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The 2025 Humanitas Prize nominations have been announced, once again honoring television and film writers who masterfully explore the depth of the human experience. This year’s awards will be presented at a Sept. 7 ceremony in Hollywood hosted by actress and comedian Fortune Feimster.

On the TV side, drama nominees include Emmy contenders The Pitt, The Last of Us, The Handmaid's Tale, and Brilliant Minds. Comedy contenders include The Studio, The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh, A Man on the Inside, and Clean Slate. Limited series being honored include Dying for Sex, Interior Chinatown, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, and Say Nothing.

In the film categories, last year's Oscar contenders Conclave, Nickel Boys, and Sing Sing will battle it out for Best Drama Feature, while Dìdi (弟弟), My Old Ass, and A Real Pain compete in comedy. Inside Out 2, Out of My Mind, and The Wild Robot are nominated for Best Family Feature.

The Humanitas org has revealed nominations for this year’s Humanitas Prizes, which will reveal winners at Avalon Hollywood on Sept. 7, hosted by actress/writer/comedian Fortune Feimster. Among the nominees on the TV side are “The Pitt,” “The Last of Us” and “The Studio,” while film nods include “Inside Out 2” and “The Nickel Boys.”

Also announced on Wednesday: Gina Prince-Bythewood will join Mara Brock Akil in presenting Lena Waithe with one of Humanitas’ top honors, the Voice for Change Award. As Variety first revealed in May, Waithe was chosen for this year’s prize because it “honors those who have created or championed visionary and courageous storytelling.”

A nonprofit that seeks to “honor and empower writers of film and television exploring the human experience,” Humanitas last year honored projects including “Hacks,” “Fellow Travelers,” “Black Cake” and Ava DuVernay‘s “Origin.”

The Humanitas Prizes are for film and television...

Diana Naser’s “Amplified,” Adam J. Graves’ “Anuja,” Nina Gantz’s “Wander to Wonder” and Ben Proudfoot’s “The Final Copy of Ilon Specht” have qualified for Academy Awards in the short-film categories by winning the top awards at the 20th annual HollyShorts Film Festival, which took place this week in Hollywood and held its awards ceremony on Sunday night.

HollyShorts is one of about 150 Oscar-qualifying festivals whose top winners automatically become eligible for Oscars in the three shorts categories. It is one of only 15 festivals that qualifies as many as four films for Academy Awards.

“Amplified” won the Best Short Film Grand Prize, the festival’s top award. “Anuja” took the award for live-action short, “Wander to Wonder” for animated short and “The Final Copy of Ilon Specht” for documentary short.

Ben Proudfoot, the director of the last of those films, is the reigning Oscar champ in the Best Documentary Short category,...

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Truth or Dare [my review]

Lucy Hale, Violett Beane, and Sophia Taylor Ali costar in this horror movie about a college drinking game that goes wrong. Cowritten by Jillian Jacobs. (male director)

Rampage [my review]

Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, and Marley Shelton costar in this sci-fi action movie about genetically engineered monsters. (male writers and director)

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Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami [IMDb]

Sophie Fiennes directs this documentary about the performance artist.

The Judge [IMDb]

Erika Cohn directs this documentary about a female adjudicator in the Middle East.

20 Weeks [IMDb]

Leena Pendharkar writes and directs this drama about a couple facing a difficult pregnancy. Costarring Anna Margaret Hollyman, Jocelin Donahue, and Michelle Krusiec.

The Rider [IMDb]

Chloé Zhao writes and directs this drama about a (male) rodeo rider recovering from a traumatic brain injury.

Zama [IMDb]

Lucrecia Martel writes and directs this historical drama about a (male) Spanish officer in 17th-century South America.

Nana [IMDb] pictured

Serena Dykman...

She passed away 15 years ago, but Holocaust survivor Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant feels very much alive in the documentary made by her granddaughter, Serena Dykman. Nana proves another valuable addition to the Holocaust documentary canon, exploring Maryla's important legacy in devoting much of her later years to educating people about the horrors she experienced and witnessed. Unfortunately, it loses some of its impact due to the filmmaker's insistence on too often injecting herself unnecessarily into the proceedings.

Much of the doc is composed of clips featuring Maryla recounting her story to school groups, academics, television interviewers and the like, as well...