2 months ago
EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee Sara Dosa’s acclaimed documentary Time and Water will unfastened nan upcoming Margaret Mead Film Festival, held astatine nan Museum of Natural History successful New York.
The 2026 version of nan prestigious cinematic showcase will tally from May 1-3.
Time and Water, from National Geographic Documentary Films, has been described arsenic a “beautiful, achy and existential film” astir nan nonaccomplishment of glaciers successful Iceland, arsenic seen done nan acquisition and activity of Icelandic writer and filmmaker Andri Snær Magnason.
The Margaret Mead Film Festival, which launched successful 1977, is named for nan famed taste anthropologist who served arsenic curator of ethnology astatine nan Museum of Natural History from 1946-1969.
In a connection provided to Deadline, Dosa (Fire of Love), commented, “Our movie Time and Water explores nan transmission of taste and ecological representation done group and nan landscapes we telephone home. My mother, an anthropologist and keeper of our family’s rituals, taught maine to look astatine nan world done nan lens of connection—her ain first inspiration being Margaret Mead. With resonance to Mead’s work, Time and Water looks astatine nan entanglements betwixt humans and nature, revealing really memory, climate, and kinship co-author a shared communicative of our radically shifting world.”
Scroll for nan afloat Margaret Mead Film Festival lineup.
This year’s slate includes a number of award-winning documentaries, including Nuisance Bear, victor of nan Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary astatine nan Sundance Film Festival, and Whispers successful May, directed by Dongnan Chen, which conscionable won nan apical grant astatine CPH:DOX successful Copenhagen. The show will big nan North American premiere of River Dreams, a movie directed by Kristina Mikhailova that held its world premiere astatine nan Berlinale successful February. In Berlin, it won nan prize of nan ecumenical assemblage successful nan Forum competition. The Oldest Person successful nan World, Sam Green’s essayistic documentary astir fascination pinch nan personification who astatine immoderate fixed clip is certified arsenic nan oldest surviving human, will clasp its New York premiere astatine MMFF.
“Since 1977, The Margaret Mead Film Festival has invited audiences to travel together to brushwood nan world done nan eyes of others,” said Jacqueline Handy, head of nationalist programs astatine nan American Museum of Natural History and head of nan Margaret Mead Film Festival. “In 2026, our show continues that tradition, bringing together filmmakers and storytellers who archive life connected our satellite arsenic it is genuinely lived: complex, intimate, and profoundly human. By gathering to watch these films, we are reminded of our interconnectedness pinch nature, encouraged to understand our shared world and grant nan onshore that sustains us, and invited to ideate and build our future.”
The 2026 Margaret Mead Film Festival will coming 2 awards: nan Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award, “which recognizes documentary filmmakers whose characteristic films connection caller perspectives connected a civilization aliases organization while demonstrating creator excellence and originality successful storytelling, embodying nan spirit, energy, and invention of groundbreaking anthropologist Margaret Mead,” and nan 3rd yearly Audience Award, voted connected by attendees from a action of films making their New York premiere at the festival.
This is nan lineup of nan 2026 Margaret Mead Film Festival:
Time and Water (NY Premiere) – Academy Award-nominee Sara Dosa’s anticipated travel up to Fire of Love, a powerful meditation connected nan quality standard of ambiance situation from a filmmaker who continues to break caller cinematic ground.
We Are nan Fruits of nan Forest (North American Premiere) – Renowned, Cannes grant winning and Academy Award-nominated Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh’s latest characteristic documentary, continuing to research caller artistic terrain arsenic he tells nan communicative of Cambodia’s indigenous community.
Jaripeo (NY Premiere) -Director Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig, Festival favorite, meditation connected masculinity and queerness successful bluish Mexico’s rodeo culture, wherever gender is presented expansively against nan accepted metaphors of rugged scenery and nan fig of nan bull.
The Oldest Person successful nan World (NY Premiere) – Cult filmmaker, Academy Award-nominee Sam Green’s latest project, an exploration of mortality and ceremony of life that reframes taste attitudes and finds caller meaning successful nan earthy process of aging.
Bucks Harbor (NY Premiere) – Acclaimed good creation photographer Pete Muller’s debut feature, premiered Berlinale 2026, wherever it won nan prize of nan ecumenical assemblage successful nan Panorama competition. Gorgeously shot, a tender image of organization successful bluish Maine, uncovering metaphor successful earthy imagery while challenging preconceptions astir gender and class.
Daughters of nan Forest (NY Premiere) -Director: Otilia Portillo Padua, Premiered SXSW, a singular communicative of civilization and mycology from nan forests of Central America, indigenous women
River Dreams (North American Premiere: ,Director: Kristina Mikhailova, Kazakh feminist Heimatfilm, blending poesy and confession, premiered Berlinale 2026, wherever it won nan prize of nan ecumenical assemblage successful nan Forum competition. Women and girls are asked to ideate themselves arsenic a river, provoking powerful reflection connected nan civilization of gender successful post-Soviet Asia.
Nuisance Bear (NY Premiere) – Sundance US Doc Grand Jury Award winner, follows a polar bear’s travel done a changing landscape. The movie observes uneasy coexistence pinch settler Canadians and nan Inuit community, overturning nature-documentary conventions to reframe animals arsenic agents successful a quickly changing world.
Whispers In May (New York premiere) Director: Dongnan Chen, In China’s majestic Liangshan Mountains, 14-year-old Qihuo originates a accepted coming-of-age ritual aft her first menstruation and, pinch her parents distant arsenic migrant workers, sets retired pinch 2 friends to bargain a ceremonial skirt. Winner of nan prestigious DOX:AWARD astatine CPH:DOX 2026, Whispers successful May blurs documentary and fiction, inviting Qihuo to beryllium nan protagonist of her ain escapade
Black Zombie (New York premiere), Director: Maya Annik Bedward, Fascinating, sprawling, and incisive, Black Zombie excavates nan hidden history of nan mythical figure, tracing its travel from Haitian Vodou to Hollywood horror. An electrifying enactment of reclamation and belief resistance, nan movie moves done Caribbean taste histories and into nan world popular shape of Michael Jackson and George A. Romero, ensuring you’ll ne'er spot zombies nan aforesaid measurement again.
