The Chairman and the Lions, produced by Kelly Askew, associate professor in DAAS and Anthropology, won First Prize in the ETNOFilm Ethnographic Festival in Rovinj, Croatia. It was praised "for its ethnographic integrity and the honesty of its gaze." The film also screened at the following festivals:

2012 The Heart of Slavonia' International Ethno Film Festival Djakovo, Croatia
2012 SVA Ethnographic Film and Media Festival San Francisco, USA
2012 Jean Rouch International Film Festival Paris, France
2012 Festival of Visual Anthropology ASPEKTY Turon, Poland
2013 ETNOFilm Festival of Ethnographic/Anthropological Film Rovinj, Croatia

Finally, the film has been signed for a distribution deal with the prestigious Documentary Educational Resources (DER) in Boston which is known for its ethnographic/anthropological films.