The Best of NFMLA Awards recognize the best talent in independent cinema from around the globe. The 2026 Awards honor 84 projects with 130 Nominations across 16 Award Categories. The Nominees are comprised of projects that screened as part of the NFMLA Monthly Film Festival 2025 season which ran from January 1st, 2025 through December 31st, 2025.

Winners

Best New Filmmaker
Nani Sahra Walker

Best Feature Film
Surrender - Directed by Jess Dang and Produced by Jessica Olthof & Darren Haruo Rae

Best Documentary Feature Film
Moses - Directed by Fran Guijarro and Produced by Fran Guijarro, Juli Lopez & Diya Guha

Best Short Film, Documentary
Entre le Feu et le Clair de Lune - Directed by Dominic Yarabe and Produced by Dominic Yarabe & Carlo Nasisse

Honorable Mention
Like a Spiral - Directed by Lamia Chraibi and Produced by Patricia Bergeron & Ghassan Fayad

Best Short Film, Comedy
Prawn Star - Directed by Mitch Deitz and Produced by Judy Febles

Best Short Film, Drama
Corpse Fishing - Directed by Jean Liu and Produced by Sarah Park

Best International Short Film, Comedy
Passarinho - Directed by Natalia García Agraza and Produced by Daniela Mosca

Best International Short Film, Drama
Nightfaces - Directed by Martin Winter, Stefan Langthaler and Produced by Alfie Ángel, Victoria Herbig, Stefan Langthaler & Martin Winter

Best Short Film, Animated
Flocky - Directed by Esther Casas Roura and Produced by Esther Casas Roura & Juan Carlos Concha

Best New Media & Experimental
The Fish Tank - Directed by Victoria Garza and Produced by Cecilia Chávez Hita

Best Screenplay
Vision - Written by Dan Parris & Theodore Simpson

Best Performance, Comedy
Ilhan Abdullahi, Unqualified

Best Performance, Drama
Sonja Romei, Nightfaces

Best Cinematography
Evan Weidenkeller, Dawn Every Day

Best Film Editing
Sean Puglisi, Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon

Best Sound Design
Dominic Yarabe & Shirley Yumeng He, Entre le Feu et le Clair de Lune

Best Score

David Melchor, Janis Ian: Breaking Silence

Shine Global Resilience Award
One Day - Directed & Written by Yazmeen Kanji and Produced by Maryam Remtulla

Nominees

  • Feature
  • Documentary Feature
  • Documentary Short
  • New Media & Experimental
  • Animation
  • International Comedy
  • International Drama
  • Drama Short
  • Comedy Short
  • Screenplay
  • Performance Drama
  • Performance Comedy
  • Cinematography
  • Film Editing
  • Sound Design
  • Score

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Jury

Alexandra Korba
Moxie Films
Alyssa Yoffie
STARZ
Andrea Alarcon
Sundance Institute
Andrew McCann Smith
Play Media
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
Katherine Weinstein
Radial Entertainment
Kaylen Ng
Irene Feldman Management
Kevin Heffernan
Range Media Partners
Lisa Alford
Evoke Entertainment
Mar de Melo
Netflix Animation Studios
Marley Hansen
RSA Films
Merari Chavarria 
Culture Machine
Nicolas Keller Sarmiento
Vision Entertainment
Rodrigo Crespo Esquivel
Sonoro Global Media Corp
Saelyx Finna
Context Moves
Scott Sakamoto
Netflix
Selin Sevinç
Bend Film Festival
Tamer Ahsan
Zero Gravity Management
Tyra Johnson
HOORAE
Yvonne Ashley Kouadjo
The New York Times Op-Docs

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