American Conservation Film Festival looking forward to celebrating 20th anniversary this month

"Shaba: A Film" by documentary filmmaker Amy Vitale will be shown at this year's American Conservation Film Festival in the Shepherdstown Opera House this month. Courtesy photo
SHEPHERDSTOWN — This March 10-12, the American Conservation Film Festival (ACFF) will be celebrating 20 years of sharing conservation-focused films and interactive programming in its new venue, the Shepherdstown Opera House (SOH), located at 131 West German Street.
According to ACFF Board of Directors Vice President Carolyn Thomas, this year’s festival will be one of great excitement, not only for its marking the festival’s 20th anniversary, but also because it will be the first festival since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, to be held in-person.
“We are excited to return to an in-person festival in our home base of Shepherdstown, hosted at the gorgeously renovated historic Shepherdstown Opera House, which is reopening under new ownership after many years!” Thomas said. “Now fully accessible, the venue will feature all new lighting, sound and projection systems, plus a bar to serve beverages of all kinds and snacks.
“The Shepherdstown Opera House provides an intimate setting for [showing] films that inspire, inform and engage our audience,” Thomas said, before describing what attendees can expect at this year’s festival. “From among the 300 films submitted to us from 44 countries, ACFF is featuring 17 films, including short films ranging from a couple of clever minutes up to 40 minutes in length, as well as magnificent and awe-inspiring features.”
Over the past 20 years, the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization has presented over 700 films in the tristate area and welcomed over 10,000 audience members to the annual festival and its special events. Some noteworthy films being shown during the 2023 festival, will include winner of the 2022 Naples International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature, “Path of the Panther,” and winner of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary and 2022 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize in World Cinema Documentary, “All That Breathes.”
“The American Conservation Film Festival was created 20 years ago by a group of volunteers who shared both a devotion to film arts and a commitment to conservation. They also shared the belief that attitudes about the environment are shaped by our experiences in it, and that people and their cultures are an essential part of earth’s biosphere,” Thomas said. “As the festival has matured, so has ACFF as an institution. The ACFF Board of Directors reflects a range of interests and backgrounds — people who share the vision of sustaining a quality arts organization that is focused on environmental education.
“Throughout the festival, Evolve will be the pop-up headquarters for ACFF and a center for conservation-focused discussion about the films and issues and presentations,” Thomas said, referring to the pop-up shop location at 106 West German Street, right across the street from the SOH. “A complete schedule of events will be available on ACFF’s website, in festival programs and at Evolve.”
According to Thomas, the events at Evolve will begin on the evening of the first festival day, with a reception. Later on, she said she is particularly looking forward to viewing a conservation-inspired art installation by fourth grade students from Shepherdstown Elementary School, entitled “A School of Trout.”
Through the variety of events at this year’s festival, the supportive relationship between ACFF and the Shepherdstown community will be clearly reflected, including with a new event being held in the War Memorial Building.
“In support of building relationships and extending the shared experience, the Shepherdstown Community Club is hosting a community dinner, as the last event of the film festival,” Thomas said, mentioning tickets to the Indian cuisine-inspired community dinner will cost $25 per-person.
Tickets to the film screenings cost $15 per-person. For more information about the 2023 festival, its selected films, ticketing and special events, visit https://conservationfilmfest.org/.