"1pm Best of Shorts, a special collection celebrating some of our standout short films, including audience favorites, Best Director, the Humanitarian Award, Audience Favorite Music Video, and our iPhone Super Short Award winner. This block also includes a second screening of Two Old Women, which played out of competition and absolutely delighted us all.
3pm Documentary Feature, Comparsa, the recipient of AIFF's Real World Impact Award. A powerful and moving film that embodies why documentaries matter and how stories can create change beyond the screen.
5pm Narrative Feature, Burt, our Outstanding Jury Award winner. A true celebration of the independent spirit, heartfelt, hilarious, and wonderfully oddball in all the right ways. The kind of film that reminds us why indie cinema exists in the first place."
There are a lot of other winners from last night but the list I wrote down is sketchy. There are lots of awards. I'll get back to you later. Our house guests won Best Actress and Best Directors of a Narrative Feature for The World Outside.
More later, headed to the museum to see the shorts and documentary programs. We've seen Burt.
Bonnie Thunders, whose real name is Nicole Williams, grew up far from fame. She started out in synchronized skating, not the kind of place where people shout your name from the stands. But in 2006, she joined the Gotham Girls Roller Derby league in New York City. From that point, everything changed.
Her teammates still say she brought a calm focus that felt rare. She wasn’t loud; she just worked harder, trained longer, and thought deeper about the game. Wikipedia notes that she moved from a local skater to captain of the Gotham All-Stars in only a few years.
Bonnie Thunders and That Beautiful Moment
People often talk about Bonnie Thunder’s beautiful moment — not a single jam, but a kind of electricity that ran through her skating. She had a way of waiting, almost still, then bursting through a gap no one else saw. One stride later, the blockers were behind her, and the scoreboard was moving again. [emphasis added]
That’s what made her famous beyond the sport itself. ESPN once called her the LeBron James of roller derby. It wasn’t just speed. It was how she turned reading a pack of moving bodies into art.
The Story of Bonnie Thunders Roller Derby
When fans say Bonnie Thunders’ roller derby, they mean the era when Gotham Girls couldn’t be stopped. Her leadership brought the team five world titles under the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association between 2008 and 2016.
Every season looked the same from the outside: Bonnie skating and Gotham winning this was always on the minds of the spectators. Inside the team, it was endless planning, tape study, and drills that left everyone breathless.
In 2017, she surprised the derby world by moving to Portland to join the Rose City Rollers, another powerhouse. ESPNW called it the biggest transfer in the sport. Yet, in true Bonnie fashion, she said little and let her skates do the talking.
If you're like me, you don't follow roller derby closely, or at all. This seems like a great way to get an insider view of the sport and one of its greatest stars. But appears this is a 2020 movie which is much older than festival guidelines allow. This is the second film like that. Haven't gotten an answer to my questions on why.
BEAR TOOTH
12:30pm Spotlight Selection Shorts
Stronghold
Christmas IRL
The Singers
Flavor of the Month
Forged
MascLooking
Saverio
3pm Native Voices
My Message to You
Alutiiq Superhero
Shaped by Land
Braids
Witness: Indigenous Arctic Voices
The Woman Who Married A Bear
Two Old Women
The Woman Who Married a Bear is a well known native story.
Two Old Women is a well known and loved book. When I taught a class that had a lot of women guest speakers, I gave out copies of the book as thank yous
Director on set with Two Old Women actors, from email from the film making team
"Two elderly Gwich’in women —Ch’idzigyaak and Sa’—find themselves abandoned by their tribe during a brutally harsh famine.
Devastated and scared of what the future holds, Sa' must convince Ch'idzigyaak that their survival is worth a fight and 'if we are going to die,then we should die trying to live'.
Based on the novel by Velma Wallis 'Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival'"
"Shaaghan Neekwaii: Two Old Women is the first screen adaptation of Velma Wallis’s 1993 novel, filmed in Fairbanks, Alaska, and told entirely in the Gwich’in language. Directed by Gwich’in filmmaker Princess Daazhraii Johnson and starring Margaret Henry John and Brenda Kay Newman, the film explores themes of survival and resilience. Wallis has supported Johnson since she was first inspired by the book in her youth. “We know this story from our bones,” Wallis says. The film was produced by Deenaadai Productions, in partnership with Girinkhii - a Gwich'in language revitalization and cultural preservation organization."
I'm guessing very few people in the world have ever seen a Gwich'in language movie.
Williwaw Social
609 F Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501
6:00pm [Or maybe 8pm] AWARDS CEREMONY
The printed program says 6pm. The online schedule says 8pm. (I'm guessing it's 8pm, but I'm checking and will confirm here when I learn more.) [Got a text back from the head of the AIFF Board saying 6-9pm for the Awards Ceremony.]
Looking Ahead to Sunday, while I have a bit of time, there's one more film and the Best of the Fest - showings of the award winning films at the Museum.
Alaskan filmmaker Zoe Quist’s sci-fi comedy Glitched will close the 25th Silver Anniversary edition of the Anchorage International Film Festival on Sunday, December 14, 2025.
Raised in the frozen wilds outside Fairbanks and still calling Alaska home, filmmaker Zoe Quist (Raw Cut, Mining for Ruby) brings her latest feature back to the state for its Alaska premiere following its U.S. Premiere at the La Femme International Film Festival, where Quist won Best Feature Director.
Starring Mischa Barton (The O.C.), Abigail O’Regan (Spellbound), Donal Brophy (Sleep No More), Jack McEvoy (Vikings), Elijah Rowen (Vikings), and John Connors (Crazy Love, Re-Creation by Jim Sheridan), Glitched follows a pair of ambitious twins who turn their grandmother’s crumbling castle into a virtual-reality playground, only to accidentally open a supernatural portal. Cue one debonair 18th-century ghost, a race against time, and a castle full of unlikely heroes trying not to get stuck in the afterlife. What happens when a VR game unleashes a real ghost?
Glitched is written by Steve Grabowsky (Los Angeles) and produced by Maria O’Neill, p.g.a. (The Black Guelph), Susan Wright, p.g.a., and Zoe Quist.
"the frozen wilds" is a favorite cliche for Outsiders talking about Alaska.
Museum - Best of The Fest
1pm - Best Short Films
3pm - Best Documentary Feature
4pm - Best Narrative Feature
Best, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. But there are a number of films in each category that I would be comfortable with. Documentary features may be the hardest category to choose a best from. But there were also several excellent features. And there were sooooo many shorts to choose from.
In addition to spending much of the day watching movies, we also have two film makers staying with us and so we talk when we get home at night. Blogging suffers.
Below is the Friday schedule from the AIFF website. (The link only takes you to the main schedule page and you have to click on Friday to get the details.)
Yesterday (really it feels like it was only this morning) I put up a video of our house guests talking about their feature narrative The World Outside. This is a World Premier The first public screening of this film. Right here in Anchorage. I haven't seen the film, but I've heard a lot about it from our houseguests, so go to the link above and watch the video of them.
Waiting in the food line this afternoon at the Bear Tooth, before the documentary The Last Dive (which was worth seeing just for the wonder of watching huge oceanic manta rays) I met Carrie Lederer whose film Wild Horses At The Door plays in the Doc Shorts 2 program at 10:30 am at the E Street Theater.
[NOTE: This has been moved from the museum as has the 1pm screening at the museum. So this is different from the written program, but it was updated on the online program.]
Also, note that the online schedule is by venue first, then by time. So there is a 10:30 film down at the bottom at the Alaska Experience Theater.
As someone blogging the Anchorage International Film Festival, I try to be as objective as possible. I try to help film makers get attention to their films but I also have to be honest with my viewers.
In this case, I have not seen the film or even a trailer, so I have no opinion on how good the film is.
But, I do need to let readers know that I first met the grandparents of Nikolas Mühe in 1964. I was a student in Göttingen, Germany for a year and they invited me to visit them in Berlin because they were related to my step-father.
Here's a picture of me then with Nikolas' mother.
Nikolas and Katrine have been staying with us during the festival and we're enjoying their company. I've done a post about them here already. I've been trying to put together a short video of them talking about their film. We thought we had plenty of time to make the video and we (mostly I) fooled around too much.
But here it is - you can see the filmmakers now and learn a bit about their movie. Then you can meet them in person after the Friday night showing at the Alaska Experience Theater at 8:30pm.
And this is a world premier! The film was completed a little before the festival and this is the first public showing. I'll let them tell you about it in the video.
The title - The World Outside - hints at the main character's agoraphobia.
"Agoraphobia (ag-uh-ruh-FOE-be-uh) is a type of anxiety disorder. Agoraphobia involves fearing and avoiding places or situations that might cause panic and feelings of being trapped, helpless or embarrassed. You may fear an actual or upcoming situation. For example, you may fear using public transportation, being in open or enclosed spaces, standing in line, or being in a crowd.
The anxiety is caused by fear that there's no easy way to escape or get help if the anxiety gets overwhelming. You may avoid situations because of fears such as getting lost, falling, or having diarrhea and not being able to get to a bathroom. Most people who have agoraphobia develop it after having one or more panic attacks, causing them to worry about having another attack. They then avoid the places where it may happen again.
Agoraphobia often results in having a hard time feeling safe in any public place, especially where crowds gather and in locations that are not familiar. You may feel that you need a companion, such as a family member or friend, to go with you to public places. The fear can be so overwhelming that you may feel you can't leave your home."
At Alaska Experience Theater shows Wednesday, they announced that the morning showings (10:30am and 12:30pm) at the Museum for Thursday and Friday were being moved to the E Street Theater. And looking at the online program, the change is there as well.
These changes are reflected online, but Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief, is not listed by name online, but as Jewish Museum Feature. I've copied the online schedule below and fixed Plunderer.
Venue:
UPDATE: E Street Theater
315 E Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501
10:30 AM: Feature
K’etniyi: The Land Is Speaking — Rory Banyard – Event Tickets
Alaska Teen Media Institute Afterschool Special – Event Tickets
7:30 PM: Feature
Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief (This film was submitted by the Anchorage Jewish Museum, and their picks have all been excellent in the past.)
Sorry, but that's about all I can handle today. I would note that Friday at 8:30pm The World Outside is playing at the Alaska Experience Theater. That's the film our house guests, Nikolas and Katrine made and you'll be able to ask them questions and share feedback Friday night.
