A Penn State faculty member's documentary has won Best Teacher Film at the Helsinki Education Film Festival International in Finland.

“Class of Her Own,” directed and produced by Boaz Dvir, an associate professor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, won that award and was also a finalist for Best Historical Film in Helsinki. The film recently won Best Documentary Feature at the Windsor International Black Film Festival in Canada.

“Many of the lessons the film’s protagonist, Gloria Jean Merriex, gave us are universal,” said Dvir, whose documentaries have aired and streamed on Hulu, PBS, The New York Times and other major platforms. “I’m honored and thrilled to have the opportunities to share them with audiences around the globe.”

The St. Augustine Film Festival will screen “Class of Her Own” — which shows Merriex rewriting the curriculum to meet her students where they were and incorporating hip hop, dance, and call-and-response into her lessons — at 2:45 p.m. on Jan. 11, 2025, at the former Alcazar Hotel (currently the Lightner Museum). 

The Alachua County School Board plans to name the Gainesville, Florida, school district’s administration building after Merriex and civil rights activist Charles S Chestnut III.

“Class of Her Own” has been named a finalist for a film festival award five times and a semifinalist once. It also earned an honorable mention. The Orlando Urban Film Festival nominated Dvir for Best Documentarian.

Refencing the popular ABC sitcom, Peter Greene of Forbes described the 86-minute documentary as a “real-life mirror of Abbott Elementary."