This is the twelfth in a series of articles describing the histories of Golden Cultural Alliance members. Today’s featured Golden Cultural Alliance member is the Colorado Environmental Film Festival. Nicole Bickford was kind enough to provide the following history of the group:
Since 2006, the Colorado Environmental Film Festival (CEFF) has been a flourishing part of Colorado’s cultural landscape. It was founded by a dedicated and passionate core group of environmentally minded educators, filmmakers, and supporters who sought to create the State’s first and only homegrown, international environmental film festival. Based in Golden since its inception, CEFF has entertained, enlightened, and educated thousands of festivalgoers over the years with hundreds of original and thought-provoking environmental films originating from around the globe. Each year, CEFF carefully juries and presents a new and different catalog of films, encompassing a broad mosaic of topics, that always reflect CEFF’s cornerstone mission to engage our participants to learn about ways to understand, preserve, and protect the environment.
Historical milestones include:
• 2006 – 1st Colorado Environmental Film Festival.
• 2007 – Addition of the Community Eco-Expo Event (showcasing eco-forward businesses and not-for-profit organizations) to the Festival.
• 2010 – Addition of the Annual Environmental Photography Exhibition into the Festival.
• 2014 – Hiring of a part-time Festival Director.
• 2015 – 1st CEFF 4 Kids free school program hosted during the Festival.
• 2015 – First CEFF 4 Kids free school program hosted
• 2018 – First Free Community Night on Opening Night to honor and engage local partners, leaders, and businesses.
• 2019 – Screening of the Festival’s 500th film.
• 2019 – Became an SCFD-eligible and funded organization for the first time.
• 2020 – CEFF received a record numbers of film submissions, and screened a record number of 60 films from 22 countries.
• 2021 Successfully hosted and implemented (in response to Covid-19) the first fully virtual Festival, increasing accessibility and opening up the event to broader audiences around the world. Screened a new record high of 86 films. Added Young Filmmaker Workshops to engage students.
ceffchair@ceff.net
www.ceff.net
CEFF is bigger and better than ever this year--go and see!
