2026 Boulder Environmental Nature Outdoors Film Festival Closing Night Event

Closing NIGHT Award Ceremony, FILM, & Reception Film at 4:00PM at Dairy Arts Center/Gordon Gamm -- THE LAST DIVE Reception from 6:15PM to 8:15PM Reception at Velvet Elk Lounge, on 13th Street Libations & Appetizers, Live Music Hazel Miller and the Collective \*\*RAFFLE PRIZES GALORE!\*\* Alex Antoniou, Ph.D., our 2026 EARTH ANGEL HONOREE Prior to Closing Night film, the festival will honor Alex Antoniou with the festival’s EARTH ANGEL statuette for his work in marine life conservation advocacy and education. Dr. Antoniou began his shark conservation path in 1994 as the Director of Field Operations for the Shark Research Institute based in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the first to tag whale sharks in the Caribbean with satellite transmitters, tracking the sharks thousands of miles and to great depths of the Gulf of Mexico. He is currently working as the volunteer CEO for Fins Attached, which he founded in 2010. He has had a passion for shark research and conservation for over 25 years. CLOSING NIGHT FILM: THE LAST DIVE Followed by a pre-recorded interview with Director Cody Sheehy Terry Kennedy is a legend. A former associate of the Hell’s Angels, he sailed into the Sea of Cortez in the 1980s on a boat named \*Erotica\*. But while Terry’s friends have great memories of partying with him at sea, his legacy goes beyond mere popularity. His time on the water transformed Terry, who devoted his life to the conservation of manta rays after bonding with a giant manta he named “Willy Wow.” Over 19 years off the coast of San Benedicto Island, Terry and Willy Wow developed an extraordinary relationship that changed our understanding of mantas forever. Now in his eighties, Terry goes on the adventure of a lifetime in \*The Last Dive\*, setting sail with his friends and a documentary crew in hopes of fulfilling his “dying wish” to swim with Willy Wow one more time. Director Cody Sheehy takes viewers along on their journey, using Terry’s story…