AI Literacy Initiative (various components, including AI Creators Fellowship)

AI Literacy Initiative (various components, including AI Creators Fellowship) is sponsored by Sundance Institute, with initial support from Google.org. A three-year, product-agnostic AI Literacy Initiative for filmmakers, offering free and accessible learning opportunities and resources to educate the community about AI and support artists in making informed decisions about adopting AI tools.

Artist Accelerator - sundance. org The Artist Accelerator Program at Sundance Institute was launched in 2021 to address the shifting realities of independent storytelling and meet artists’ needs in a changing creative and economic landscape. With an artist-first approach, the program provides crucial financial, creative, and tactical support to emerging and mid-career storytellers navigating a fragmented and competitive field.

To date, the Program has supported over 200 artists across various artist support initiatives, including yearlong fellowships and project advancement and completion grants. The Program’s fellowships offer non-recoupable grants, individualized mentorship, and a deep sense of community.

In addition to fellowships, the program offers project completion grants to support the creation of meaningful, visionary work that might otherwise go unfinished. Beyond individual support, the Artist Accelerator Program drives field-wide impact by collaborating with peer artist support organizations, public agencies, and grassroots collectives to expand access, equity, and sustainability across the independent storytelling ecosystem.

Year-Round Artist Fellowships The Artist Accelerator Program offers year-long opportunities for artists to build community, receive bespoke project support, access funding, and grow professionally.

Sundance Institute | The Asian American Foundation Fellowship and Scholarship Launched in 2022, the Sundance Institute | The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) Fellowship and Scholarship is a year-round initiative designed to support 12 Asian American artists.

The Program’s goal is to positively impact Asian American representation in independent media, strengthen connections to other organizations working in the space, and foster opportunities for artists to connect with like-minded creatives for network development.

The program features two tracks: a Fellowship offering continued support to Sundance Institute-affiliated artists and a Scholarship that brings a new cohort of Asian American creators into the Sundance Institute Artist support pathway. The TAAF Fellowship and Scholarship is developed with support from The Asian American Foundation (TAAF).

Building Bridges Artist Fellowship Launched in 2024 and conducted in collaboration with the Islamic Scholarship Fund (ISF), the Building Bridges Artist Fellowship provides financial and creative resources, mentorship, and support to artists focused on U.S. Muslim narratives.

The Building Bridges Fellowship provides selected Fellows with a $10,000 unrestricted grant, professional development opportunities, and other benefits in line with other Artist Accelerator fellowships. The Building Bridges Artist Fellowship is developed with support from the Doris Duke Foundation.

Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Studios Artist Fellowship Launched in 2023, the Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Studios Artist Fellowship is a year-round initiative designed to offer pivotal career and artist-focused support to a select group of filmmakers. A primary goal of this initiative is to position these artists for potential work within the Walt Disney Studios system.

Key features of the Fellowship include a non-recoupable artist grant, mentorship from an established artist or industry professional, networking opportunities with creative executives from across Walt Disney Studios’ umbrella of brands, and a specially curated experience at the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Studios Artist Fellowship is developed with support from THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS.

Sundance Institute AI Creators Fellowship The year-long Sundance Institute AI Creators Fellowship, launching in 2026, will support up to 12 media artists over three years in exploring the intersection of art and AI as they work on a new project using AI as a core element. This initiative also aims to improve AI literacy among Sundance Institute staff through participation in discussions and events.

The Sundance Institute AI Creators Fellowship is developed with support from Google. org. Artist Accelerator Program provides non-recoupable grants for projects which have been previously supported by a Sundance Institute Program as well as projects that have no previous Sundance Institute engagement.

Each fund prioritizes projects where grants would have the most impact and be catalytic to the project reaching its next step. Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Studios Project Advancement and Completion Fund Launched in 2023, the Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Studios Project Advancement and Completion Fund provides $25,000 in unrestricted grants to directors working across a variety of genres in the feature fiction space.

This fund supports projects in need of critical development financing, as well as urgent need in advancing projects forward in a meaningful way. The Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Studios Project Advancement and Completion Fund is developed with support from THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS.

Sundance Institute | Building Bridges Completion Fund Launched in 2024, Sundance Institute | Building Bridges Completion Fund offers grants of up to $25,000 to U.S.-based directors, writers, and producers whose feature films, short films, or episodic projects amplify the universality and distinctiveness of U.S. Muslim narratives.

The Building Bridges Fund offers a lifeline to filmmakers during the high-pressure window between festival acceptance and premiere. By providing either a Post-Production grant or an Impact Campaign grant, the fund helps artists maximize their festival experience and build sustainable strategies for distribution. The Sundance Institute | Building Bridges Completion Fund is developed with support from the Doris Duke Foundation.

Past Artist Accelerator Initiatives Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund sponsored by Chase Sapphire Reserve® ( 2025 ) Sundance Institute | Latine Fellowship and Scholarship ( 2022 , 2023 , 2024 ) Sundance Institute | One House Filmmakers Fund ( 2024 ) Sundance Institute Humanities Sustainability Fellowship ( 2022 ) Sundance Institute Completion Fund in partnership with Zions Bank Sundance Institute | Stars Collective Granting Fund Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Studios Project Advancement and Completion Fund Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund sponsored by Chase Sapphire Reserve® Sundance Institute | Humanities Sustainability Fellowship Sundance Institute | The Asian American Foundation Fellowship Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Company Project Advancement & Completion Fund Sundance Institute | Building Bridges Completion Fund Sundance Institute | Zions Bank Project Advancement & Completion Fund Sundance Institute | Building Bridges Completion Fund Sundance Institute Humanities Sustainability Fellowship The Artist Accelerator Program engages in field advocacy and leadership through partnerships and collaborations with artist support organizations, government agencies, and artist collectives.

Artist Accelerator is a key partner with Sundance Collab in leading the AI Literacy Alliance, which serves as a central component of the Sundance Institute AI Literacy Initiative.

The Alliance’s purpose is to unite a strong and diverse coalition of cultural innovators from across the industry to advance AI literacy, guide the industry discourse, and help establish ethical frameworks and values that safeguard human creativity, artists, and the wider creative sector. The Nonfiction Core Application Proposal Checklist The Nonfiction Core Application (v.

2024) is a collaborative field-wide effort by funders, producers, fiscal sponsors, artist collectives, and artist support organizations to standardize a set of questions that are used in non-fiction funding, fiscal sponsor, or artist support opportunities.

Led by Sundance Institute, in partnership with the International Documentary Association (IDA) , the goal of Nonfiction Core Application Proposal Checklist Initiative to alleviate the burden of proposal re-writing on applicants, foster greater access to sources of creative and financial support, and build toward a more equitable and transparent nonfiction field.

The Impact Application Checklist The Impact Application Checklist, developed in partnership with the Global Impact Producers Alliance (GIPA) , is designed to standardize application questions for impact funding, and reduce the burden of application writing on filmmakers by offering funders a standardized and structured approach to asking impact-focused questions.

Impact storytelling is crucial, not just for awareness but for real-world change, and the Impact Application Checklist ensures that funders and filmmakers have a shared framework to facilitate that work.

Past Field Advocacy Projects Partnership with FEMA’s Resilient Nation Partnership Network (RNPN): The Artist Accelerator Program partnered with FEMA’s Resilient Nation Partnership Network (RNPN) for its eighth forum, “Stories of Resilience: Voices That Inspire.

” The Forum featured robust panel discussions on resilience challenges and how we can act together to address them by using storytelling to advance action toward natural hazard resilience. More information on this partnership can be found here .

The Sundance Institute | The Asian American Foundation Fellowship The Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Company Project Advancement & Completion Fund The Sundance Institute | Zions Bank Project Advancement & Completion Fund The Sundance Institute | Zions Bank Project Advancement & Completion Fund The Sundance Institute Humanities Sustainability Fellowship The Sundance Institute Humanities Sustainability Fellowship The Sundance Institute | Zions Bank Project Advancement & Completion Fund The Sundance Institute One House Filmmakers Fund The Sundance Institute | Zions Bank Project Advancement & Completion Fund Building Bridges Artist Fellowship Launched in 2024 and conducted in collaboration with the Islamic Scholarship Fund (ISF), the Building Bridges Artist Fellowship provides financial and creative resources, mentorship, and support to artists focused on U.S. Muslim narratives.

The Building Bridges Fellowship provides selected Fellows with a $10,000 unrestricted grant, professional development opportunities, and other benefits in line with other Artist Accelerator fellowships. The Building Bridges Artist Fellowship is developed with support from the Doris Duke Foundation. Yusuf Ahmed is an Ethiopian-American documentary filmmaker, photographer, and communications strategist based in New York City.

Yusuf’s work examines contemporary conditions of globalization and how it impacts the construction of memory, identity, and notions of belonging. Tarek Albaba is a passionate filmmaker with over two decades of experience. His work has appeared on platforms including Apple TV+, Disney+, Nat Geo, PBS, Discovery, History and more.

Tarek’s independent work focuses on historical injustices, urgent social issues and threats to our natural world. Omar Al Dakheel is a Kuwaiti-born filmmaker and USC alum. His work includes American Manhunt (Netflix), Everybody’s Watching (The Criterion Channel), and Ablution , which screened at 60+ festivals.

He crafts bold, cross-cultural stories exploring identity, faith, and belonging with intimacy and care. Mustafa Eck is a writer, director and producer of dark comedies and psychological thrillers. For the first decade of his life, his family moved to a new city every year.

His most recent project, All At Once —a proof of concept TV pilot—won the Audience Choice Award and Caz Mathews Fund, at SeriesFest. Sahar Jahani is an Iranian-American writer/director from Los Angeles. A Peabody Award winner, her work often centers the inner lives of women exploring romance, intimacy, and identity.

She has written for acclaimed series and is developing projects across film, television, and publishing. Mithra B. Alavi is an Iranian-American Muslim comedy writer.

She staffed on Freeform’s SINGLE DRUNK FEMALE S2, co-writing episode 206 “Keeping it Professional. ” Her previous short film, “Three’s a Crowd,” was a Student Emmy Award winner. Aqsa Altaf was raised in Kuwait by South Asian Muslim migrant worker parents.

Her short, American Eid, is streaming on Disney+. Her SXSW short, Awayy, is being produced into a feature. Her other feature, Sonapur, is part of the Gotham Film Market.

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Khaula was a co-producer on the Emmy-nominated GIRLS STATE and a 2023 HBO/Gotham Fellow. Her latest project is ALIEN NATION, a hybrid doc about a retired Pakistani couple searching for alien life on a roadtrip across the US. Kausar Mohammed is a writer/actor who plays in comedy, horror, and the spaces between.

Her queer romcom The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night premiered at TIFF and was acquired for TV. Her work has garnered acclaim in Vogue, Huffington, NBC, and more. Fatima Wardy is a Sudanese and British filmmaker currently based in Austin, Texas.

Her work focuses on diasporic existence and how displacement from home breeds connections and disconnections in the daily lives of immigrants. Habib Yazdi is an Iranian-American director and comedic writer molded by his upbringing in rural Texas, where his family’s Persian traditions collided with a Southern Baptist community. Yeehaw.

Fatimah Asghar is a poet, filmmaker, educator, and performer whose work includes an Emmy nominated web series, a National Book Award Longlisted book of fiction, a critically acclaimed book of poetry. They were awarded the Carol Shield’s Prize for fiction and were a co-producer for Ms. Marvel on Disney +.

Colette Ghunim, a documentary filmmaker and nonprofit leader, is currently directing “Traces of Home,” exploring her family’s forced migrations from Mexico and Palestine. She is the co-founder of Mezcla Media Collective, supporting over 700 women and non-binary filmmakers of color in Chicago. Sherif Ibrahim is an Egyptian American writer-director, poet and curator based in New York City.

He completed his MA in African Studies at Stanford University and his MS in Education at St. John’s University. His work centers marginalized peoples and their historicities, diaspora, nativity, and social transformation.

Samia Khan-Bambrah is a storyteller, filmmaker, and organizer who weaves together her experiences as a global citizen to tell stories that bring people together in the pursuit of justice. Her films have played at festivals and streamed on platforms around the world, including Amazon Prime, CNN, MSN, and Apple. Samina Saifee is a filmmaker and NYU Tisch grad based in Brooklyn.

Her most recent short, AYAT, starring Laith Nakli (Ramy, Problemista), is currently in the festival circuit. Her work has been supported by Sundance and Film Independent, and she is currently developing her first feature. Born to Syrian Immigrants in Buffalo, Akram developed a lifelong passion for storytelling, filmmaking and songwriting.

He founded True Intent Productions with a mission to serve humanity through enlightening entertainment. He directs documentaries globally and his screenwriting centers stories of family, resilience, and the reluctant heroes that charm our world.

The Walt Disney Company Artist Fellowship Launched in 2023, the Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Company Artist Fellowship provides a deep, year-round learning experience for a curated group of artists and positively impacts the film and television industry with new cohorts of artists ready for engagement and employment.

The Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Company Artist Fellowship is developed with support from the Walt Disney Company. Kamau Bilal is a Black American filmmaker based in Mid-Missouri. His short film Baby Brother premiered at Sundance in 2018 and lives on the website of The New York Times.

In 2018 he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Film. Brick Thieves is his first feature. Razi Jafri is a documentary filmmaker.

His film, HAMTRAMCK, USA, premiered at SXSW and aired on PBS. He is producing THREE CHAPLAINS, scheduled to air on PBS in Fall 2023. He is an alumnus of the Sundance Producing Fellowship and holds an MFA from the University of Michigan.

Sarah Mokh is a writer and director interested in what our stories reveal about our deepest beliefs. She is a graduate of Harvard College and currently a graduate student at NYU. Her screenplays have been supported or recognized by the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, and others.

Jumai Yusuf is a director, writer, producer, and a Muslim, Nigerian immigrant who is passionate about telling BIPOC genre stories. Her screenwriting has been supported by MPAC Hollywood and the Black List. She has a B.

A. in Neurobiology from Harvard and an MFA from USC. www.

jumaiyusuf. com The Nonfiction Core Application Proposal Checklist The Nonfiction Core Application project started in 2016, when we joined forces with the International Documentary Association (IDA) to respond to the challenges and frustrations that filmmakers expressed with applying for grants in the field.

The lack of consistency in the questions that were being asked across grant applications created inefficiencies and burdened filmmakers with application rewrites to meet funders’ specific needs. CORE PROPOSAL CHECKLIST 3. 1 | ENGLISH We are thrilled to offer the Nonfiction Core Application Proposal Checklist 3.

0, without the optional questions about the use of GenAI, in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. CORE PROPOSAL CHECKLIST 3. 0 | ENGLISH CORE PROPOSAL CHECKLIST 3.

0 | ESPAÑOL CORE PROPOSAL CHECKLIST 3. 0 | FRANÇAIS CORE PROPOSAL CHECKLIST 3.

0 | PORTUGUÊS We are grateful for the support of the organizations, collectives, and networks who were instrumental in the revisions and updating of the Core Application Proposal Checklist which is a joint project of The following organizations are currently using the Nonfiction Core Application Proposal checklist: The Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund sponsored by Chase Sapphire Reserve® Launching in 2025, the Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund sponsored by Chase Sapphire Reserve provides unrestricted, non-recoupable grants to artists working on feature-length nonfiction or fiction projects around the globe.

The fund aligns with the Sundance Institute Artist Accelerator program’s mission of dismantling systemic barriers within the film industry by championing foundational artist development and sustainability. Grants are available for vital project advancement support throughout the lifecycle of the project and are awarded to artists from across Sundance Institute’s artist programs.

The Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund is developed with support from Chase Sapphire Reserve. Roni Jo Draper (Co-director) and Marissa Lila Kongao (Co-director and Cinematographer) with WE ARRIVE WITH FIRE | NE-KAH NUUE’M MEHL MECH (U.S.A.) : Since time immemorial, Yurok people have placed fire on the land to maintain a balanced ecosystem.

In the past century, settlers banned fire, and the environment and people have suffered. Now, Yurok people are returning fire medicine to heal the land. Roni Jo Draper , Ph.

D. , is a member of the Yurok tribe, from the village of Weitchpec on the Klamath River. Her experience as a queer Yurok woman has influenced her work as a teacher, scholar, and artist.

Draper explores storytelling practices as a way to understand humanity. Marissa Lila Kongao is a multicultural documentarian and psychedelic healer who was raised in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Their work as a director and producer for film and television centers marginalized perspectives who use storytelling to heal.

Cris Gris (Director) with forward (U.S.A.) : After moving to a working-class part of the Hamptons, Latinx teen Ana finds herself drawn to enigmatic Bella, who spends her summer nights roller-skating. As their romance deepens, Ana must navigate the tender terrain of love and identity in a world that feels irreparably divided.

Cris Gris is a Mexican filmmaker whose work has screened at Berlinale, Cannes, and Morelia (Special Jury Award). A Sundance Institute and Film Independent Fellow, she’s directed for HBO Max’s Vgly, ViX’s She Walks Alone, and Amazon Prime Video’s Cometierra (Eartheater). Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (Writer-director) with High Steel (Canada, U.S.A.)

: A Mohawk man splits his time between his reservation with his family and Manhattan, where he ironworks 60 stories above the ground. When he falls for a young photographer in the city, his identity is challenged and he must keep his double life a secret or risk losing everything. Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs is an award-winning actor, writer, and filmmaker, mainly known for her work in the groundbreaking series Reservation Dogs.

Jacobs is currently writing her debut feature film, High Steel, which was selected as part of the 2025 Sundance Institute Directors Lab. Masami Kawai (Writer-director and Producer) with Valley of the Tall Grass (U.S.A.) : When a TV/VCR combo set is thrown out, it survives and circulates through the lives of Indigenous families.

In this multicharacter tapestry, rambunctious sisters, struggling artists, a metal scrapper, and his skater daughter intersect and find connection through this seemingly obsolete object. Masami Kawai is a Los Angeles–born filmmaker who lives in Eugene, Oregon. She’s of Ryukyuan descent from the island of Amami.

Her work integrates issues of race, Indigeneity, class, and what it means to be an immigrant/settler in the United States. Khaula Haider Malik (Writer-director) with Alien Nation (U.S.A.) : After retiring, a Pakistani immigrant and his wife pursue a mysterious light in the skies over America.

As they meet fellow seekers, their search for alien life reveals the distance between them — and what it means to navigate love, belonging, and wonder in a place that may never feel like home. Khaula Malik tells character-driven stories grounded in humor, eccentricity, and pathos.

She co-produced Apple TV+’s Girls State; is in post-production on her first feature documentary, The Nobles; and is currently filming No. 1 Fan, a documentary about an NFL memorabilia collector. Mackie Mallison (Writer-director and Producer) with Everything Must Go (U.S.A.) : A Japanese American family united by anxiety disorders and vivid daydreams struggles to let go of their dying matriarch.

Mackie Mallison is a filmmaker living in Brooklyn, New York. He is a Sundance Institute fellow, Film at Lincoln Center fellow, and one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film. ” Mallison’s short films have screened at SXSW, NYFF, Palm Springs, and BFI and were acquired by The Criterion Channel.

Efraín Mojica (Co-director) and Rebecca Zweig (Co-director and Producer) with Jaripeo (Mexico, U.S.A.) : At the rural jaripeos — a regional style of rodeo — in Michoacán, Mexico, a hypermasculine tradition is rife with hidden queer encounters. Efraín Mojica is a photographer, filmmaker, and performance artist from Michoacán whose work has shown in galleries internationally.

Their filmmaking is heavily influenced by their work as a conceptual artist, which explores the translation and interpolation of light, sound, and matter. Rebecca Zweig is a filmmaker, journalist, and poet based in Mexico City. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Nation, and Nexos, among others.

She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and her filmmaking is shaped by her poetic practice. Steve Pargett (Producer) with Blacked Out Dreams (U.S.A.) : Over seven years, three Black teenagers come of age in Flint as they navigate school closures and a city in crisis.

As they step into adulthood, they chase dreams, discover love, and search for belonging. Steve Pargett is a producer and creative strategist known for powerful, community-driven storytelling. His work spans film, design, and social impact, amplifying underrepresented voices and using creativity to challenge perceptions and inspire change.

Huda Razzak (Writer-director) with Home of the Birds (U.S.A.) : A small nightingale bird and her grandpa, both unable to fly, embark on a mythical cross-country journey with a human family to their hometown in 1963 Iraq, with the hopes of reuniting with her long-lost parents. Huda Razzak is an animation filmmaker based in Atlanta whose parents immigrated from Iraq.

In 2022, her short film The Ocean Duck won the Oscar-qualifying Jury Award for Best Animated Short at NYICFF. Razzak has also produced and directed content for Sesame Street and recently worked in production at Netflix Animation. Walter Thompson-Hernández (Writer-director) with If I Go Will They Miss Me (U.S.A.)

: Twelve-year-old Lil Ant struggles to connect with his emotionally distant father when he begins to see surreal, spectral visions of Black boys drifting around his neighborhood in South Central, Los Angeles. Walter Thompson-Hernández wrote and directed the short film If I Go Will They Miss Me (2022 Sundance Film Festival), which was awarded the Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction presented by XRM Media.

He recently developed the feature-length adaptation with the support of the Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. Building Bridges Completion Fund Launched in 2024 through a partnership between the Sundance Institute and the Doris Duke Foundation, the Building Bridges Completion Fund supports filmmakers premiering their projects at the Sundance Film Festival.

It offers grants of up to $25,000 to U.S.-based directors, writers, and producers whose feature films, short films, or episodic projects amplify the universality and distinctiveness of U.S. Muslim narratives. A n award-winning documentary filmmaker best known for her directing debut SPEED SISTERS and WE ARE AYENDA. She also directed RECKONING WITH LAUGHTER, and co-directed on Netflix’s CONVERGENCE: Courage Under Crisis.

Amber is currently a Pillars Artist Fellow and is based in New York. Alireza Khatami is an award-winning American-Iranian filmmaker known for his poignant stories blending fantasy and realism. His films, including Oblivion Verses and Terrestrial Verses, have premiered at Venice and Cannes.

His latest work, Things That You Kill, will premiere at Sundance in 2025. LaTajh Weaver is a producer and director from Oakland, CA. Their work is dedicated to telling the overlooked stories of Black and Queer intersectionality and exploring ways these communities learn to cope with everyday injustices.

They’re also a 2025 Rainin Grantee for their screenplay, NOTAFLOF. Humza Syed is a Producer with Full Spectrum Features, where he has produced films which have screened at festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, and Berlinale. He specializes in financing, budget strategy, tax credits, etc. He also supports FSF in international co-production and impact distribution.

The Impact Application Checklist The Impact Application Checklist is an initiative developed in partnership with Global Impact Producers Alliance (GIPA ) and shaped by feedback from across the documentary impact funding field.

This template is designed to standardize application questions for impact funding, and reduce the burden of application writing on filmmakers by offering funders a standardized and structured approach to asking impact-focused questions. Impact storytelling is crucial, not just for awareness but for real-world change, and the Impact Application Checklist ensures that funders and filmmakers have a shared framework to facilitate that work.

You can preview the Impact Application Checklist here .

We are grateful for the support of the organizations, impact producers and networks who were instrumental in the creation of the Impact Application Checklist, which is a joint project of: One House Filmmakers Fund Launched in 2023, the One House Filmmakers Fund provides unrestricted non-recoupable grants to Multicultural and underserved artists working on feature length nonfiction or fiction projects around the globe.

The Fund is made possible through the generous support of Gold House. Pierre M. Coleman is a native of Newark, NJ.

He grew up in a tight-knit family that was always supportive of his dreams. He attended Howard University’s School of Communications and earned his degree in Film Production. Pierre gained 15 years of extensive production experience working with renowned companies including HBO, 20th Century Fox, BET, and Dreamworks.

Pierre’s industry and personal experiences propelled him to write, direct, and produce award-winning short films, documentaries, and branded content. Pierre strives to tell compelling stories and isn’t afraid to challenge his audience to think outside of their comfort zone.

He produced the short film Ricky, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and has screened at festivals such as Palm Springs Shortsfest, Woodstock Film Festival, and Montclair Film Festival. Pierre is currently in development for Ricky, the feature film, as a 2023 Sundance Producing Fellow.

Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan is a Filipino filmmaker whose works explore themes of trauma, spirituality, and nature told through the cosmic lens of post-colonial spaces and Indigenous identities.

His work successfully premiered in film festivals around the world: Hilum (2021) won the Student Prize at Clermont-Ferrand; The Headhunter’s Daughter (2022) was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance; and Cold Cut (2024), co-directed with Siyou Tan, premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes under the ‘Directors’ Factory’ programme. His latest short film Vox Humana (2024) had its world premiere in Toronto IFF.

In 2023, he was selected for the Cannes Cinefondation Residence program, Berlinale’s Script Station, Locarno’s Filmmakers Academy and Sundance Institute’s Native Lab. He is currently developing his first feature film, Hum. As a documentary filmmaker and nonprofit co-founder, Colette Ghunim’s soul purpose is to use the power of film and storytelling for those oppressed around the world to be seen, to be heard, and to heal.

Her first documentary, The People’s Girls (2016), received over 2 million views and won Best Short Documentary at the Arab Film Festival for its bold spotlight on street harassment in Egypt.

In co-production with Kartemquin Films and funded by Latino Public Broadcasting, she is directing Traces of Home, her first feature-length film documenting her inner quest to find home through unearthing her parent’s forced migrations from Mexico and Palestine.

Colette is also the co- founder of Mezcla Media Collective, a nonprofit organization aimed to cultivate a thriving landscape for over 700 women and non-binary filmmakers of color in Chicago. Her work has been highlighted on international outlets such as Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, Univision, and TEDx.

Colette was selected as a 2023 Obama Foundation USA Leader, 2024 Sundance x ISF Fellow, and was featured on Arab America’s “30 Under 30” list. Julia Kennelly is a filmmaker and producer based in Los Angeles. Notable credits include THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW (Marshall Curry), which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short at the 2020 Academy Awards.

Other films she’s produced have been in competition at Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, Aspen Shortfest, Outfest and Palm Springs Shortfest, among others. Julia is also a line producer, most notably on the HBO documentary series THE VOW. She is a co-founder of production company Dream City, with producer Karine Benzaria and director/cinematographer Daisy Zhou.

Julia is a 2023 Sundance Producing Lab Fellow, and was also selected to be an NYU Production Lab fellow and Tribeca Creators Market participant in 2024. Sofian Khan (director/producer) is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and founder of Capital K Pictures.

He co- directed, produced and shot THE INTERPRETERS, a feature-length documentary following Afghan and Iraqi interpreters being targeted for their work helping American forces that made its broadcast premiere on the 2019 season of PBS Independent Lens. His episode of the PBS American Masters series IN THE MAKING (2021) received a Webby Award and NAACP Image nomination.

In 2022, Sofian directed an episode of the new series TAKEOUT WITH LISA LING on HBOMax and produced AN ACT OF WORSHIP under the Capital K Pictures banner, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and broadcasted on PBS’ POV series. He was a Sundance Producing Fellow in 2019-2020, a 2024 Creative Capital Awardee and current Sundance Institute | The Walt Disney Company Artist Fellow.

Naomi Ko is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, comedian, and cultural producer. She was born and raised in Minnesota to immigrant parents from South Korea, making her at once the most truculent and most passive person in any room. Her pilot presentation, NICE, which she wrote and starred in, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.

Her work has been developed by Warner Bros. Stage 13 and has received support from the McKnight Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and more. She is also a Moth Storyslam winner, was a featured performer for Mortified, and writes and acts in theater.

Naomi formerly worked for the state government in voting rights and outreach. She currently works with Minnesota state representatives and agencies to provide arts access and economic development opportunities for underrepresented communities. She is also a founding member of Funny Asian Women Kollective, a group that uses comedy to combat the invisibility and dehumanization of Asian women.

Recently, Naomi developed her series, THE 20-YEAR CURSE, in the