Founded in 2005, the New York City Mental Health Film Festival is the oldest and largest mental health film festival in the United States.
It was originally planned as a community event for mental health consumers: We’d select the best films we could find about mental health, screen them, and relate them to our own experiences.
But soon it became clear that our little film festival could be something big – an event with broad appeal and impact. So, the festival grew. While it continued to be organized mainly by mental health recipients, we started spreading the word to a wider audience. We set out to build a community through film.
Above all, we wanted to show the lives, successes, hopes, struggles, and beautiful humanity of people with mental health concerns.
That's what we've done. Over the years, we’ve screened more than 60 films and welcomed more than 6,000 film lovers to our festival. Filmmakers and stars from around the world have shown their films, shared their insights, and participated in lively conversations with our audience. Members of the mental health community have continued to share their reactions and their life experiences, and we’ve all grown together.
Five years ago, we launched, as part of the MHFF, the Changing Minds Young Filmmaker Competition: a unique storytelling initiative for young people between the ages of 15-25 to share uplifting/unique/vital mental health stories through film. To date, we've received hundreds of films from talented young filmmakers around the world. You can find out more information about how to enter this competition at filmfreeway.com/ChangingMinds.