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NewFilmmakers Los Angeles has unveiled the nominees and jury for the 14th annual best of NFMLA awards.
Among the 16 categories, including best documentary feature film and best performance drama, 84 projects are recognized.
The projects are selected from films shown during NFMLA’s 2025 programming season, in addition to those developed during the InFocus initiative.
“This has been an extraordinary year for emerging storytellers and for the talented filmmakers we are proud to call NFMLA alumni,” NFMLA co-founder and executive director Larry Laboe said in a statement. “The success of our alumni at Sundance, the Academy Awards, and beyond reinforces what we’ve long believed and been a champion of: audiences are eager for original voices, fresh perspectives, and bold storytelling. We’re honored to celebrate these artists and support them as they continue building their careers.”
NFMLA is a non-profit arts and culture organization focused on uplifting independent filmmakers and content creators. The jury is comprised of industry leaders from Neon, Netflix, The New York Times, Starz and Black Bear Pictures, among others. Check out the full list of nominees and jury members below.
Best Short Film, Drama
“Corpse Fishing” – Jean Liu & Sarah Park
“Lake Day” – Sophia Varnai
“Little Bird” – Oanh-Nhi Nguyen & Eva Zheng
“Maqluba” – Mike Elsherif, JohnBen Lacy & Shepherd Ahlers
“My Brother & Me” – Ryan DeForeest, Shandrea Evans & Lexx Truss
“Nuclear” – Sebastian Ibarra del Castillo, Kavin Kapoor & Riley Buchanan
“Re-Entry” – Ariel Mahler & Ilayda Cetinkaya
“Say As I Say” – Daniel Solé, Marlena Skrobe, Michael Polk & Adam Chitayat
“When Everything Was Blue” – Christina Chironna, Juan Sebastián Jaimes & Bayan Joonam
“Witness” – Radha Mehta, Saif Jaan, Omar Al-Dakheel & Sheheryar Ahsan
Best Short Film, Comedy
“And Now I Lay Me Down” – Rani DeMuth & Roger M. Mayer
“God & Buddha Are Friends” – Anthony Ma, Jaclyn Amor & Jonathan Chung-Young
“Happy Thanksgiving” – Ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby, Jess X Snow, Eris Qian & Raleigh Chadderdon
“Hey Kiddo” – Melissa Kong & Aimy Tien
“King Ed” – Nick Fascitelli, Brad Bradley & Marilyn Majich
“Kiss My Ass” – Arielle Goldman, Ian Adelson & RJ Brown
“Mean Goals” – Ahuatl Amaro, Fanfan Zhou & Barbara Lettieri
“Prawn Star” – Mitch Deitz & Judy Febles
“The Legend of Fry-Roti” – Sabrina Saleha, Alex Nystrom, Alifya Ali, & Brooke Swaney
“The Other Partners” – Destinee Stewart & Sylvia Ray
Best International Short Film, Drama
“Beyond” – Bettina López Mendoza & Marilyne LaMontagne
“Dawn Every Day” – Amir Youssef & Norah Elkhateeb
“Fantas” – Halima Elkhatabi & Cynthia Mateu
“Hatch” – Alireza Kazemipour, Panta Mosleh & Sina Nazarian
“Holy Curse” – Snigdha Kapoor, Neeraj Churi, Noopur Sinha & Shweta Bolakani
“January” – Xin Ocean, Sally Long & Angela Lopez
“Khaled and Nema” – Sohail Dahdal & May Odeh
“Nightfaces” – Martin Winter, Stefan Langthaler, Alfie Ángel & Victoria Herbig
“Punta Salinas” – Maria del Mar Rosario & Kritzia Belen Monserrate
“The River Between Us” – Sophia Lafaurie-Munoz & Myra Soto
Best International Short Film, Comedy
“Bangs” – Nancy Webb & Emelia Hellman
“Clementine” – Beth Evans & Allie Dunbar
“Don’t Drink The Punchline” – Ed Oxenbould & Will Gibb
“One Day” – Yazmeen Kanji & Maryam Remtulla
“Passarinho” – Natalia García Agraza & Daniela Mosca
“She And Her Good Vibrations” – Olivia Griselda, Sarah Cheok & Jerrold Chong
“Something’s Phishy” – Chase Lo & Alice Wang
“The Pleasure Is All Mine” – Vanessa Sandre & Adriano Rocha
“Three Women Named Svetlana” – Natalia Boorsma & Tara Milošević
“Unqualified” – Sherry Rashidan, Ilhan Abdullahi & Janice Mingas
Best New Media & Experimental
“Born to Be Bad” – Gabrielle Desroches
“Chasers” – Erin Brown Thomas, Elle Shaw, Olivia Haller, Beth Napoli & Hayden Greiwe
“Frogs” – Maya Marzuki Peters
“Only Twin – Give You Up” – Josh Martin, Ryan McNeeley & Christopher Heinrich
“Open to It” – Season 2 (Episode 10: “Open to New Queer’s Eve”) – Frank Arthur Smith, Benjamin-Shalom Rodriguez, Sarah Whitaker, Josslyn Glenn & Bryan Schaub
“She Sings” – Ahmed Ragheb, Lily Ekimian Ragheb, Salman Al-Rashid, Lara T. Ragheb & Aya Gaafar
“Skin” – Leo Behrens & Ilayda Cetinkaya
“The Fish Tank” – Victoria Garza & Cecilia Chávez Hita
“The Ladies” – Juliana Piscina, Cailin Lobb-Rabe & Gillian Mahar
“To End All Spells” – Nana Kwabena, Zak Cedarholm, Jatali Bellanton & George Hughes
Best Short Film, Animated
“[S]” – Mario Radev
“Death Comes to My Side Music Video” – Oliver Anderson & Lena Hall
“Flocky” – Esther Casas Roura & Juan Carlos Concha
“Gale” – Sean Kim & Chloe Di Salle
“Ibuka, Justice” – Justice Rutikara & Yzanakio Doc Inc
“Marvelous Gift” – Danna Galeano, German Acuña, Monique Henry-Hudson, Sebastian Ruz, Azul Jordan & Valentina Valenzuela
“On the 8th Day” – Agathe Sénéchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavie Carin & Théo Duhautois
“She and Her Good Vibrations” – Olivia Griselda, Sarah Cheok & Jerrold Chong
“Super High: A Period Piece” – Bianca Lambert & Kiah Clingman
“There is A Wolf” – Saerom Seo & Lang Lee
Best Short Film, Documentary
“Clement Gasa” – Daniel Bayle
“Entre le Feu et le Clair de Lune” – Dominic Yarabe & Carlo Nasisse
“If the Dead Come Home” – Aaron Joshua Weintraub
“Like a Spiral” – Lamia Chraibi, Patricia Bergeron & Ghassan Fayad
“Love Birds” – Elliott Kennerson, Angel Morris, Molly O’Brien, Nell (Augustin) Lawrenz-Wareham, Andy Berg & Liz Cole
“Old Lesbians” – Meghan McDonough, Rengim Mutevellioglu & Stevie Borrello
“Simple Machine” – Sara Hendren & Brian Funck
“The 17%” – Aaron Johnson & Rachel Karalnik
“The Changebaker” – Courtney Dixon, Jonathan Lacocque, Clara Lehman, Denis Deck & Javier Gonzalez
“Trans Heaven, Pennsylvania” – Hansen Bursic, Samantha K. Tan, Nic Cory & Daniel Brooks
Best Documentary Feature Film
“Encuerados” – Orlando Bedolla, Yuliana Franco, David Mosqueda, Yair Lopez & Leornardo Iriarte
“Janis Ian: Breaking Silence” – Varda Bar-Kar, Alessandra Pasquino, Pierre Norman Hauser & Michael Kantor
“Moses” – Fran Guijarro, Diya Guh & Juli López-Fraile
“Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” – Ernie Bustamante, Maor Azran & Steven Canals
“We Never Left” – Loulwa Khoury, Mark Becker & Yara El Murr
Best Feature Film
“An Arrangement” – Noree Victoria, Bel Deliá Helen Shang, Annalea Fiachi & Matt Luber
“Don’t Kill My Vibe” – Stephen Takashima & Cody Lewis
“Shakti” – Nani Sahra Walker, Candi Guterres, Ida Sonni & Jered Everson
“Surrender” – Jess Dang, Jessica Olthof & Darren Haruo Rae
“Where in the Hell” – Laramie Dennis, Ricky de Laveaga & Hector Ceballos
Best Screenplay
“Dawn Every Day” – Amir Youssef
“King Ed” – Nick Fascitelli
“Kiss My Ass” – Arielle Goldman
“Shakti” – Nani Sahra Walker
“So Natural” – Danielle Criqui
“Sueño” – Raul Martin Romero
“Surrender” – Jess Dang
“The Orange at the Seder” – Jacob Combs
“The Vote” – Sylvia Ray
“Vision” – Dan Parris & Theodore Simpson
Best Performance, Drama
“Fantas” – Tania Doumbe Fines
“January” – Kevin Khan
“Lake Day” – Octavia Boghossian
“Little Bird” – Chantal Thuy
“Nightfaces” – Sonja Romei
“Re-Entry” – Danielle Squyres
“Say As I Say” – Miriam Silverman
“So Natural” – Linas Phillips
“Sueño” – Adrian Gonzalez
“The Fish Tank” – Ari Cigarroa
Best Performance, Comedy
“And Now I Lay Me Down” – Jane Kaczmarek
“Clementine” – Allie Dunbar
“Happy Thanksgiving” – Ajuawak Kapashesit
“Hey Kiddo” – Doran Kim
“King Ed” – Brendan Scannell
“Kiss My Ass” – Arielle Goldman
“The Pleasure Is All Mine” – Margarida Baird
“Unqualified” – Ilhan Abdullahi
“Where in the Hell” – Cam Killion
“Where in the Hell” – Joohun Lee
Best Cinematography
“Dawn Every Day” – Evan Weidenkeller
“Maqluba” – JohnBen Lacy
“My Brother & Me” – Sade Ndya
“Skin” – Leo Behrens
“The Fish Tank” – Daniel Zúñiga
Best Film Editing
“Beyond” – Mónica Salazar
“She Sings” – Linh Tran
“Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon” – Sean Puglisi
“The Changebaker” – Jonathan Lacocque
“We Never Left” – Loulwa Khoury & Marie-Louise Elia
Best Sound Design
“Entre le Feu et le Clair de Lune” – Dominic Yarabe & Shirley Yumeng He
“Hatch” – Eli Haligua
“Ibuka, Justice” – Marie-Pierre Grenier & Sandy Pinteus
“Marvelous Gift” – Cristobal Carvajal
“Super High: A Period Piece” – Sam Wagstaff
Best Score
“An Arrangement” – Greg Samothrakis
“Death Comes to My Side Music Video” – Lena Hall
“Flocky” – Phil Servati
“Janis Ian: Breaking Silence” – David Melchor
“The River Between Us” – Avila Santo
This year’s jury includes: Alexandra Korba (Moxie Films), Alyssa Yoffie (Starz), Andrea Alarcon (Sundance Institute), Andrew McCann Smith (Play Management Inc.), Angela Nikas (Buchwald), Anthony Thompson (Hartbeat), April Yuan (Verve), Arun Gulati (Jigsaw Productions), Bárbara Cerro (Bitbang International Animation Festival), Emmanuel Grinda (Lionsgate), Giselle Johnson-Morris (Blackmaled Productions), Isabel Inadomi (Black Bear Pictures), Josh Bergman (Neon), Julianna Imel (Annapurna Animation), Katherine Weinstein (FilmRise), Kaylen Ng (Ilene Feldman Management), Kevin Hefferman (Range Media Partners), Lisa Alford (Evoke Entertainment), Mar De Melo (Netflix), Marley Hansen (RSA Films), Merari Chavarria (Culture Machine), Nicolas Keller Sarmiento (Vision Entertainment), Rodrigo Crespo (Sonoro Global Media Corp.), Saelyx Finna (Context Moves), Scott Sakamoto (Netflix), Selin Sevinc (BendFilm Festival), Tamer Ahsan (Zero Gravity Management), Tyra Johnson (Hoorae Media) and Yvonne Ashley (The New York Times).
