Full Frame Presents 2026 Award Winners 

DURHAM, N.C. – Ten awards totaling $50,000 in cash prizes were announced today by the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Full Frame is a qualifying event for nominations for the Academy Award® Documentary Short Film category and the Producers Guild of America Awards.

“We are proud to celebrate the 2026 award-winning films,” said Sadie Tillery, Full Frame Festival Co-Director and Artistic Director. “We are grateful to the award presenters for their support and especially wish to thank the jurors who joined us in reviewing the films this year.”

The Full Frame Grand Jury Award was presented to A Fox Under a Pink Moon by Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya Akhlaghi. A Fox Under a Pink Moon follows 16-year-old Akhlaghi, an Afghan woman living in Iran, and her repeated attempts to escape the country. Isabel Castro, David Osit, and Brittany Shyne participated on the jury for the Full Frame Grand Jury Award.

The Full Frame Grand Jury recognized Militantropos, directed by Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova, and Simon Mozgovyi, with a Special Jury Award.

The Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short is presented to Still Standing, directed by Victor Tadashi Suárez and Livia Albeck-Ripka. The award is presented by Drs. Barbra and Andrew Rothschild. The jurors were Claire Ave’Lallemant, Jessica Bardsley, and Saleem Reshamwala.

The Nancy Buirski Award is new in 2026 and is awarded to a feature film that gives new meaning and life to the archive using footage from films or home movies, still images, audio recordings, or ephemera. Brydie O’Connor won the inaugural award for Barbara Forever. Representatives of the Nancy Buirski Legacy Fund juried the award.

The 2026 Tom Rankin Audience Award was presented to American Doctor, directed by Poh Si Teng, in the Feature category, and The Grandfather Puzzle, directed by Ora DeKornfeld, in the Short category. The Tom Rankin Audience Awards are presented by Peter Lange in honor of Tom Rankin.

Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), of which Full Frame is a program, considers all films in competition for its Filmmaker Award and awarded its 2026 prize to A Fox Under a Pink Moon. Representatives of CDS juried the prize: Jacey Anderson, Julie Hamilton, Frances Howorth, Deborah Jakubs, Jamal Michel, Michelle Moore, DaManuel Richardson, Jasmin Riley, and Timothy Tyson.

The Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award honors a first-time documentary feature director. The 2026 award was presented to Hemen Khaledi for Singing Wings. The award is presented by the Charles E. Guggenheim Family. Tom Oyer, Laura Tatham, and Nicole Tsien participated in the jury.

The John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Award, which is given to a short film that highlights documentary as a formally inventive artistic medium, was presented to Prin Rodriguez for Food for Everyone: Deities, Nature and Humans. The award is presented by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University and was juried by representatives for the institute: Lou Brown, Franklin Cason, Eric Barstow, Joshua Gibson, Shambhavi Kaul, and Ranjana Khanna.

Representatives from the President’s Office of Duke University juried the prize for the Full Frame President’s Award, given to the best student film. This year’s award went to Failure Is a River of Mine, directed by Julia Mendoza Friedman.

The Lake, directed by Abby Ellis, received the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights. Presented by the Julian Price Family Foundation in memory of Melanie Taylor, the award is given to a film that addresses a significant human rights issue in the United States. American Doctor, directed by Poh Si Teng, received an Honorable Mention. Representatives from the Kathleen Bryan Edwards family juried the prize: Anne Arwood, Laura Edwards, Clay Farland, Margaret Griffin, and Pricey Harrison.

For more information on the award winners and for complete juror statements, please visit fullframefest.org.

The 28th annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival runs through Sunday, April 19. Tickets are on sale at fullframefest.org.

Sunday Encores

Sunday Encore 1, 2:00 pm, Cinema 3

Still Standing
The Grandfather Puzzle
Singing WIngs

Sunday Encore 2, 4:30 pm, Cinema 1

Food for Everyone: Deities, Nature and Humans
Failure Is a River of Mine
A Fox Under a Pink Moon

Sunday Encore 3, 5:00 pm, Cinema 3

American Doctor