NewFilmmakers Los Angeles has unveiled the nominees and jury for the 14th annual better of NFMLA awards.
Among the many 16 classes, together with finest documentary function movie and finest efficiency drama, 84 initiatives are acknowledged. The initiatives are chosen from movies proven throughout NFMLA’s 2025 programming season, along with these developed in the course of 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 govt director Larry Laboe stated in a press release. “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 tradition group targeted on uplifting impartial filmmakers and content material creators. The jury is comprised of business leaders from Neon, Netflix, The New York Instances, Starz and Black Bear Photos, amongst others. Try the complete checklist of nominees and jury members under.
Greatest Brief Movie, 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
Greatest Brief Movie, Comedy
“And Now I Lay Me Down” – Rani DeMuth & Roger M. Mayer
“God & Buddha Are Friends” – Anthony Ma, Jaclyn Amor & Jonathan Chung-Younger
“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
Greatest Worldwide Brief Movie, 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 Lengthy & Angela Lopez
“Khaled and Nema” – Sohail Dahdal & Could 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
Greatest Worldwide Brief Movie, 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
Greatest 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
Greatest Brief Movie, Animated
“[S]” – Mario Radev
“Death Comes to My Side Music Video” – Oliver Anderson & Lena Corridor
“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 Search engine optimization & Lang Lee
Greatest Brief Movie, 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 Okay. Tan, Nic Cory & Daniel Brooks
Greatest Documentary Function Movie
“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
Greatest Function Movie
“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
Greatest 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
Greatest Efficiency, 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
Greatest Efficiency, 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
Greatest Cinematography
“Dawn Every Day” – Evan Weidenkeller
“Maqluba” – JohnBen Lacy
“My Brother & Me” – Sade Ndya
“Skin” – Leo Behrens
“The Fish Tank” – Daniel Zúñiga
Greatest Movie Modifying
“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
Greatest 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
Greatest Rating
“An Arrangement” – Greg Samothrakis
“Death Comes to My Side Music Video” – Lena Corridor
“Flocky” – Phil Servati
“Janis Ian: Breaking Silence” – David Melchor
“The River Between Us” – Avila Santo
This 12 months’s jury contains: Alexandra Korba (Moxie Movies), Alyssa Yoffie (Starz), Andrea Alarcon (Sundance Institute), Andrew McCann Smith (Play Administration Inc.), Angela Nikas (Buchwald), Anthony Thompson (Hartbeat), April Yuan (Verve), Arun Gulati (Jigsaw Productions), Bárbara Cerro (Bitbang Worldwide Animation Competition), Emmanuel Grinda (Lionsgate), Giselle Johnson-Morris (Blackmaled Productions), Isabel Inadomi (Black Bear Photos), Josh Bergman (Neon), Julianna Imel (Annapurna Animation), Katherine Weinstein (FilmRise), Kaylen Ng (Ilene Feldman Administration), Kevin Hefferman (Vary Media Companions), Lisa Alford (Evoke Leisure), Mar De Melo (Netflix), Marley Hansen (RSA Movies), Merari Chavarria (Tradition Machine), Nicolas Keller Sarmiento (Imaginative and prescient Leisure), Rodrigo Crespo (Sonoro International Media Corp.), Saelyx Finna (Context Strikes), Scott Sakamoto (Netflix), Selin Sevinc (BendFilm Competition), Tamer Ahsan (Zero Gravity Administration), Tyra Johnson (Hoorae Media) and Yvonne Ashley (The New York Instances).
