Films with a Montana connection are always highlighted at the Big Sky Film Festival in Missoula, but this year they will get even more attention.

"Big Sky has always been so much defined by Missoula and the filmmakers that live and work in Montana, we've had great films from local artists for years, but this year we decided we'd make it easier to get more of that work coming our way, so we had a submission category that was specifically for Montana films and filmmakers and we got a lot of submissions," said Big Sky Film Festival Executive Director Rachel Gregg.

The new 'Made in Montana' category lured a bunch of entries, one of which will kick-off the festival Friday at 7:00 p.m.

"Entry-wise, I would say we probably had around 100 come from just Montana content," Gregg said "Some of the highlights this year: of course, we're opening the festival with a film called Dark Money, which is about campaign finance. We'll also have a film called Drive Them Buffalo, which is by filmmaker Daniel Glick, who is an alumni of the festival, which is about the Blackfeet Buffalo drive."

The Big Sky Film Festival will go from February 16 - 25. Governor Steve Bullock will be at The WIlma Friday for the opening of 'Dark Money.'

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