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.