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EXCLUSIVE: The Margaret Mead Film Festival – the longest-running documentary showcase in the U.S. – has announced its 2025 lineup, a slate that includes Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Seeds.
Director Brittany Shyne is expected to be on hand as the festival kicks off Friday, May 2 with Seeds, which has earned rave reviews beginning in Park City. “It’s a work of political activism through sheer lyricism,” Rolling Stone’s David Fear wrote, “and exactly the kind of discovery you come to Sundance to see.”
The festival, running May 2 to Sunday, May 4 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, will present 17 feature documentaries, among them one U.S. premiere and 15 New York premieres. This year’s theme, “We Are the Story,” illuminates “the diverse ways we connect with one another, our environments, and shared histories,” according to a release. Scroll for the full schedule.
Additional highlights from the program:
- New York premiere of Our Land, Our Freedom, directed by Zippy Kimundu and Meena Nanji, with executive producer Mira Nair in attendance.
- New York premiere of Viktor, directed by Oliver Sarbil and executive-produced by Darren Aronofsky, both of whom will be present for a post-screening discussion.
- New York premiere of The Shepherd and the Bear, directed by Max Keegan, a documentary about the consequences of an ursine rewilding program in the French Pyrénées. Keegan will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A.
- New York premiere of How Deep Is Your Love, directed by Emily Mortimer, with the filmmaker in attendance for a Q&A. The film goes beneath the waves to document biologists racing “to collect and name the undiscovered species of the abyss, the last wilderness on earth.”
“We’re so excited to welcome audiences to the 2025 Margaret Mead Film Festival, a celebration of storytelling that connects us across cultures, borders, and experiences,” commented Jacqueline Handy, Mead Festival director and director of public programs at the American Museum of Natural History. “A longstanding Museum tradition, the Mead is a space for curiosity and conversation, a place to witness resilience, community, creativity, and the many ways we shape—and are shaped by—the world around us. We invite you to step beyond your comfort zone to listen, feel, and see yourself reflected in the stories presented on screen.”
Dr. Margaret Mead, 1901-78
Getty Images
Two awards will be presented at the festival: the 2025 Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award selected by the festival jury, and the second annual Audience Award, determined by festival attendees. The festival is named for the famed cultural anthropologist and author Margaret Mead, a renowned curator at the American Museum of Natural History “whose research and practices endure in the field today.”
The American Museum of Natural History, founded in 1869 with a dual mission of scientific research and science education, “is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions.” Through its Richard Gilder Graduate School, the museum offers two of the only free-standing, degree-granting programs of their kind at any museum in the U.S.: the Ph.D. program in Comparative Biology and the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Earth Science residency program.
The Office, an independent, multidisciplinary curatorial and production company based in New York and London, has been working with the American Museum of Natural History on the Margaret Mead Film Festival since 2012.
The Margaret Mead Film Festival unfolds in the American Museum of Natural History in New York
American Museum of Natural History
This is the lineup for the 2025 Margaret Mead Film Festival:
Friday, May 2
- Seeds – New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Brittany Shyne (in attendance)
2025 | 125 min | USA
Saturday, May 3
- Remaining Native – New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Paige Bethmann (in attendance)
2025| 87 min | USA
- The Shepherd and the Bear – New York Premiere
Director: Max Keegan (in attendance)
2024 | 100 min | France, Spain
‘Favoriten’
Grandfilm
- Favoriten – New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Ruth Beckermann (in attendance)
2024 | 118 min | Austria
‘Our Land, Our Freedom’
Twende Pictures
- Our Land, Our Freedom – New York Premiere
Presented by Mira Nair, executive producer (in attendance)
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Meena Nanji, Zippy Kimundu (in attendance)
2023 | 100 min | Kenya
- Land with No Rider –New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Tamar Lando (in attendance)
2024 | 100 min | USA
Kidam
- The Return of the Projectionist – New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Orkhan Agazade (in attendance)
2024 | 77 min | Azerbaijan
- Night of the Coyotes –New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Clara Trischler (in attendance)
2024 | 79 min | Mexico
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir
2024 | 101 min | Egypt
Sunday, May 4
- How Deep Is Your Love –New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Eleanor Mortimer (in attendance)
2025 | 101 min | United Kingdom
‘Folktales’
Fifth Season/Topic Studios
- Folktales –New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Directors: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady (in attendance)
2025 | 106 min | Norway
- Partition –New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Diana Allan (in attendance)
2025 | 61 min | Palestine
- River of Grass –New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Sasha Wortzel (in attendance)
2024 | 83 min | USA
- Make it Look Real –New York Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Danial Shah (in attendance)
2024 | 67 min | Pakistan
- Bright Future –U.S. Premiere
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Andra MacMasters (in attendance)
2024 | 89 min | North Korea
- Viktor – New York Premiere
Presented by Darren Aronofsky, executive producer (in attendance)
Followed by post-screening discussion
Director: Olivier Sarbil (in attendance)
2024 | 91 min | Ukraine
