Lone Peak Film Festival will host five fellows and four industry mentors, including Lily Gladstone and Kiwi Smith
By Jen Clancey STAFF WRITER
At small theaters across the country, like The Waypoint’s 84-seat cinema in Big Sky, audiences are watching not only the latest blockbuster movies, but also enjoying regional, or independently made films through celebrations like the Lone Peak Film Festival.
Approaching its second year, the Lone Peak Film Festival wants to bring more Montana-based, uplifting stories to screen and continue to support emerging filmmakers from the state through its fellowship program.
In 2025, LPFF screened films at The Waypoint about the region, Indigenous stories, the environment and human resilience. The festival also selected three fellows for workshops and year-long mentorship. Montana-based filmmakers can now apply for 2026 Lone Peak Filmmaker Fellowship, coinciding with the second annual festival in September.
LPFF is bringing in new mentors for the fellowship cohort, too: writer and Golden Globe-winning actress Lily Gladstone; Kiwi Smith, screenwriter for movies like “Legally Blonde” and “Ella Enchanted”; writer, producer and professor Kurt Lustgarten; and Emmy winner Bradford Schmidt will offer support to fellows.
LPFF Director Daniel Glick is excited about the mentors coming to Big Sky.
“All of them had to hustle hard and experiment and take risks and try things out … There’s just a lot of valuable lessons in there,” Glick said of the four mentors. He explained that the film industry is difficult to break into, speaking from personal experience. Glick co-directed the documentary “Bring Them Home” with directors Ivy MacDonald and Ivan MacDonald. But the grind began many years before. Glick remembers his experience working for over a decade until he found mentors in the field.
“It’s a hard industry to build a career in for many reasons. But we want to offer something which is rare, which is uncommon, and offer [the fellowship] to early filmmakers in Montana to help hopefully build and support the next generation of filmmakers in Montana who want to make films here,” Glick said.
Similar to last year, applicants for the fellowship must be working on a film project about stories related to Montana, Indigenous peoples, conservation and resilience. They must be Montana-based and within the first five years of their career, though they can be of any age.
Nellie Whiteman, Destini Vaile and Chase Hall are the 2025 fellows. Whiteman, a Montana State University graduate, noted why the fellowship is important to her.
“The Lone Peak Fellowship has transformed how I see myself as a filmmaker,” Whiteman stated in an email. “Coming fresh out of college, being selected opened the door to incredible opportunities from attending the Lone Peak Film Festival in Big Sky to connecting with and learning from inspiring filmmakers from all over the world who are actively shaping the industry.”
The festival hosts at least one of the filmmakers for each film its screens. Throughout the weekend, audiences, filmmakers, mentors and fellows mingle at The Waypoint. Hall described his appreciation for the local event.
“I’m just glad there’s a local festival in Montana starting out that’s given me an opportunity to meet with many passionate, like-minded filmmakers,” Hall stated in an email. “I was really looking for that and felt like I found a great community. The continued support though, after, is what really does it for me.”
LPFF will begin on Sept. 17 this year, and Glick hopes it is the same “love fest” as last year.
“I think it’s a place to kind of replenish your soul, replenish your spirit, replenish hope in humanity,” Glick said. “There are lots of really good people in the world trying to do good things, and we’re trying to share those stories and focus on those stories.”
Applications for the fellowship close on June 18.
