Category: ARFF PARIS 2026

(HONORABLE MENTION)

Original Film Title: Where Mountains Touch the Sky | China’s Pillar Mountains Documentary

Director’s Name:

Writer’s Name:

Producer:

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: English

Runtime: 11 minutes 34 seconds

Film Description:

Deep in the heart of Hunan Province, where stone pillars rise thousands of feet from the earth and clouds drift between ancient peaks — this is Zhangjiajie.

For a thousand years, poets and painters have tried to capture what words cannot hold: the silence between the mountains, the mist that never quite lifts, the sense that you are standing at the edge of another world.

This is their story. And ours.
From the Avatar Mountains that inspired a generation of filmmakers, to the ancient Tujia people who have called these stone towers home for centuries — Zhangjiajie is not just a landscape. It is a living poem.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: See Through The Darkness; Your Life Matters

Director’s Name: Frank X Panico

Writer’s Name: Frank X Panico

Producer: Carl Edward David, Arlyn David

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour

Film Description:

“See Through The Darkness” is a powerful documentary by Carl David and Frank Panico of “Xs In The Sky Films” and is a heartfelt work with a focus on Suicide Prevention & Survival in Law Enforcement and Military. This is an all too frequent event.

Carl David is a legendary Art Dealer and had a brother who took his own life at the young age of 22. It darkened Carl’s life in an instant. With professional help, Mr. David was able to navigate his way back to living and bearing the indelible, permanent scar on his soul.

As he grew more involved with Law Enforcement and Military, as a Force Multiplier, it became abundantly apparent that this act of suicide was far too prevalent. He needed to share his experience in the hopes of saving lives by letting those on that edge of desperation know that they aren’t alone, that there is help and that they are loved.

Among the featured interviewees are Carl and his wife, Arlyn. Another outstanding speaker is Dr. Jesse Collins, an Army veteran and retired police officer who also had a brother who took his life. Kevin Donaldson, a retired police officer and advocate for life explains in detail the numerous times he had attempted suicide. It is only through Kevin’s new found faith and the grace of God that he lives to see another day.

The lineup of cast also includes Matthew Werner, retired Naval Warfare Officer (Seal Team 6), Matthew Thomas, the iconic, storied Arizona Police Chief and Cary Reichbach, retired Special Forces Operator and Founder of Grey Team in Boca Raton, Florida whose mission is preventing Military suicide. Other intriguing interviewees include Patrick Fitzgibbons of Shatterproof, FHE Health, First Responder Mental Health, Deerfield Beach, Florida and Dr. Cathy Greenberg, a renowned Health Care, Emotional Intelligence and Leadership professional who shares her perspectives and sage advice in this important film.

These are just a few of the remarkable individuals who share their compelling stories in an attempt to avert the suicide crisis that plagues our nation and build a culture of LIFE.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: Clancy Sigal: Hollywood Blacklist to “A” List

Director’s Name: Kurt Jacobsen, Warren Leming

Writer’s Name: Kurt Jacobsen, Warren Leming

Producer: Kurt Jacobsen, Warren Leming

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United Kingdom, United States

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 22 minutes 41 seconds

Film Description:

Clancy Sigal ventured everywhere and accomplished everything a bold spirit can in the turbulent course of a mere lifetime: street-smart city kid, union organizer, soldier, UCLA graduate, Hollywood agent, blacklisted target of McCarthyism, European emigre, Fleet Street journalist, novelist, staunch leftist disdainful of party lines, enemy of cant of any kind, psychedelic journeyer, skeptical devotee of psychiatrist R. D. Laing, National Book Award nominee, USC journalism teacher, and screenwriter of Frida and other films. An eloquent radical who shook up things in every milieu he encountered, nothing he ever wrote was predictable, except for the compassion, dark humor and demand for social justice always at the core. Hinged on extensive interviews with Sigal and with associates, this documentary offers an intriguing alternative view of recent US and UK history, peppered with provocative insights by the most savvy and candid of transatlantic travelers. Interviewees include critic John Lahr, actor Oliver Cotton, editor Tim Radford, playwright David Edgar, screenwriter Janice Tidwell, and more.

(Envısıon Award Winner)

Original Film Title: JAKE

Director’s Name: Francisco Paco Carrascosa

Writer’s Name: Francisco Paco Carrascosa

Producer: Francisco Paco Carrascosa

Country of Origin: Switzerland

Country of Filming: United States, Switzerland

Language: English, French, German, Swiss German

Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes

Film Description:

JAKE: A 16-year-old Appenzell (Switzerland) girl from a good family gives birth to a child after a language study trip to New York. The father: African-American, unknown. The child is immediately given up for adoption by the mother’s family. She is given the name Jacqueline and grows up in a rural, conservative, strictly Catholic environment. At the age of eight, she realizes that she was born into the wrong body. Jacqueline now knows that she is a boy. Three years later, the teenager discards the hated girl’s name and henceforth calls herself Jeremy. He embarks on a long journey of identity search and transformation, characterized by inner turmoil, drama and conflict.

(FINALIST)

Original Film Title: We Love Theater

Director’s Name: Hanae Uchida

Writer’s Name: Hanae Uchida

Producer: Hanae Uchida

Country of Origin: Japan

Country of Filming: Japan

Language: Japanese

Runtime: 36 minutes 30 seconds

Film Description:

The film follows the days when people with disabilities and people living in a surrounding area participate together to create a piece of theater. Based on the picture book “Frederick” by Leo Lionni, which features field mice preparing for winter, the play moves towards an ending not found in the picture book, while looking at the real world where climate change is progressing. The participants who work together with people with disabilities are amazed at the freedom that there are no rules or mistakes, and they also experience excitement and joy at the variety of ideas that are thrown around. They come to realize the value of a place where they can accept each other as they are, and the value of putting themselves in that place and expressing themselves in their own way. (“Frederick” and its Japanese translations in this work have been licensed for use worldwide.)