Past CEFF Award Winners

2024 CEFF Winning Films

• Best Youth Film: Venus Ascending: Gender Equality & Water (Directed by Asher Elias Anantham)
• Best Short Film: Groundwork – A Family Journey Into Regenerative Cotton (Directed by Lindsey Hagen)
• Best Feature Film: Covenant of the Salmon People (Directed by Shane Thomas Anderson)
• Spirit of Activism: Fracking the System: Colorado’s Oil and Gas Wars (Directed by Brian Hedden)
• Best of the Fest: Flyways: The Untold Journey of Migratory Shorebirds (Directed by Randall Wood)

2023 CEFF Winning Films

• Best Youth Film: Right here. Right Now. (Directed by Taylor Saulsbury)
• Best Short Film: Voices of the Grand Canyon (Directed by Deidra Peaches)
• Best Feature Film: The Last Seed (Directed by Andrea Gema)
• Spirit of Activism: Finite: The Climate of Change (Directed by Rich Felgate)
• Best of the Fest: A Rally for Rangers (Directed by Eric Daft)

2022 CEFF Winning Films

• Best Youth Film: Soil Care is Climate Repair (Directed by Alex, Athena and Anni Hanna)
• Best Short Film: Mapping Survival (Directed by Nacho Corbella)
• Best Feature Film: The Roar of the Maranon (Directed by Bruno Monteferri)
• Spirit of Activism: Triple F*** (Directed by Simona Theoharova)
• Best of the Fest: YOUTH v GOV (Directed by Christi Cooper)

2021 CEFF Winning Films

• Best Youth Film: Never Too Small (Directed by Mason Mirabile)
• Best Short Film: Stay Wild (Directed by Lizzy Fowler)
• Best Feature Film: Peng Yu Sai (Directed by Nitye Sood and Malaika Vaz)
• Spirit of Activism: Necessity: Oil, Water and Climate Resistance (Directed by Jan Haaken, Samantha Praus)
• Best of the Fest: Kiss the Ground (Directed by Josh Tickell and Rebecca Tickell)
• Audience Favorite Feature Film: High Country (Directed by Conor Hagen)
• Audience Favorite Short Film:Your Friend, Ranger Doug (Directed by Claire Jantzen, Sara Rose Nell)

2020 CEFF Winning Films

• Best Youth Film: Soil (Directed by Kylan Jin, Ryan Zhang, Catherine Zhang)
• Best Short Film: Maasai Olympics: The Hunt for Medals, Not Lions 
  (Directed by James Suter)
• Best Feature Film: The Nature Makers (Directed by Scott Saunders)
• Spirit of Activism: Guarding the Forest (Directed by Max Baring, Karla Mendes)
• Best of the Fest: Under Thin Ice
  (Directed by Denis Blaquière)

2019 CEFF Winning Films

• Best Youth Film: The Ocean: Our Foundation (Directed by Amia Datts-Voluntad, Natalia Polinskey, Chloe Chin, Ka’imi Kaleleiki)
• Best Short Film: Our Last Trash (Directed by Joanne Yue)
• Best Feature Film: The Butterfly Trees (Directed by Kay Milam)
• Spirit of Activism: Spears From All Sides (Directed by Christopher Walker)
• Best of the Fest: From Seed to Seed (Directed by Katharina Stieffenhofer)

2018 CEFF Winning Films

• Best Youth Film: Melting Away (Directed by Liam Walton)
• Best Short Film: The Salmon Forest (Directed by Ben Hamilton)
• Best Feature Film: A River’s Last Chance (Directed by Shane Anderson)  
• Spirit of Activism: Walk on the Mountain (Directed by Madeleine Van Dam and Onika Richards)
• Best of the Fest: How We Grow (Directed by Tomas Zuccareno and Haley Thompson)

2017 CEFF Winning Films

• Best Youth Film: Temple of the Ghost Owl (Directed by Justin Myhre)
• Best Short Film: A Ghost in the Making (Directed by Morgan Heim and Neil Losin)
• Best Feature Film: A Plastic Ocean (Directed by Craig Leeson)
• Spirit of Activism: Poisoning Paradise (Directed by Keely Shaye Brosnan and Teresa Tico)
• Best of the Fest: American Psychosis (Directed by Amanda Zackem)

2016 CEFF Winning Films

• Best Youth Film: Distress Call (Directed by Brooklyn Goosby, Lexi Justus, Sean Fleetham and Taylor Redman)
• Best Short Film: Stung By Climate (Directed by Nils Aucante)
• Best Feature Film: A Quest for Meaning (Directed by Marc de la Menardiere and Nathanael Coste)
• Spirit of Activism: The End of the Line (Directed by Sellus Wilder)
• Best of the Fest: Time Capsule (Directed by Chris Summerfield)