The following is a guest blog post by Andrew Huber, liaison specialist with the Veterans History Project, sharing a call for student submissions to the 2025 Sea Service Film Festival celebrating U.S. veterans’ stories through film.
The Veterans History Project and the U.S. Navy Memorial are teaming up to present the 2025 Sea Service Film Festival, inviting students nationwide to participate in preserving the stories of America’s veterans.
For several years, the U.S. Navy Memorial has hosted students from around the country through its their Sea Service internship. As part of the program, interns conduct oral histories of Navy veterans and produce short films based on those interviews. The full interviews are then donated to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP).
For the first time, the Veterans History Project (VHP) and the U.S. Navy Memorial are inviting students in grades 5–12 to create and submit short documentaries featuring the stories of U.S. veterans for the 2025 Sea Service Film Festival. Students in grade 10 and above may also submit their projects to the Library of Congress for inclusion in the Veterans History Project archive. This unique opportunity encourages teachers, parents and mentors to engage young people in documenting and preserving the powerful, personal histories of those who have served our nation.
The festival includes two submission categories:
• Documentaries of 10 minutes or less
• Shorts (1 minute or less)
All films must feature at least one veteran from either the Veterans History Project (www.loc.gov/vets) or U.S. Navy Memorial’s (https://navylog.navymemorial.org/search-navy-log) collections.
Participants are highly encouraged to conduct their own oral history interview of a veteran for use in their film, and these interviews will count towards the requirement as long as the qualifying footage is submitted to the Veterans History Project to create a VHP collection for that veteran. Instructions, rules, and guidelines for creating and submitting an oral history to the Veterans History Project can be found at https://www.loc.gov/programs/veterans-history-project/how-to-participate/.
The top 20 films will be screened at the Library of Congress at a public screening on November 13, 2025 where the top filmmakers will be honored on-stage and receive a certificate recognizing their achievement.
Full rules and entry instructions are available at https://www.navymemorial.org/national-sea-service-film-festival and prospective entrants can email [email protected] with any questions or [email protected] for an official entry application.
Whether you’re a student filmmaker, educator or parent, the Sea Service Film Festival offers a powerful way to connect with the stories of our nation’s veterans and ensure their legacies are preserved for future generations. We encourage all eligible students to take part in this meaningful project. One film can make history.