Deaf Way Film Festival celebrates growing deaf filmmaking community

Film festivals have long been vital to the deaf and hard of hearing community, offering platforms for creativity and visibility. Since 2000, more than thirty deaf film festivals have taken place worldwide.

Gallaudet now joins this tradition with the first-ever Deaf Way Film Festival (DWFF), October 16-19 in Elstad Auditorium. DWFF will screen 23 films, including 11 from international creators, reflecting the global scope of deaf cinema. 

Building on Deaf Way’s legacy 

Deaf Way isn’t new to film. Deaf Way II in 2002, with over 10,000 attendees, featured more than 55 screenings. Now under the Office of Arts, Culture, and Experience (ACE), the Deaf Way brand is being reimagined as a biennial cultural festival, starting with film in 2025 and spotlighting other artistic mediums in future years. 

ACE Director Tabitha Jacques notes that DWFF evolved from a small screening idea into a full festival, thanks to strong community partnerships. Leaders from festivals in Seattle, Maine, Los Angeles, Toronto, and England will gather at DWFF for a Deaf Film Festival Alliance panel to share insights and strengthen the movement. 

Opening night features Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, directed by filmmaker Shoshannah Stern, ’15, who will be at the festival for a post-screening conversation. 

An international movement

The oldest known deaf filmmaking event still ongoing in the United States is the Maine Deaf Film Festival, which began in 2003 and has occurred almost annually since. Over the years, other festivals have emerged in cities such as Rochester, Seattle, California, and St. Louis.

MJ Kiego, Director of Events for Deaf Way Film Festival, is also the founder of Deaf Film Festival in Austin. She reflects, “I started my festival because I wanted to create a space where Deaf filmmakers could be seen on their own terms, where our community can celebrate its own creativity, while also showing the wider world that Deaf filmmaking is rich, diverse, and powerful.”

Deaf film festivals play an important role in bringing deaf culture and sign language to audiences all over the world. The international scope of these festivals exposes audiences to a multitude of global cultures and languages while highlighting the shared experiences of deaf and hard of hearing people worldwide. The same is true of Deaf Way Film Festival. 

Preserving deaf history

DWFF continues a long tradition of using film to preserve and share Deaf stories. Perhaps the most well-known video in the Deaf community is the “Preservation of the Sign Language” speech from 1913 by Gallaudet alumni George W. Veditz, 1884 & G-1887.

The Gallaudet Archives helps maintain video records of such historical moments, including Deaf Way I in 1989 and Deaf Way II in 2002. In addition to preserving video, Gallaudet captures modern history through the work of the Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center. We also foster the next generation of deaf documentarians with a minor in documentary film studies.

Contemporary filmmakers are finding inspiration from the past. In 2025, alumni Nyle DiMarco, ’13, partnered with the Gallaudet Archives on the Emmy-nominated documentary Deaf President Now!.

Growing representation

Deaf representation in mainstream filmmaking has been growing alongside the rise in deaf film festivals. 2025 was another year of breaking barriers, as both Stern and DiMarco directed widely released feature films that have received critical acclaim.

Over the past 15 years in the United States, many Deaf artists have increasingly been part of feature films as directors, actors, sign language experts, and crew. In 2021, Troy Kotsur, E-’92, became the second deaf actor to win an Academy Award for CODA. CODA also starred Daniel Durant, E-’15, and Gallaudet Honorary Trustee Marlee Matlin, H-’87.

Other deaf actors who had leading roles in widely released films in recent years include Mila Davis-Kent in Creed III; Kaylee Hottle in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire; CJ Jones in Baby Driver; Lauren Ridloff, H-’22, in Eternals and Sound of Metal; and Millicent Simmonds in A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II.

The Director of Programming for DWFF, Andrea Passafiume, who is hard of hearing, has seen the growth happen firsthand. She has also worked for Tribeca Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival.

“Authentic Deaf stories and representation have been growing recently, but deaf film festivals remain invaluable for bonding our community and inspiring new artists,” says Passafiume.

A deaf film festival on hallowed ground

At Deaf Way Film Festival, audience members will watch some of the world’s best deaf filmmaking on grounds that have been inhabited by deaf people since 1864. They’ll also be surrounded by the world’s largest collection of deaf art.

The Linda K. Jordan Gallery recently opened an exhibition called “Beyond the Waves: Deaf Art”. It traces the evolution of Deaf artistic expression, from pre-De’VIA roots through Deaf Way I, the second wave of De’VIA, and today’s global Deaf contemporary art.

National Deaf Life Museum is currently hosting “We, Native Deaf People Are Still Here!”, an exhibition curated by Indigenous Deaf community members. The opening in 2024 aligned with a Healing and Renaming ceremony for the nearby òkànkwèpihëna tëtpi/Circle of Signers building.

By centering deaf filmmaking and deaf artistry, Gallaudet hopes that DWFF can be another healing space for deaf and hard of hearing attendees, as well as a cultural exchange with hearing audience members.

As a trained art therapist, ACE Curator Noel King is well-versed in the power of shared arts and culture experiences. She knows just how transformative spaces like DWFF can be.

“Arts and culture are essential to collective healing in Deaf communities,” says King. “By engaging with film and visual storytelling, we affirm identity, foster resilience, and create spaces that feel like home, where creativity and well-being thrive.”

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Join us for this historic celebration! Tickets are now available for the Deaf Way Film Festival.