2023 New Voices Filmmaker Grant Recipients

Terrance Daye is an award winning poet and filmmaker from Long Island, New York. His creative work elevates black queer slice-of-life and coming-of-age dramas in nuanced ways that are fresh, poetic and accessible. Daye received his Bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College and his Master’s in Fine Arts in filmmaking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Terrance is a two-time Spike Lee Production Fund recipient, a 2018 Sundance Ignite Fellow, the recipient of the 2020 NewFest Film Festival Emerging Black LGBTQ+ Filmmaker Award and the 2020 Outfest Film Festival Programming Award for Emerging Talent. His film -SHIP: A VISUAL POEM was awarded a Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and the Industry Jury Award at TheWrap’s 2020 ShortList Film Festival. Terrance is a 2020 Sundance Episodic Labs alum and a 2023 Project Involve fellow. Terrance has assisted director Kyle Patrick Alvarez and written for showrunner Mara Brock Akil on respective new projects. His own highly anticipated animated short film, PRITTY, is currently in development with Powerhouse Animation Studios.

Drew de Pinto is a director and editor based in Queens. Their short film COMPTON’S ‘22, currently in post-production, has been featured by Film Independent and nominated for an IDA award. As a teenager, Drew was drawn to film as a way to process feelings of gender dysphoria. Their work explores how documentary and experimental modes of filmmaking can build alternative frameworks for gender and other social structures that allow us to imagine better worlds. Drew is a graduate of Stanford’s Documentary Film MFA program and a member of the Alliance of Documentary Editors. They have worked on projects with The New Yorker, the Democratic Socialists of America, Kartemquin Films, Truth & Documentary, Group Nine Media, and more.

Emily May Jampel is a filmmaker from Oʻahu based in New York City. Her short film LUCKY FISH has played at festivals including Palm Springs International Film Festival (Winner, Young Cineastes Award, Special Mention, Best LGBTQ+ Short), Champs-Élysées (Winner, Audience Award), NewFest, Outfest L.A., Frameline, Inside Out and Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia. Emily has curated short film programs for Metrograph and Allies in Arts. She previously worked as a development executive at the Academy Award-Nominated and Peabody Award-Winning production company The Department of Motion Pictures (BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, PATTI CAKE$, MONSTERS & MEN, PHILLY D.A.) and was an Associate Producer on the podcast series OPERATOR, produced in partnership with Topic and Wondery.

LaQuan Lewis is a queer, Black writer/director based in Los Angeles. Having started out as an actor, LaQuan quickly developed an interest in the art of filmmaking. Although he couldn’t afford proper film school, LaQuan became determined to learn one way or another and dedicated himself to learning the fundamentals of filmmaking through books and YouTube videos. In 2019 LaQuan wrote and directed his first short film ONLY FOR THE NIGHT, about a young trans man struggling to find someone he authentically connects with. ONLY FOR THE NIGHT went on to be accepted into numerous festivals, including the 2021 edition of Outfest. The film won a total of four awards, including Best First-Time Director and Best LGBT Short at festivals in the US, UK, and beyond. Following the success of his debut, LaQuan began working on his sophomore short film, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE, which encapsulates a moment of tension between two queer women on the eve of their one year anniversary. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE was an official selection at Outfest Fusion, and won Best LGBT Short at the International Tokyo Short Film Festival in 2023. LaQuan’s next project, COME AS YOU ARE is a story about a young man living with HIV who struggles to share his status with those around him, particularly his religious and homophobic mother.