The madhouse of awards season and all its many, many controversies — not to mention an ongoing parade of natural and man-made disasters — has until now perhaps overshadowed some of the year’s lower-stakes joys. Case in point: the nine films below. The movies that studios reserve for the doldrums of the early months are rarely the ones that compete for Oscars later on.

TURTLE WALKER Wins BEST FEATURE and BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN at DOCUTAH International Film Festival
CHEVY CHASE, Md., Feb 28, 2025 – Oscar®-nominated and Emmy® Award-winning HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, Emaho Films, Tiger Baby Productions, and Ceres Productions are proud to announce that TURTLE WALKER won Best Feature and Best Production Design at the DOCUTAH International Film Festival.
Why did you name your company “Impossible”?
I wanted the name to be provocative, intriguing and memorable. It was widely believed at the time that meat could only come from animals and that it would be impossible to create meat using only ingredients made from plants or produced by fermentation, so “Impossible” was also kind of an ironic way of thumbing our nose at the doubters. We were going to do the “Impossible.”
THE CALLING: A MEDICAL SCHOOL JOURNEY, a new documentary directed by Asako Gladsjo, follows the intellectual and emotional journey of a group of students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.
Documentary “The Calling: A Medical School Journey,” following the journey of a group of students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, premieres Monday, March 17 at 10p on PBS (check local listings).
The Birds is a moving portrait of one man’s desperation to decipher the relationship between mass flights of seabirds and a single super-speed predator. In this episode, co-director Martin Dohrn visits the Trail 103.3 studios to discuss the making of the film.
WHAT IS BIG SKY DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL?
We’re thrilled to share our 2025 Wild & Scenic Film Festival Award Winners with you!!

The Calling: A Medical School Journey Premieres Monday, March 17 on PBS
NEW YORK (Feb. 12, 2025) — The Calling: A Medical School Journey, a new documentary directed by Asako Gladsjo, follows the intellectual and emotional journey of a group of students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

Internationally Acclaimed Wildlife Filmmaker Martin Dohrn’s THE BIRDS to Premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
February 10, 2025 (Chevy Chase, MD): HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Passion Planet, a Passion Pictures company, will premiere their latest feature short film, THE BIRDS, at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival on Monday, February 17 at 5:45 p.m. MST.
A Make Waves and HHMI/Tangled Bank Studios Production (USA), Blue Carbon: Nature’s Hidden Power, Doc Feature – In Blue Carbon, Emmy & BAFTA-winning director Nicolas Brown delivers a visually stunning and sonically rich documentary that fuses science and music to reveal one of nature’s most powerful—and overlooked—climate solutions.