2025 Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund Awards $120,000 Grants to Ten Diverse Projects
The Sundance Institute has announced the ten projects selected for the inaugural 2025 Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund. This initiative, supported by Chase Sapphire Reserve, offers $120,000 grants to artists from diverse backgrounds working on feature films around the world. The grant is part of the Institute’s Artist Accelerator Program, which focuses on artist development through yearlong fellowships, funding, and ongoing support.
The recipients were chosen from various programs including the Feature Film Program, the Documentary Film Program, the Indigenous Program, Catalyst, the Artist Accelerator Program, and Ignite. The 2025 grantees and their respective projects include:
- Roni Jo Draper and Marissa Lila Kongao: “We Arrive With Fire”
- Chris Gris: “Forward”
- Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs: “High Steel”
- Masami Kawai: “Valley of the Tall Grass”
- Khaula Haider Malik: “Alien Nation”
- Mackie Mallison: “Everything Must Go”
- Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig: “Jaripeo”
- Steve Pargett: “Black Out Dreams”
- Huda Razzak: “Home of Birds”
- Walter Thompson-Hernández: “If I Go Will They Miss Me”
Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs, director of the Artist Accelerator Program and Women at Sundance Institute, expressed excitement about the partnership. She said, “We are thrilled to announce the inaugural grantees of the Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund sponsored by Chase Sapphire Reserve. This partnership allows us to provide artists with critical support, empowering them to take bold creative risks and bring their powerful stories to life.”
She added, “These 10 projects represent the diversity, innovation, and artistic excellence that are at the heart of the artists we support at Sundance Institute. We are deeply grateful to Chase Sapphire Reserve for sharing our commitment to uplifting independent voices and helping us build a more vibrant future for storytelling.”
SOHO International Film Festival Opens with “After All”
The SOHO International Film Festival will open with the world premiere of Kerstin Karlhuber's film “After All,” starring Erika Christensen, Penelope Ann Miller, Kiara Muhammad, Zach Gilford, Mike O'Malley, and David James Elliott. The film follows Ellen (Christensen), who returns home to care for her estranged, ailing mother, Verna (Miller), and the teenage daughter she left behind (Muhammad). As Verna declines and long-buried family secrets surface, three generations of women must confront painful truths, heal old wounds, and rediscover joy in one another as they reimagine what it means to be family.
Presented by SOHO Creative Lab Foundation, the 2025 program will showcase over 130 films, including more than 115 premieres. Other films set to debut during the festival include the animated feature “Flower of the Dawn,” world feature “A Farewell to Youth,” series pilot “Books,” documentary “Sanctuary,” U.S. short film “Clementine,” and world short film “Under the Northern Skies.” The festival will run from October 7 to 13 at Regal Square Union Square in New York City.
ICG Releases and Publicist Awards Schedule
The International Cinematographers Guild (ICG) has announced the voting schedule for the 63rd Annual Publicist Awards, which will be held on March 13, 2026 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The event honors publicists, unit still photographers, film and TV publicity campaigns, and entertainment journalists who have showcased outstanding work over the past year.
First ballot nomination results will be announced on December 2, followed by TV publicity campaign nominees on December 10 and motion picture publicity campaign nominees on January 14. Final ballot voting closes on February 3.
Woodstock Film Festival Unveils Opening and Closing Films
The Woodstock Film Festival has revealed Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee” as its opening night presentation and Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire” as its closing night film. The 26th edition of the festival will take place from October 15 to 19 across venues in Woodstock, Rosendale, Kingston, and Saugerties, New York.
“We're ecstatic to bookend this year's festival with two bold, conversation-starting features that embody the fiercely independent spirit our audiences love,” said Meira Blaustein, Woodstock Film Festival Co-Founder and Executive Director. “From Mona Fastvold's intimate vision to Gus Van Sant's audacious retelling, these films invite dialogue long after the credits roll.”
Uma Thurman has joined the festival’s board of directors, adding to the list of previously announced titles such as Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Hikari’s “Rental Family,” Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” and Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon.”
Liz Garbus to Receive Camerimage Award for Outstanding Directing
Liz Garbus will be honored with an award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking at the 33rd EnergaCAMERIMAGE Festival in Toruń, Poland this November. Garbus, a two-time Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker, has directed and produced acclaimed documentaries such as “The Farm: Angola, USA,” “Bobby Fischer Against the World,” “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,” “Love, Marilyn,” “What Happened, Miss Simone?,” and “Becoming Cousteau.” She also directed the 2020 narrative feature “Lost Girls” and episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Yellowjackets,” and “Good American Family.”
Boston Film Festival Announces 2025 Award Winners
The 41st Boston Film Festival has revealed the winners of its 2025 program, which spotlighted a wide range of films and talent across genres and themes. The festival featured a red carpet for filmmakers and talent, with Kanopy serving as the presenting partner.
Audiences enjoyed premieres and screenings spanning suspense, drama, historical, and environmental storytelling. Highlights included the international premiere of “The Fallow Few” and the world premiere of “Ambleside.” Students at Emerson College were treated to a screening of the new Warner Bros. Television series “It: Welcome to Derry,” featuring a panel discussion with production designer Paul Austerberry and costume designer Luis Sequeira.
“Ambleside” won six awards, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Music, Best Actress, and Best Ensemble Cast. Bradley James received Best Actor for his portrayal of Cpl. George Hansen in “The Fallow Few,” while Ellie Bamber won Best Actress for her role in “Ambleside.” “Blue Zeus” won Best Documentary Film, “The Snake and the Whale” was named EcoFilm, and “Hidden: The Kati Preston Story” took the Mass Impact Award.
Skybound Entertainment and Regal Partner for Animation Extravaganza
Skybound Entertainment has partnered with Regal to bring Spike and Mike's Animation Extravaganza 2025 to theatres nationwide from October 31 to November 2. Hosted by YouTubers Jaiden Animations and Ross O'Donovan, the 90-minute show combines '70s and '80s animation with quirky live-action bits and new shorts. Skybound received hundreds of submissions and selected 24 films for the inaugural three-day festival.
The shorts will feature retro 8-bit adventures, balloon-based aliens with interstellar appetites, phlegm-spitting characters, zombies, skeletons dancing under a full moon, and video game marathons. The lineup includes “Baloney Beacon,” “Beautiful Day,” “Danse Macabre,” “Debt & Misgivings,” “Detektive Thumb and the Infinity House,” “Doodlepops,” and “Heart-Ache.” Tickets are available now at REGmovies.com.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Announces 2025 Gold Fellowship Recipients
Alina Simone (“Black Snow”) and Marlén Viñayo (“Cachada: The Opportunity”) have been selected as the recipients of the 2025 Academy Gold Fellowship for Women, presented by Chanel. This one-year program offers emerging women filmmakers personalized mentorship, networking opportunities, and career advancement support through the Academy Gold Alumni Network.
Kim Taylor-Coleman, Academy governor and president of the Academy Foundation Board, stated, “Championing and inspiring new generations of global filmmakers is core to the Academy's mission, and we're thrilled to continue this work through the Gold Fellowship for Women. We are incredibly grateful for the generous support of our partner Chanel, which shares our commitment to nurturing talented women filmmakers and opening doors to meaningful opportunities in the film industry.”
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