Back to All News
10 New Filmmakers Awarded Coveted Pillars Artist Fellowship
Social Impact
23 July 2024
United States
Link copied to clipboard
Pillars Fund, Riz Ahmed and his production company, Left Handed Films, are excited to announce the newest cohort of the Pillars Artist Fellowship. The fellowship provides crucial financial and professional support for Muslim filmmakers, who are historically underrepresented in the entertainment industry. This year's fellows include a father and filmmaker moved to action by the uprisings in Ferguson, the only Arab director to win twice at the Venice Film Festival and an animator who mentors young filmmakers in refugee camps. The Pillars Artist Fellowship has been sponsored by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity and Amazon MGM Studios since the inaugural cohort in 2022.
"We are immensely proud to be working alongside these principled, visionary, and courageous artists, says Arij Mikati, Pillars' Managing Director of Culture Change. The competitive applicant pool of hundreds inspires me with an impossible-to-miss reminder: There is no shortage of Muslim storytellers prepared to share fresh, exciting narratives. All they need is the chance."
Each fellow receives an unrestricted $25,000 grant and mentorship from industry experts that includes insight for navigating the business, professional development and creative guidance in their fields. The fellows will attend all-inclusive learning retreats in New York City, London and Los Angeles and have access to a trailblazing advisory committee of award-winning Muslim actors, directors, producers and writers.
The eight months of programming are designed to catapult the fellows' careers and elevate their impact on culture and entertainment.
The 2024 Pillars Artist Fellows are:
Jude Chehab, an acclaimed Lebanese-American filmmaker with a richly layered visual style, whose film Q was named one of the best documentaries of 2023 by Vogue. Her films go beyond the surface to showcase nuanced stories that give dignity to Muslim experiences without sacrificing authenticity.
Mahnoor Euceph, an award-winning writer and director from Los Angeles who creates entertaining stories about the South Asian diaspora-stories that seek to decolonize minds and encourage radical self-love. She is developing her film Brown Girl with Cate Blanchett, Coco Francini and Dr. Stacy L. Smith's Proof of Concept Accelerator.
Amber Fares, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and cinematographer in New York City whose work is on some of the biggest platforms, such as Convergence: Courage in a Crisis on Netflix and We are Ayenda on Amazon Prime Video. She spent years in the Middle East, and much of her work brings Arabs to the forefront, highlighting their stories, culture and aspirations.
Nuhash Humayun, a Bangladeshi-American writer and director creating unique films that meld horror and South Asian culture. Based in Texas, his horror anthology film Pett Kata Shaw won Best International Feature at the Raindance Film Festival, while his SXSW-winning short film Moshari is the first Oscar-qualifying film from Bangladesh.
Soudade Kaadan, an acclaimed Syrian director who is the only Arab director to win twice at the Venice Film Festival, including one win for The Day I Lost My Shadow. Now based in London, her relatable and authentic fiction films are a way for her to preserve cultures being decimated by war.
Liam LoPinto, an Iranian-American filmmaker and animator from New York City. His acclaimed work, including The Old Young Crow, spotlights diaspora, refugees, immigrants and dissidents and reclaims identities that are too often unjustly vilified. Liam mentors young Syrian refugees in filmmaking.
Aiman Mimiko, an award-winning Nigerian-American writer and director based in Los Angeles who is currently developing his first feature, Quarters. Aiman's incredible life experiences are the basis for his acclaimed film and TV work, which centers and uplifts African and Muslim perspectives while challenging problematic assumptions.
Maryam Mir, a Brooklyn-based filmmaker whose background and life span the globe, from Kashmir to Germany to Kenya to Bahrain. Her award-winning work, including Sweet Refuge, tells stories that honor and uplift the joy, warmth and gentleness of her many communities.
Warda Mohamed, a BIFA-nominated filmmaker. Her debut narrative short MUNA" was backed by BBC Film and made its International Premiere at the 74th Berlinale Film Festival. She is currently developing her debut feature screenplay MOON with BBC Film and Working Title, and her debut TV pilot as part of this year's cohort on the prestigious Channel 4 Screenwriting course.
Mobolaji Olambiwonnu, an award-winning director and storyteller based in Southern California. His work, including Ferguson Rises, centers social justice, humanizes Black men and their unique experiences and is inspired by his young son. He sees cinema as a tool to help audiences shed their prejudices.
We are honored to be working with the amazing team at Pillars Fund, says Left Handed Films. Together, we're proud to have selected such a promising cohort of emerging filmmakers for this unique program. The Pillars Artist Fellowship has created a community of outstanding Muslim artists with so many successes already under their belt, and we can't wait to see its legacy continue to grow.
Learn more about each fellow and see their photos in the press kit.
The Pillars Artist Fellowship Advisory Committee includes: Riz Ahmed, Bisha K. Ali, Mahershala Ali, Sana Amanat, Karim Amer, Mo Amer, Rosa Attab, Jessica Beshir, May Calamawy, Yann Mounir Demange, Mohamed Diab, Sarah Goher, Sahar Jahani, Zainab Johnson, Lena Khan, Nida Manzoor, Hasan Minhaj, Nijla Mu'min, Amina Munir, Jehane Noujaim, Aida Osman, Saagar Shaikh, Ba
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Back to All News
