Welcome to the Eighth Annual AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival.  Since its inception, Silverdocs has been a celebration of independent filmmaking, showcasing the best in documentary films. Film enthusiasts and professionals from around world have attended Silverdocs, making the festival a premiere destination for excellence and innovation in filmmaking.

This year's festival carries the established Silverdocs tradition even further with an outstanding lineup of high-quality documentaries, from first-time filmmakers and seasoned veterans alike, across a variety of genres.  It also is fitting that this year also marks the 25th anniversary of Discovery Communications, which was founded with a mission to satisfy curiosity and make difference with great nonfiction content that explores the wonders of our world, from animals to science to the environment.

Discovery's original commitment to promoting and celebrating great nonfiction content continues today through Discovery's support of Silverdocs, as well as on the small screen with outstanding nonfiction programming like LIFE on Discovery Channel, the REEL IMPACT documentary film block on Planet Green, and Investigation Discovery's just-announced independent documentary strand, to name a few examples.

In this spirit, we are pleased to join our partner, the American Film Institute, to honor the best the documentary genre has to offer at this year's Silverdocs. Our shared enthusiasm for high-quality content and great storytelling is what continues to make this festival so important.

Sincerely,

                  
John Hendricks                        David Zaslav                                         
Founder and Chairman            President and CEO