Navajo Prep students help choose Student Choice Award at Mountainfilm
Six Navajo Prep students from Farmington helped pick Mountainfilm’s Student Choice Award, putting Navajo youth in a rare role with real influence and a $2,000 prize on the line.
Michaela Begay, Leilana Brown, Taya Hosteen, Kyannibah Largo, Oliver Thomas and Abby Tsosie had the kind of access most high school students never see: they sat on the Student Choice Award jury at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival and helped decide which film would be recognized. For Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington, the assignment put six students in a position to judge global stories, meet filmmakers and weigh which work would speak most powerfully to their generation.
Mountainfilm says the Student Choice Award is selected by high school students in its Mountainfilm for Students program, and the winner receives a $2,000 prize funded by Telluride Academy and Alpine Bank. The festival held its 48th annual edition in 2026, during Memorial Day weekend in Telluride, Colorado, where the program centers documentary films about adventure, activism, social justice, the environment and indomitable spirit. In that setting, the students were not passive attendees. They were part of the process that elevated one story above the rest.
The opportunity carries added weight for San Juan County because Navajo Preparatory School is a Bureau of Indian Education-funded school in Farmington, and the Bureau says its Navajo schools office supports schools within the Navajo Nation, the largest tribal reservation in the United States. The Bureau also says it hosts consultations and listening sessions with students, parents, staff and school communities nationwide, a reminder that student voice is supposed to matter in more than one classroom or one campus.
The Bureau of Indian Education shared photos of the students’ time at Mountainfilm, putting Native youth in a national arts and civic space where their judgment mattered publicly. For local families, the experience points to a broader question about representation and opportunity: when Navajo students from Farmington are trusted to help decide which documentary best inspires a generation, they are also seeing a possible path into filmmaking, public storytelling and leadership. In a festival built around ideas that claim to change the world, the more important story may be who was given the power to choose.
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