New Montana Indie Film Wins Best Director at Major Festival

It's been an exciting time for the Montana film industry over the last couple of years - we've had The Power of the Dog, which was shot in New Zealand but worked with the Montana Film Office for authenticity, and was a major player at the Oscars. We've had Yellowstone filming in the area for their fourth season and they're getting ready to start shooting Season 5 around here, too. And just recently, we saw the premiere of Ted K, which utilized pretty much the entire town of Lincoln, Montana while they were filming.

Back in the fall, the Montana Film Festival took place at the Roxy Theater in Missoula, where several major independent features and short films made their debut. Movies like The Power of the Dog and Montana Story were in the mix, but one that I heard a lot of people talking about was We Burn Like This, the feature debut of director Alana Waksman.

The movie, which stars Madeleine Coghlan and Devery Jacobs, was filmed on location in Billings, Butte, and Missoula. It's been making the rounds at a few film festivals since holding its Montana premiere at MTFF - and just this past week, it screened at the Phoenix Film Festival, where it picked up a major award.

We Burn Like This Won Best Director at the Phoenix Film Festival

Director Alana Waksman announced on Facebook that she had won Best Director at the Phoenix Film Festival's awards ceremony, the first time she's ever won an award for directing.

Other award winners included films like Americanish, InHospitable, and Northern Shade. You can check out the full list at the Phoenix Film Festival's website.

It's really exciting to see We Burn Like This gaining this kind of recognition outside of Montana. There's no word yet on when we might get to see the film play outside of a festival setting, but you can keep checking their website for the latest updates.