Shine Global Awards Remaining Native the Unstoppable Kids Prize at the 2026 New York International Children’s Film Festival

March 19, 2026, New York, NY – Shine Global is proud to announce Remaining Native, directed and produced by Paige Bethmann and produced by Judd Ehrlich and Jessica Epstein, as the recipient of this year’s Unstoppable Kids Prize at the New York International Children’s Film Festival (NYICFF). This annual cash award given in partnership with NYICFF since 2024, recognizes a film that highlights the resilience, courage, and determination of young people facing adversity.

Remaining Native follows 17-year-old Native American runner Ku Stevens as he pursues his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete while grappling with his heritage and the legacy of his great-grandfather’s escape from the Stewart Indian School. As an 8-year-old child, Ku’s great-grandfather ran away from the boarding school three separate times before ultimately securing his freedom. In retracing that 50-mile journey decades later, Ku discovers how running can carry memory, resistance, and hope across generations.

A quiet yet deeply powerful documentary, Remaining Native reveals how running becomes both a personal aspiration and an act of remembrance and connection. For Ku, the discipline and solitude of long-distance running symbolize determination and possibility. For his great-grandfather, running was survival. The film’s most poignant moments invite viewers into a reflective space that deepens our understanding of resilience.

“Remaining Native embodies the very spirit of the Unstoppable Kids Prize,” said Alexandra Blaney, Co-CEO and Creative Director of Shine Global. “Not only is Ku literally unstoppable in his races, but over the course of the film we watch him wrestle with the deeper conflict between his desire to leave home as he pursues his dreams while also honoring the legacy of those who came before him. Ultimately, he discovers a new path forward for himself and his community. His journey shows us that resilience can be quiet and leadership can be deeply introspective.”

Throughout the film, Ku emerges as both intensely thoughtful and a natural leader. While focused on earning a place at a college running program, he also reveals a deeper calling: preserving his ancestors’ legacy and ensuring that the stories of Native children who endured Indian boarding schools are neither forgotten nor silenced.

The impact campaign for Remaining Native extends beyond the screen. Screenings of the film are designed to create trauma-informed spaces for dialogue around the history and ongoing legacy of Indian Boarding Schools. The campaign builds reciprocal partnerships with Indigenous communities, supports Native youth-led initiatives for generational healing and community-building, and advances educational efforts that shift narratives through an Indigenous lens—centering Native students and lived experiences in curriculum development.

Central to the campaign is the annual Remembrance Run. In 2021, following the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada, Ku and his family organized the first Remembrance Run to retrace the 50-mile escape his great-grandfather made from the Stewart Indian School. What began as a community act of remembrance drew over one hundred participants from across the country.

The Remembrance Run continued in 2022 and 2023, with Ku undertaking the journey solo in 2024 and 2025. In collaboration with Remaining Native’s Impact Campaign, the Stevens family will host the 2026 Remembrance Run from August 14–16, beginning at the Yerington Paiute Tribe and concluding at the Stewart Indian School. The 50-mile journey, split over two days, invites participants of all backgrounds to “lay down prayers with their feet.” It honors the children who survived boarding schools and remembers those who never came home. Learn more about the event and how to participate at https://www.remainingnativedocumentary.com/rr26.

“The Unstoppable Kids Prize honors films that show young people who refuse to let injustice define their future,” Blaney added. “Ku’s journey reminds us that young people can be fearless and that remembrance itself can be an act of courage. By facing history with honesty and heart, young leaders can forge purposeful paths forward for themselves and their communities.”

The Unstoppable Kids Prize reflects Shine Global’s commitment to recognizing films that uplift and empower young people around the world. Remaining Native stands as a moving testament to the enduring strength of Indigenous youth, the power of intergenerational resilience, and the belief that the path forward is strongest when it honors those who came before.

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ABOUT SHINE GLOBAL

Shine Global is a nonprofit media company that improves the lives of children by telling powerful stories to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. We produce and support inspiring films and compelling content about underserved children. Through tailored distribution and outreach, we connect with our audiences in communities, classrooms, museums, and on Capitol Hill as part of a powerful engagement campaign to encourage social change.

Since our founding in 2005 by Susan MacLaury and Albie Hecht, Shine Global films have won more than 100 major awards, including an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Subject for Inocente, an Academy Award® nomination for Best Live Action Short for Anuja, and an Academy Award® nomination and two Emmys® for War/Dance. Recent films include the documentary-animation hybrid Liyana, the hit documentary The Eagle Huntress, Through Our Eyes: Homefront which is available on HBOMax, the Ariel Award winner Home Is Somewhere Else, and Comedy Against the Odds.

ABOUT SHINE GLOBAL’S RESILIENCE AWARDS

The Shine Global Resilience Awards were created to honor films that highlight the strength, dignity, and power of children in the face of adversity. Past winners of Shine Global Resilience Awards include the feature documentaries Speak. (2025, Directed by Guy Mossman and Jennifer Tiexiera), Daughters (2024, Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae), Name Me Lawand (2023, Directed by Edward Lovelace), and Lift (2022, Directed by David Petersen), Los Frikis (2024, written and directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz) in partnership with Nantucket Film Festival, the short Rise (2025, Directed by Jessica J. Rowlands), the short documentary Ayenda (2023, directed by Marie Margolius) in partnership with Heartland Film’s Indy Shorts International Film Festival, Okthanksbye (2023, Nicole Van Kilsdok) with ReelAbilities Film Festival, Savauges (2024, directed by Claude Barras), and Dounia – The Great White North (2024, directed by Marya Zarif and André Kadi) in partnership with the New York International Children’s Film Festival.