Awards & Fellowships

DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute

This year's gala and awards ceremony to celebrate significant figures in documentary filmmaking and the wider documentary community will take place November 12 and honors two AlumNest filmmakers.

✦ Michèle Stephenson (Lifetime Achievement Award) ✦ Elizabeth Lo (The Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence)

The 2025 edition of this program will provide grants to support the creation of documentary films worldwide at different production stages, and includes several AlumNest filmmakers and supported projects.

✦ Jane M. Wagner’s *holds you tight* ✦ Giselle and Stephen Bailey’s Untitled ✦ Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing’s The River ✦ Amada Torruela’s Vena Acuatica ✦ Siku Allooloo’s Indigena ✦ Violet Du Feng’s The Dating Game

2025 Sundance Institute Filmmakers Fund

This inaugural fund provides $120,000 grants to artists from all backgrounds working on feature-length films worldwide. Recipients come from six Institute programs: the Feature Film Program, the Documentary Film Program, the Indigenous Program, Catalyst, the Artist Accelerator Program, and Ignite.

✦ Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig's Jaripeo

Dokufest

Kosovo’s largest and most renowned film event held its 24th edition August 1—9.

✦ Alisa Kovalenko won Human Rights Dox Award for My Dear Theo (With Love From The Front)

Berkley Film Foundation Grant

BFF awarded more than $350,000 to 29 independent filmmakers who live, work, or attend school in the East Bay cities of Richmond, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, or Oakland.

✦ Nico Opper's Untitled Alexandra Billings Project ✦ Deann Borshay Liem's Relative Strangers ✦ Kelly Duane de la Vega's Power & Light

Festivals & Screenings

DOC NYC

The country's largest documentary film festival will return November 12—30. Supported films: ✦ Alfredo Alcántara and Isabel Alcántara's The Age of Water ✦ Aurora Brachman's Hold Me Close (Shorts Program) ✦ Brittany Shyne's Seeds ✦ Katie Heiserman and Elana Meyers' Survival Without Rent (Shorts Program) ✦ Petra Costa's Apocalypse in the Tropics ✦ Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni's Cutting Through Rocks ✦ Violet Du Feng's The Dating Game

From the AlumNest: ✦ Amber Fares' Coexistence My Ass! ✦ Carl Deal and Tia Lessin's Steal This Story Please! ✦ Daresha Kyi's Love, Joy and Power ✦ Elizabeth Lo's Mistress Dispeller ✦ Geeta Gandbhir's The Perfect Neighbor ✦ Jessica Dimmock and Zackary Canepari's Thoughts & Prayers ✦ Lorena Luciano's Nuns vs. the Vatican ✦ Miao Wang's Ann Liu: Eye Heart Womb (Shorts Program) ✦ Michele Stephenson's True North ✦ Tamara Kotevska's The Tale of Silyan ✦ Yoruba Richen's Free Joan Little (Shorts Program)

✦ Dragica, Danica, Duška, a short by Iva Radivojević ✦ Lydia Cornett and Brit Fryer's Tessitura ✦ Brittany Shyne’s Seeds ✦ Alisa Kovalenko's My Dear Theo ✦ Geeta Gandbhir’s The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta also held a masterclass!) ✦ Ainara Vera’s Memento Mori (zinc)

Gotham Week

The project market and expo took place September 29—October 3.

✦ Katie Dellamaggiore presented Queen’s Castle & Meant to be Maddie. ✦ Beth Levison presented Anchorwoman ✦ Danielle Varga presented Untitled Cruise Documentary ✦ Stephen Maing presented The Great Experiment ✦ Laurie Townshend presented Right to Remain Silent ✦ Geeta Gandbhir presented #WhileBlack

Streaming

✦ Kino Lorber announced the digital release of Rachel Elizabeth Seed’s A Photographic Memory ✦ Alina Simone's Black Snow is streaming on POV ✦ Brittany Shyne’s Hope In High Water is streaming on Peacock ✦ Geeta Gandbhir's The Perfect Neighbor is streaming on Netflix ✦ Katrina: Come Hell and High Water, directed by Geeta Gandbhir, Samantha Knowles and Spike Lee, is streaming on Netflix ✦ Grasshopper Film acquired Leslie Tai's How to Have an American Baby ✦ Débora Souza Silva and Emily Cohen Ibañez's Sol In The Garden is streaming on PBS’ POV Shorts ✦ Contessa Gayles’ The Debutantes is streaming on Xumo Play ✦ UNION is streaming on the Criterion Channel

Getting the Job Done

✦ AlumNest filmmaker Shirley Abraham has been announced as a Fall 2025 Shorenstein Center Documentary Film Fellow ✦ AlumNest Yance Ford has been appointed visiting artistic director for the 2026 True/False Film Festival ✦ Jeanie Finlay (Your Fat Friend) kicked off a Bums And Butts In Seats initiative to make movie theaters more welcoming for fat folks