The finalist films addressed issues such as eating disorders, anxiety, perfectionism and more and awards were presented by Sarah Gilman, an actress and mental health activist. The awards included a monetary component for both the filmmaker and their teacher.
First Place: Happy Birthday by Moorea Friedman
Riverdale Country School, Bronx, NY
Second Place: PASS by Sarina Braun
Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, Santa Monica, CA
Best Animation: Daydream by Christopher Pineda Vaquera
Burbank High School, Burbank, CA
Friends Choice Award: Uninvited Guests by Haley Hyun
Sierra Canyon School, Calabasas, CA
Teen Advisory Council Choice Award: Unpolished by Juliam Dowd
Saint Monica Preparatory, Santa Monica, CA
2024 Open Mind Film Festival
The judges for 2026
Rae Brown, Former Open Mind Film Festival finalist filmmaker and current UCLA Film and TV Major
Tom Gormican, Filmmaker
Zach Gottlieb, Mental health activist and Stanford student
Grace Lee, Independent filmmaker
Jessica Levin, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer
Cara Natterson, MD, Pediatrician, author, and expert on adolescent development
Peter Roth, Former Chairman and CEO of Warner Brothers Television
Viviane Silvera, Painter and filmmaker
Susannah Stern, PhD, Professor and Honors Program Director in the Communications Department at the University of San Diego
The annual Open Mind Film Festival is a creative forum for teenagers to speak out about the mental health crisis impacting many of our youth. High school students throughout the United States are invited to submit short films highlighting their experiences and concerns surrounding this important topic. Submissions are accepted beginning in the fall of each year and finalist films are screened at the festival held the following spring.
Full Festival
Open Mind Film Festival for High School Students
The host for the festival is Bryan Greenberg, an actor and filmmaker, best known for his roles on How to Make it in America and the Netflix film, You People. Most recently Bryan wrote, directed and starred in Junction, a film about the opioid epidemic to be released this year.
The festival also features a conversation with Henry Platt, singer and mental health activist and Andrea Sonnenberg, host of the podcast series Getting Thru, about challenges to teen mental health.
For the third year, the Open Mind Film Festival, sponsored by The Friends, invited high school students across the country to produce short films telling their personal stories about mental health. Over 130 films were submitted and ten were selected to be screened at the virtual festival to be held on Sunday, April 30 at 2pm PDT.
Topics of the films include gun violence, gender roles, social media pressure, living with autism, and more. Among the panel of judges is Zach Gottlieb, founder of a Talk with Zach, a worldwide GenZ community to increase emotional fitness. Finalists are vying for $2,000 in prizes, with $1000 for the top film, $600 for second place, and $400 for the Friends Choice Award.