The 2025 Flaherty Film Seminar Fellows. All images courtesy the Fellows.
Announcing the 2025 Flaherty Film Seminar Fellows!
This summer, we will welcome 56 outstanding filmmakers, artists, curators, scholars, and cultural workers to the Seminar as part of our annual fellowship program; 38 Fellows will join us in person in New York City, and 18 Fellows will take part in the Online Fellowship Experience. This year’s cohort represents an incredible diversity of perspectives, practices, and geographies, with Fellows joining us from México, Argentina, Peru, India, the United Kingdom, Brazil, the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
The Flaherty Fellowship program received two times more applications than in previous years. The selection committee was comprised of former Flaherty Fellows, including Trisha Bhattacharya, Paola Buontempo, Maxime Cavajani, Del Chieyen Holton, Laura Dávila Argoty, Rami George, Sophia Haid, Abby Lord, Micah Magee, Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, Daniel Mattes, Kavich Neang, Nicky Ni, Nandi Pointer, Savunthara Seng, Rugun Sirait, and Nehal Vyas. The Patty Zimmerman Fellowship Selection Committee was formed by Sean Auyash, Stewart Auyash, Carlos A. Gutiérrez, Dale Hudson, Louis Massiah, Ann Michel, and Leah Shafer. We are incredibly grateful for their time, expertise, and care.
Our Fellows are:
California College of the Arts:
J. Abraham Montes
California Institute of the Arts School
of Film/Video:
abbi page*
Ej Yeh*
Devin Jie Allen
Andrea Granera
Center for Documentary Media at the University of Colorado Boulder:
Md Shahedur Rahman
Jerónimo Reyes-Retana
Chicken & Egg Films:
Tobi Phang-Lyn
Elaisha Stokes
Corrientes:
Nohelí Morales Gálvez*
Carmen Vásquez Uriol*
Federico Pintos*
Flaherty Curatorial:
Mariana Souza*
BURSENLA*
Arwa Aburawa & Turab Shah*
Isabel Rojas
Department of Cinema and Media Studies
at the University of Pennsylvania:
Cecilia Kryzda*
Lynette Qiuyang Shen
Asher Guthertz*
Duke University MFA|EDA:
Germán López Tirado
Emma Volz
George Stoney Memorial:
Maria Estela Paiso
Harvard Film Study Center:
Lilia Kilburn
Haverford College Department of Visual Culture, Arts, and Media:
Swagnita Das
Ben Suchanic
Anna West
tianyi
LEF New England:
Morgan Hulquist
Matteo Moretti
Sasha Tycko
Nazaara Media Lab:
Farha Khatun*
Sapan Taneja*
Northwestern University: Art, Theory, Practice: Lamia Abukhadra
Northwestern University Department of Radio, TV, and Film
Maya Castronovo
Ines Sommer
Patricia Zimmermann Memorial:
Bouchra Assou
A.E. Hunt
Reiko Tahara
Flaherty Professional Development:
Adjani Arumpac*
Maria Paradinas*
Elroy Pinto*
Sofia Valiente
Purin Pictures:
Nadira Ilana*
Alyssandra Maxine*
Rizky Rahad*
Shine Global:
Ebony Blanding
The New School:
Sabrina Frometa
Shenghan Gao
Isabella Rodriguez
Aisha Servia
Meghna Yesudas
Vancouver International Film Festival:
Ruun Nuur
Waterman II Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation:
Melissa Beatriz
Melissa Langer
Ian McKenna
Laurie Robins
Sydney Alicia Rodriguez
*Indicates Online Fellows
Thank you to our Fellowship Partners
Each year, The Flaherty works with generous partners to support emerging professionals in documentary film in attending the Seminar, enabling them to take part in a special Fellowship experience. Fellows are selected either by our sponsoring partners or through our open call, which ran from April 6 to April 28 in 2025.
We thank our partners, new and ongoing, for supporting The Flaherty’s work and providing our Fellows from around the world with the opportunity to be part of this year’s Seminar.
Support for the 2025 Flaherty Fellowship program is generously provided by the LEF New England Foundation, the Waterman II Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation, the Kate Cashel Fund of The Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region, California Institute of the Arts School of Film/Video, Duke University MFA|EDA, Cinematic Arts; and Vice-Provost of the Arts, The Film Study Center at Harvard University (FSC); Northwestern University Department of Art, Theory, Practice; Northwestern University Department of Radio, TV, and Film; Purin Pictures, Corrientes, The Nazaara Media Lab at Cornell University, California College of the Arts, Center for Documentary Media at the University of Colorado Boulder, Vancouver International Film Festival, Haverford College Department of Visual Studies, Shine Global, The Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and The School of Media Studies and Eugene Lang College at The New School. Tremendous thanks to our generous individual donors for continuing to make the Patricia Zimmermann Memorial Fellowship possible.
Gatherings
Around the World
2024 Seminar To Commune at Thai Film Archive
Can’t make it to a Pod but still want to experience the 70th Flaherty Film Seminar in community?Find a Gathering near you! Flaherty Gatherings are informal, self-organized screening and discussion events hosted by members of our global network. Each Gathering features at least one ONWARD! program and invites participants into thoughtful, locally grounded conversations. Whether you’re new to Flaherty or a longtime attendee, Gatherings offer a welcoming, flexible way to connect. While they differ from our official Pods in scale and access, they are a vital part of The Flaherty’s decentralized model.
The Flaherty Film Seminar at 70
The Museum of Modern Art
Image courtesy Janus Films
The Museum of Modern Art will mark the Seminar’s 70th anniversary in two parts:
June 19–26
Pre-Seminar Retrospective Film Series
A week-long pre-Seminar film series will revisit films that have screened at past seminars, tracing a robust exhibition history that has featured several generations of MoMA film curators as guest programmers or advisors.
June 26
70th Seminar Opening Night
The Museum will host the opening night of ONWARD!, the 70th Flaherty Film Seminar, which is being held in New York City for the first time. In keeping with the seminar’s tradition, details of the opening screening program will not be announced in advance.
70th Seminar artwork inspired by the work of Bill Brand
2025 Seminar Supporters
The 70th Flaherty Film Seminar is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council This project is supported in part by Ford Foundation JustFilms.
Additional support for Flaherty programs was provided by the Johnson Family Foundation,
William H. Donner Foundation, and Wave Farm.
