Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 12 mins A young Filipina filmmaker attempts to overwrite a painful memory of her mother with a perfect narrative.
Emerging Narrative Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 24 mins A college basketball star is called to stand for social justice by an activist who is forced to work with police to alleviate racial tensions in their city.
Emerging Documentary Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 21 mins Teaching America is a short documentary exploring the battle around the teaching of African-American history and studies from inside the classroom, focusing on the transformative journeys of the Arkansas teachers, students and families who are part of the very first, inaugural classes of students taking Advanced Placement African-American Studies nationwide.
Emerging Documentary Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 20 mins An immigrant mother emerges as a community leader during the historic campaign to end the sharing of the Philadelphia police database with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Expanding Sanctuary tells a rarely told story about a Latinx immigrant community’s successful journey to change legislation and protect families.
Emerging Documentary Film Competition Finalist 2025 | 16 mins Love Souley, Tristan Daley, Carter M. Stewart As the year concludes for Mohammed Schools of Atlanta, Principal Khalil reflects on the 90 year legacy of his great-grandmother building the first Muslim private school system in the country.

The March On! Student and Emerging Filmmaker Competitions will select 12 finalists:

Three Student Filmmakers and three Emerging Filmmakers in each category: Narrative Short and Documentary Short.

Shortlisted Films Will Receive:

  • A dedicated festival screening (in person and virtual)
  • Full access to all festival programming
  • Recognition across festival communications, including the official press release, website, email marketing, and social media
  • The opportunity to have their film shared with national social justice organizations for potential use in organizing and advocacy efforts

From the 12 finalists, March On! will present four Jury Awards:

  • Student Narrative Winner
  • Student Documentary Short Winner
  • Emerging Narrative Winner
  • Emerging Documentary Winner


The Four Jury Award Winners Will Receive:

  • A $2,000 cash award
  • Up to $1,400 in travel support
  • A dedicated festival screening (in person and virtual)
  • One Gala ticket
  • Full festival access for up to two guests
  • Prominent recognition across festival communications, including the official press release, website, email marketing, and social media
  • The opportunity to have their film shared with national social justice organizations for potential use in organizing and advocacy efforts

 

Social Impact Grand Prize

From the four Jury Award winners, March On! will select one filmmaker for the first-ever Social Impact Grand Prize, an award recognizing the film with the greatest potential to be used by community organizers to spark meaningful engagement around a social justice issue. 

The Grand Prize Winner will receive:

  • Featured recognition across Festival communications, including the official press release, website, email marketing, and social media
  • A post-Festival collaboration with March On! to develop and activate a social impact campaign, including a film discussion and impact guide, technical assistance, and a co-hosted public program

 

The Grand Prize is not intended to recognize the strongest film overall, but rather the film that offers the greatest potential for a March On!-supported post-festival social impact campaign. 

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:

  • Films must have been completed after September 1, 2023
  • Entries must be completed – including Vimeo link and payment – by the deadline date
  • Films may not have been released theatrically or aired on television in the U.S. prior to the festival.  If the film has been screened online, the filmmaker is required to include this information in the film’s submission materials
  • STUDENTS: must be currently enrolled in school, or have graduated within 6 months of the Festival
  • EMERGING ARTISTS: must have made their first film no earlier than 5 years before 2026.


SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:


Applicants will be notified of the festival’s decision by early August.

Opal Hope Bennett

Emerging & Student Filmmaker
Competitions Director

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.

March On!
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