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The Tribeca Festival 2025 has announced the complete list of winners for each of its competition categories. Libby Ewing’s “Charliebird” won the Founders Award for Best U.S. narrative feature, Sarah Goher’s “Happy Birthday” won best international narrative feature and Suzannah Herbert’s “Natchez” won for best documentary feature.

Awards were given out for the following categories: U.S. narrative, international narrative, documentary, viewpoints, the Albery Maysles award, the Nora Ephron award, short film, best new directors, storytelling, games, AT&T untold stories and Tribeca X.

“Every year at Tribeca, we set out to spotlight the most exciting new voices from around the world,” Cara Cusumano, Tribeca Festival Director and SVP of Programming said in a statement. “We are thrilled our jury honored this mission with winners that brilliantly represent the vibrancy and diversity of global independent storytelling today.”

The winners of the audience award, which are determined by audience votes throughout the festival,...

The 2025 Tribeca Festival AT&T Untold Stories grant recipient has officially been unveiled. IndieWire can proudly announce that filmmaker Liz Sargent won $1 million to fund her feature “Take Me Home.” The film will premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Festival after Sargent receives year-round mentorship and promotional support, plus the funding.

Sargent is the eighth winner of the largest film production prize in the world. Her 2023 short film also titled “Take Me Home” previously debuted at Sundance and went on to screen at SXSW, Desertscape, and recently Slamdance Unstoppable. Her short centered on two estranged sisters, one of whom is cognitively disabled, who must learn to communicate after their mother’s death.

The logline for the feature adaptation reads: “Anna, a 38-year-old Korean adoptee with a cognitive disability, cares for her aging parents in a fragile balance of meeting each other’s needs. When a Florida heat wave shatters their family and Anna’s routine,...

Exclusive: NBCU Launch has set its 2024-26 class for the TV Directors Program, now in its fifteenth year. Those selected and the shows they are attached to are Parisa Barani (Law & Order), Winter Dunn (The Irrational), Nina Kramer (St. Denis Medical), and Liz Sargent (Chicago Med).

Founded in 2009, NBCU’s scripted directing program (now called the NBCU Launch TV Directors Program) gives experienced directors with distinct points of view their break into episodic television. The program supports the company’s goal of producing authentic stories with talent whose lived experiences inform their unique creative visions.

It’s the first scripted directing initiative in the TV industry to guarantee that participants will helm at least one episode by the program’s culmination. Directors shadow on two episodes of an NBCU scripted series before sitting in the director’s chair themselves. This year’s class will benefit from new learning and development...

American Cinematheque’s Proof Film Festival announced the Filmmaker Award winners at their second annual festival in Culver City on Sunday.

This year’s festival featured 46 official short film selections. Each one had to convey a proof of concept of how the filmmakers would develop their short into a full-length feature or series.

Liz Sargent’s “Take Me Home” took home the Grand Jury Award. Her short film follows two sisters, Anna and Emily, as they share a rocky reunion after their mother’s passing. The two navigate Anna’s cognitive disability as they rebuild their relationship. Along with the award, Sargent also received a $60,000 camera package, courtesy of Panavision, to assist her with fleshing out a larger project from their proof-of-concept submission.

Giselle Bonilla’s “The Musical” won the Audience Choice Award. In the short, Doug Lebowitz, a middle school theater director, decides to take down his ex-girlfriend’s...

Dozens of top Hollywood creatives and activists have signed an open letter in response to the shuttering of production company Participant — imploring the industry to continue to effect change through film and television as the defunct company once did.

George Clooney, Aflonso Cuarón, Ava DuVernay, Jane Fonda, Regina King, Viola Davis, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, Color of Change president Rashad Robinson and more are signators, in addition to groups like GLAAD and Human Rights Watch. The letter was coordinated by the National Domestic Workers Alliance (Ndwa), which collaborated with Participant and director Cuarón on a visibility campaign for his 2018 Oscar winner “Roma.”

“As we say goodbye to Participant, we must underscore that values-based storytelling is needed now more than ever,” the letter states. “There is a whole ecosystem of people, connected by the work of the last 20 years of Participant, ready to work with you.

When I set out to make my short film Take Me Home, I wanted to raise questions about our responsibilities to family as we grow older. The film captures a feared transitional moment for families that include a loved one who cannot live on their own: What is inherited? How do we navigate the hurdles of the American health care system when we are living on the margins of life?

I grew up as the middle child of 11. My adoptive parents had four biological children, then adopted seven more — six of whom are Korean, several with disabilities. We grew up in a John Hughes-esque suburb of America on a picturesque street. Our family stood out whether we liked it or not. Inside the house, however, adoption and disability were the norm. Everyone was the same, because everyone was different.

In this fast, competitive world, I think often about my youngest sibling,...

Liz Sargent‘s moving short film “Take Me Home” packs a punch and plenty of heart in just 15 minutes of screen time. The film follows a cognitively disabled woman (Anna Sargent) and her sister (Jeena Yi) who must learn to communicate after the untimely death of their mother. Gold Derby caught a screening of the film and grabbed a chat with writer-director Sargent, who explained that the genesis of this rooted in her family history.

“I grew up as the middle child of eleven, my parents had 4 biological children, then adopted 7 more, 6 of whom are Korean and several with different disabilities. In our family, everyone is the same because everyone is different. Anna is the youngest sibling, she was born at 2 lbs, developed a cyst on her brain and was left with various disabilities such as having very little short-term memory. I’ve always been afraid for the future when...

Sundance revealed the lineup for its Shorts and Indie Episodic programs today, featuring new work from filmmakers like Paul Feig and Ken Marino, “Roma” star Yalitza Aparicio Martinez, and Henry Winkler.

Sixty-four films were selected for the Shorts program from a record-high pool of 10,981 submissions. Spanning fiction, non-fiction, and animated works from artists in the U.S. and around the world, the program features both new and returning filmmakers. Aparicio Martinez will headline Mexico’s “Sweatshop Girl,” from writer-director Selma Cervantes, playing a seamstress who must hide her pregnancy to avoid getting fired. The Feig-produced “Help Me Understand” stars “The Office” actress Kate Flannery and Ken Marino among its ensemble cast. Angela Trimbur wrote and co-stars in “Mirror Girl,” while Sarafyan appears in the sci-fi short “Power Signal.”

The Indie Episodic lineup spotlights rising creators of independently produced content for episodic platforms. Four projects were chosen this year, including “Willie Nelson and Family,...

Cape (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) and Janet Yang Productions announced the second year of the Julia S. Gouw Short Film Challenge for Asian American and Pacific Islander Women and Non-Binary Filmmakers. The Challenge’s sophomore year kicks off with a Nov. 1st premiere, sponsored by AMC Theatres, where the four short films by year one’s winning filmmakers will be unveiled:

Hearsay by Banban Cheng.

Gossip inflames a community when Lili, a hairdresser who loves to talk, discovers a damaging secret about a customer.

Take Me Home by Liz Sargent.

After their mother’s death, an intellectually disabled woman and her estranged sister must learn to communicate in order to care for each other.

Happy Rahki by Ragini Bhasin.

A feisty Indian girl’s relationship with her brothers is tested when she starts her period during their festive celebration of Raksha Bandhan.

Full Service by Soma Helmi.

An...

American Cinema Editors announced that the organization will honor director Gina Prince-Bythewood with the esteemed Ace Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, recognizing an artist who exemplifies distinguished achievement in the art and business of film.

In addition, Ace will bestow career achievement honors to film editors Don Zimmerman, Ace and Lynne Willingham, Ace for their outstanding career contributions to film editing. The honors will be presented at the 73rd annual Ace Eddie Awards on March 5, 2023 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

“A supremely versatile trailblazer from day one of her career, Gina Prince-Bythewood has consistently entertained us with intimate films and global blockbusters that explore the human experience through formidable female characters,” said Ace president Kevin Tent, Ace. “A champion of diverse, character-driven narratives, her latest film — ‘The Woman King’ — is the crown jewel of a career spent pushing boundaries and telling stories that touch our hearts and minds.

Exclusive: The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment and Janet Yang Productions announced the four winners of the inaugural Julia S. Gouw Short Film Challenge, which awards a 15,000 production grant to four Aapi women or non-binary filmmakers.

Selected from a pool of over 400 applicants, four grantees will be offered networking opportunities with Emmy and Golden Globe-winning producer Janet Yang and the Cape network, as well as the chance to submit films to potential buyers and platforms.

Julia S. Gouw, a former member of the board of directors of East West Bancorp, Inc. and East West Bank, helped fund the Short Film Challenge to uplift Aapi and non-binary filmmakers.

“There was no better team than Janet [Yang] and the all-women-led team at Cape to fulfill my vision to create more representation in the Aapi community,” Gouw said. “I hope this Film Challenge will provide more opportunities, particularly for Aapi women and non-binary filmmakers,...