Awards
2025 King Award Recipients
First Prize Graduate Film $10,000
Charlie Theobald for Heirs
Second Prize Graduate Film $7,500
Eve Liu for Nervous Energy
Third Prize Graduate Film $5,000
Vincent Mocco for Piedi Nudi
First Prize UGFTV $10,000
Jack Campbell for baby
Second Prize UGFTV $7,500
Allamaprabhu Pattanashetty for A Very Normal Seeming Man
Third Prize UGFTV $5,000
Alexander Pitcher for Thomas-19
2025 Jagat Murari Directing Award Recipients
Graduate Film $5,000
Nino Benashvili for Where Time Stood Still
UGFTV $5,000
Ilia Wayans for Me (and You)
KING FINALISTS 2025
GRADUATE
Heirs
Hotel Habitat
Nervous Energy
Piedi Nudi
Rapids
Terminal
The Beguiling
The Wrath of Othell-Yo!
When Winter Comes
Where Time Stood Still
UNDERGRADUATE
A Very Normal Seeming Man
Anything Helps
baby
Grenfell Adrift on an Iceberg
Me (and You)
PRODIGAL DAUGHTER
The Blue Inside
The Dog Tied to the Shed
Thomas-19
2025 Craft Award Winners
Graduate
KING SCREENWRITING AWARD
Yuan Yuan for When Winter Comes
NESTOR ALMENDROS AWARD FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY
Irene Mercadal for Entre Tormentas
CARL LERNER AWARD FOR SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE
Iven Tu for The Pink Funeral
ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby for Happy Thanksgiving
Kwesi Jones for The Wrath of Othell-Yo!
ACHIEVEMENT IN EXPERIMENTAL
Fredgy Noël for New York Day Women
FACULTY COMMENDATION, FILMMAKING
Alex Sassine for I’ll Be Your Eyes - أنا بكون عيونك
Ella Gibney for Move With Me
FACULTY COMMENDATION, THESIS
Marina Charriton for Hotel Habitat
Yuan Yuan for When Winter Comes
José Manuel Vélez for Within a Quiet Body
FACULTY COMMENDATION, DIRECTING
Caroline Gohlke for Rapids
Eric Zhang for Strangers
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Kaitlyn Busbee for Here and Then
Yue Ma for Strangers
Leo Zhang for Till the Dead
COSTUME DESIGN
Stephanie Ramierez for Are You Having Fun?
Bitter Weeds
Moie Yang for The Pink Funeral
Anka Gabunia for Where Time Stood Still
EDITING
Shelby Dillon for Baroque
Jordan Michael Blake for Nervous Energy
Jack Kendrick for Tornado
ORIGINAL SCORE
Benjamin Griffiths for Baby Steps
Mato Wayuhi for The Beguiling
Alexandra Funes for Where Time Stood Still
Noam Rapoport for Within a Quiet Body
PRODUCING
Surhail Navarro, José Vélez, and Fran Zayas for Entre Tormentas
Kansas Ballesteros and Andreas Nicholas for Heirs
Devin Carey, Amanda Crown, Fatima Leoliger, and Sass Wright for Hen Party
Mariano Dongo, José Vélez, and Fran Zayas for Within a Quiet Body
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Ruomeng Li and Devon Sun for Ah Po and I
Eliza Soros for Heirs
Frida Fritter for Hen Party
Ruichen Bai for Playas
SCREENWRITING
Reuben Hamlyn for Bitter Weeds
East Elliott for Terminal
Kwesi Jones for The Wrath of Othell-Yo!
SOUND DESIGN
Till the Dead
When Winter Comes
Where Time Stood Still
ACTING
Glenna Brucken in Baby Steps
Oliver Finnegan in Bitter Weeds
José Eugenio Hernández in Entre Tormentas
Lauren Lapuck in Hen Party
Lana Bolycheva in Hotel Habitat
Rachel Horwitz in Move With Me
Ramzi Bashour in Nervous Energy
Carmelina Di Florio in Piedi Nudi
Diana Saba & Jaime Zusman in Playas
Homer Gere in Rapids
Carson McRae in Strangers
Andrew Chan-Possemato in Tornado
Eleven Lee in When Winter Comes
Keta Lortkipanidze in Where Time Stood Still
Charlie Solis in Within a Quiet Body
ENSEMBLE ACTING
Heirs
Terminal
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD
Eve Liu for Nervous Energy
UNDERGRADUATE
KING SCREENWRITING AWARD
Giles Perkins for Apollo
NESTOR ALMENDROS AWARD FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY
Andrea Nguyen for Thomas-19
RUSSELL CARMINE AWARD FOR CINEMATOGRAPHY
Rose Knopper
CARL LERNER AWARD FOR SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE
Nancy Peng & Xiuyuan (Steven) Chen for PRODIGAL DAUGHTER
Dani Guzman for Who Raised You?
ACHIEVEMENT IN ANIMATION
Clove Lee for The Dog Tied to the Shed
ACHIEVEMENT IN DOCUMENTARY
Samuel Clegg for Rats!
ACHIEVEMENT IN EXPERIMENTAL
Kaylee Smith for Midnight Service
FACULTY COMMENDATION IN ACTING
Allamaprabhu Pattanashetty
FACULTY COMMENDATION IN ACTING, WRITING AND DIRECTING
Allamaprabhu Pattanashetty for A Very Normal Seeming Man
FACULTY COMMENDATION, CINEMATOGRAPHY
Haley Spranger for Reverie
FACULTY COMMENDATION, COMEDY
Robert Gordon for Nimrod
FACULTY COMMENDATION, DIRECTING
John Hollands for Grenfell Adrift on an Iceberg
FACULTY COMMENDATION, FILMMAKING
Jaden Fields for I Can Be Your Negro
FACULTY COMMENDATION, PRODUCING
Valeria Benítez, Julie Chen, and Marcel Ruiz for Telaraña
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Amaal Mustafa for Apollo
Kevin Yu for baby
Ethan Wen for Telaraña
Cole Fletchall-Silva for Who Raised You?
COSTUME DESIGN
Theo F. Pinis for A Very Normal Seeming Man
Destini Gaeckler for Buttons
Elastic
High Noon
Nile Helgerud for PIXELWORLD
EDITING
John Hollands for Grenfell Adrift on an Iceberg
Jaden Fields for I Can Be Your Negro
Bryan Uvaldo for Playin’ Around
Zach Gentry for Thomas-19
ORIGINAL SCORE
Charlie Kreidler for Daydreamer
Karl Gottschalk for Grenfell Adrift on an Iceberg
Tom Zylbersztein for She Sure is a-Beamin’!
Harley James Sheppard for The Sun Chaser
Joss Cameron for This Vast Sea
Holden Lay for Third
PRODUCING
Robert Gordon, Allamaprabhu Pattanashetty, and Jenny Wang for A Very Normal Seeming Man
Collin Colaizzi, Mason Kidd, and Sammy LeMieur for An Arm, A Foot & A Leg
John Hollands and Kenji Yukinaga-Paradis for Grenfell Adrift on an Iceberg
Sebastian Hunt, Ella Klearner, Logan Lewis, Spencer Plant, Ariel Silva, Lucy Tian for PIXELWORLD
Alexander Pitcher, Freya Sun, Gianluca Umana, and Qing Zhao for Thomas-19
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Laine Elliot for A Very Normal Seeming Man
Dasha Fogelson for Playin’ Around
Colter Harris for Stephan’s Computer Parts
Ingrid Ramírez for Telaraña
Kaia Santos for The Slicks
SCREENWRITING
Kevin Stamps for Joop
Sky Cole for Moonglow
Isabel Li for The Dog Tied to the Shed
Rose Elizabeth Sutton for The Music Coma
SOUND DESIGN
Playin’ Around
Karinna Turicchi for Sigal
Alicia Qian for The Blue Inside
The Music Coma
Matthew Lai for The Sun Chaser
ACTING
Vishwanand Pattanashetty in A Very Normal Seeming Man
Lauren McCann in baby
Lakshay Goyal in Dreamline
Reilly Rose-Jay in Elastic
Dennis Jordan in High Noon
Ron Erel in Jam Sesh
Zionnah Shepard in Love Language
Mary Kate Abner in My Brother’s Last Advice
Iria Sewell in The Music Coma
Nick Salem in Who Raised You?
ACTING ENSEMBLE
Anything Helps
Apollo
No Feelings Involved
Telaraña
Third
Thomas-19
AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD
Nicola Ríos for Telaraña