NatureTrack Film Festival Announces Dates for 5th Anniversary Edition

New festival team and locations revealed; submissions open now calling for naturecentric films

GOLETA — Celebrating the return of the beloved NatureTrack Film Festival (NTFF) for its fifth year is good reason to break out the champagne. Lots of exciting news to reveal, like new co-directors for the fest, addition of a development director to the team, add in a new location, official dates, plus call for open submissions to the nature-centric film festival. Most of all, it’s an in-person gathering for the fabulous fifth year. This great little festival that can is curated with a focus on nature and outdoor-related films – its tag line is "Igniting Passion for Nature Through Film." The program will include both feature-length and short films in a wide variety of genres and subjects including documentary, narrative, animation, experimental, conservation, outdoors adventure, student films, and more.

Sue Eisaguirre, founder and executive director of NatureTrack Foundation, announced the festival dates will be Oct. 6-8 at Metropolitan’s Fairview Theatre in Goleta for the first time.

“Environmental concerns are in the forefront of our community’s collective conscience, and I believe this festival will further inform all those interested in the natural world about other people who are doing great things around the world," Eisaguirre stated.

"The films will also excite attendees to get outdoors, connect with the natural world and enjoy the elixirs nature offers!”

In addition to the threeday festival in Goleta, NTFF will screen the award-winning films in Los Olivos, where the festival all began, for a "Best of the Fest" one-day event the following weekend. Location for this event will be announced soon.

Leading the emerging film festival are new Festival Directors Mitchka Saberi and Francisco Lopez. They both graduated from UCSB where Eisaguirre connected with them through Film & Media Studies professor Chris

Jenkins. The team went on to collaborate on a short documentary "The Accessible Outdoors" co-produced by NatureTrack, and the 15-minute short doc made the rounds to film festivals in 2022 picking up several awards.

“As filmmakers ourselves, we were very excited to be invited to become the new festival directors for NTFF," the both stated. "We hope we can curate a selection of films which will open up audiences’ definition of what a nature film can be and put on an event that becomes a staple for the Goleta community as well as for filmmakers from around the world.”

Joining Saberi and Lopez is the new Development Director Gareth Kelly who has also collaborated with Lopez and Saberi in the past on several film projects as a producer. They are all looking forward to bringing the film festival to the Goleta and Santa Barbara communities.

Film submissions are open now on FilmFreeway. The early deadline for submissions is March 5, and submissions will stay open until the last deadline of June 30th.

To get involved, get upcoming ticket and pass sales, send submissions, and more, check out the NTFF website (naturetrackfilmfestival.org). The festival will be at Fairview Theatre, 225 N. Fairview Ave., in Goleta. For updates, go to Instagram (@ naturetrackfilm). For more info on NatureTrack Film Festival, e-mail mitchka@naturetrackfilmfestival.org or call (805) 844-5406.