American Conservation Film Festival board member Larry Cumbo, left, chats with filmmaker Kyle Pienaar in the Dr. Robert Scott Beard Memorial Lobby last week. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — The 23rd annual American Conservation Film Festival (ACFF) was held over the weekend in the Frank Arts Center at Shepherd University.

According to festival director Hilary Lo, ACFF saw a notable growth in attendance this year.

“We were actually on the verge of selling out of two screenings, at the beginning of the festival,” Lo said, mentioning this had never happened, since the festival began screening films in the Frank Arts Center Theater. “Starting at the beginning of the festival, we have sold more than we did at the end of the festival last year.”

Lo said this growth may have been caused by a number of factors: an increased interest in conservation; the addition of a virtual reality experience to the festival, which was only offered once before in 2019; and a change in focus toward screening more short films.

“We’ve really shifted to short films, for a couple of reasons,” Lo said. “One, you can go to one screening and see four films, so that even if one of them doesn’t interest you, that will not be the case for all of them. You get the advantage of watching four concisely-told, solution-oriented films. You have the greater likelihood of being exposed to something you’ve never heard of before and learning something new.

Filmmakers chat with each other at the 23rd annual American Conservation Film Festival last week. Tabitha Johnston

“And two, it gives a chance to emerging filmmakers to be featured in the festival. They can’t always have the budget to make a feature film, right off,” Lo said. “It’s hard to get a venue to show short films, as you’re climbing your way up the ladder.”

She noted that the higher turnout might also be related to the fame of some of the individuals featured in the festival, including “Game of Thrones” star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in “An Optimist’s Guide to the Planet.” Coster-Waldau was not able to attend ACFF in-person, but did record a video to be shared with the audience at the festival.

“We get hundreds of films submitted, from all over the world, every year,” Lo said, mentioning the festival films are selected through a juried process. “We accept all different forms of storytelling! We have animation, we have fictional narrative films but, of course, we mostly do documentaries.”

Nineteen of the filmmakers from the festival’s 28 films, along with two of the people featured in the films, were present throughout the festival to answer questions and share further insight with audience members.

“Wild Hope: Unleaded” filmmaker Kyle Pienaar noted that her film highlighted a group of people many don’t expect to be involved in conservation efforts.

American Conservation Film Festival secretary Dan Tresize makes his way into the Frank Arts Center last week. Tabitha Johnston

“We worked with an organization called Sporting Lead-Free. It’s run by hunters, who are also conservationists, basically trying to educate other hunters about the dangers of using lead bullets,” Pienaar said, mentioning copper bullets are the group’s recommended alternative. “Lead bullets are a serious problem. Hunters, when they hunt, leave the guts for scavengers to enjoy. But because lead bullets spread out when they hit, there’s tiny bits of lead throughout the guts. If a golden eagle gets to it, they can end up being poisoned.”

Unlike Pienaar, “Bat Boy” filmmaker Aaron Lemle was a familiar face to the ACFF crowd, as the first film he directed was screened at ACFF a few years ago.

“Coming to this festival made me feel like a filmmaker for the first time! It felt good, to be so embraced here,” Lemle said. “It’s an amazing community of filmmakers that they bring together.”

While that first film, “A Femme Fatale Could Save Ash Trees from an Invasive Killer,” was a documentary, the film he submitted for this year’s festival was a fictional narrative about a Black man on the autism spectrum, who becomes involved in conservation efforts for bats.

“There’s not a huge market for conservation films, in general. So, it feels good to be part of this community and to know that people are interested in these stories,” Lemle said.