Traci L. Slatton’s 'HEROIC' wins Newport Beach audience award

Traci L. Slatton’s documentary about Sabin Howard’s nine-year effort to create the National WWI Memorial sculpture won the Audience Award for Best Art, Architecture + Design Feature at the 2026 Newport Beach Film Festival. Freestyle Digital Media has acquired digital distribution rights, with a January 2027 digital release planned.

Why it matters: - The award gives broader visibility to a documentary about a major U.S. war memorial and the making of large-scale narrative art. - The film also positions the National WWI Memorial sculpture as a cultural statement about classical craftsmanship and remembrance.

What happened: - "HEROIC: Sabin Howard Sculpts the National WWI Memorial" won the Audience Award for Best Art, Architecture + Design Feature at the 2026 Newport Beach Film Festival. - The film shared the honor with "Leica – A Century of Vision." - Freestyle Digital Media, a division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, acquired digital distribution rights to the documentary. - The film is set for a January 2027 digital release.

The details: - The documentary follows Sabin Howard’s nine-year effort to create "A Soldier’s Journey," the 58-foot-long, 25-ton bronze sculpture at the center of the National WWI Memorial in Washington, D.C. - The sculpture is described as the largest freestanding high-relief bronze sculpture in the Western Hemisphere. - The work features 38 larger-than-life figures. - Modern combat veterans served as live models for the World War I soldiers depicted in the sculpture. - Traci L. Slatton served as director, project manager and Howard’s wife while documenting the project. - Slatton said the film reflects what is required to create enduring art in the modern age and that she and Howard felt a duty to veterans and to audiences seeking art that elevates shared humanity. - The film chronicles federal design battles, pandemic shutdowns and tensions in the studio and marriage. - The release announcement points viewers to the film’s website for early screening access, press inquiries and institutional exhibition requests.

Between the lines: - The film is being framed as more than an arts documentary; it is presented as a defense of classical humanism and monumental storytelling. - The festival award suggests there is an audience for behind-the-scenes stories about difficult, expensive public art projects. - The emphasis on veterans, craftsmanship and civic memory gives the project a clear emotional and cultural pitch beyond the art world.

What's next: - "HEROIC" will digitally release in January 2027. - The filmmakers are inviting early screening access, press inquiries and institutional exhibition requests ahead of release. - The documentary’s broader rollout will likely determine how far its message about monumental public art travels beyond festival audiences.

The bottom line: - "HEROIC" has turned a long, difficult memorial project into an award-winning documentary with a scheduled digital debut next year.