New Voices Filmmaker Grant
An ongoing initiative in partnership with Netflix to support emerging directors with $25,000 in funding to create new work that celebrates LGBTQ+ stories and perspectives – in addition to mentorship, networking, and professional development opportunities!
Now in its fifth year, the program has supported 21 emerging filmmakers since 2022. Learn more about the filmmakers below!
NewFest’s New Voices Filmmaker Grant, supported by Netflix, supports emerging directors telling LGBTQ+ stories by providing funding to make new work, assisting in getting their work more widely shared, and propelling their careers forward through mentorship, networking, and professional development opportunities.
NewFest is thrilled to announce the 2026 recipients of the New Voices Filmmaker Grant, a collaborative effort with Netflix to support emerging directors who tell stories from a queer perspective. Now in its fifth year, the artist development initiative awards each of the four recipient filmmakers a $25,000 grant to support their professional development and create new work, and provides them with access to network-building opportunities through industry events and a mentorship track facilitated by NewFest.
The 2026 recipients of the New Voices Filmmaker Grant are Star Amerasu, Deborah Devyn Chuang, Georgia Krause, and co-directing duo AJ Dubler & Carmela Murphy.
“We are thrilled to announce the latest class of emerging directors to receive the New Voices Filmmaker Grant. Devyn, Georgia, Star, and directing duo AJ & Carmela bring inspired and fresh perspectives to LGBTQ+ storytelling through stop-motion animation, documentary, slapstick comedy, science fiction, and body genre,” said NewFest Interim Executive Director Lesli Klainberg. “Thanks to Netflix for their generosity in partnering with NewFest on this vital artist initiative.”
New Voices Filmmaker Grant Coordinator Arno Mokros added: “Thank you to the evaluation committee for thoughtfully reviewing each application, and we are especially grateful to the final jury for their visionary leadership in selecting filmmakers whose work spans such varied cinematic approaches to LGBTQ+ stories. We look forward to supporting this cohort’s professional growth and ambitious new projects and to sharing their work with NewFest audiences at the New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival in October.”
This year’s cohort of grantees were selected by an independent final jury of esteemed LGBTQ+ film leaders including Silas Howard, director of the seminal transmasculine film, By Hook or By Crook (2001), River Gallo, writer and star of Ponyboi (2024), and nonfiction film leader Merrill Sterritt (Senior Manager of Partnerships & Innovation and Director of IF/Then Shorts at Field of Vision).
2026 Grantees
STAR AMERASU (she/her)
Star Amerasu is a performance and new media artist whose work seamlessly integrates narrative film, music, and digital storytelling. A graduate of San Francisco Film School’s Digital Filmmaking Program, Star’s work explores identity, futurism, and desire, often with a humorous satirical lens. A former Outfest Artist-in-Residence, her debut short film, After Hours, executive produced by Elliot Page, premiered on the West Coast at Frameline Film Festival and on the East Coast at NewFest in 2024. She’s also a theatrical performer, having completed a run in Los Angeles at the New Theater Hollywood for Sam Anderson’s The Wolf is an Endangered Species and an off-Broadway run in Mickey Gooch’s Silverback Mountain, directed by Sam Lafrage, in 2026.
DEBORAH DEVYN CHUANG (they/them)
Deborah “Devyn” Chuang is a Taiwanese-American writer-director specializing in horror and body genre films that explore themes of identity and sexuality. Their debut short, Mom, if I Were a Vampire, premiered at NewFest in 2022 and has since grown into a queer cult favorite on Letterboxd. Devyn’s second short film, Strawberry Shortcake, premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where it won Best Short Film in 2024. The film went on to receive a Special Jury Mention at the Women Make Waves International Film Festival in Taiwan and screened globally at over 20 festivals, including BFI Flare, Sitges, Fantasia, and Fantastic Fest. Devyn is currently developing Strawberry Shortcake into a feature film while finishing post-production on their latest short film, Trauma Dumpling, a horror-comedy starring Bai Ling. Trauma Dumpling is the winner of the 2025 Bridges/Larson Foundation production grant, and has received recognition from the Austin Film Festival and Vimeo. Devyn holds a B.S. from UC Berkeley and an MFA from Columbia University, where they teach screenwriting.
GEORGIA KRAUSE (they/them)
Georgia Krause (they/them) is a Seattle-based Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker telling empathetic stories set within elevated realities. Raised in North Carolina, Georgia moved around between the South and New England, briefly attending high school in Amsterdam, before going to NYU Tisch School of the Arts for film production. Through their documentary work, Georgia has worked on productions with National Geographic, PBS, ABC, and Netflix. Their work has screened at the 2025 United Nations Climate Summit, DOC NYC, the Jackson Wild Summit, Defy Film Fest, and was awarded the Founder’s Choice at the San Diego Environmental Film Festival. Georgia is interested in creating work that makes the misunderstood familiar, and that dances between the edges of harsh and soft. Outside of documentary filmmaking, you can find them climbing rocks and mountains.
AJ DUBLER (they/them) & CARMELA MURPHY (she/they)
AJ and Carmela are a stop motion filmmaking duo who create handcrafted, darkly whimsical, and intimate stories that explore queer transformation. They met in a puppet animation class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where they began their creative collaboration, and directed their debut film, A Bird Hit My Window and Now I’m a Lesbian. This film has played at over 80 film festivals around the world, including Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and Frameline, where they won the Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Award. They are currently based out of Denver, Colorado, where they are producing their next stop motion short film, God is a Pelican. Crafting every tiny brick, floorboard, and teacup, AJ and Carmela weave human hands directly into the fabric of their films.
2025 Grantees
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The 2025 recipients of the New Voices Filmmaker Grant are MG Evangelista, Shuli Huang, Farah Jabir, and Kevin Xian Ming Yu.
2024 Grantees
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The 2024 recipients of the New Voices Filmmaker Grant are Apa Agbayani, Angalis Field, Clementine Narcisse, and cai thomas.
2023 Grantees
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The 2023 recipients of the New Voices Filmmaker Grant are Terrance Daye, Drew de Pinto, Emily May Jampel, and LaQuan Lewis.
2022 Grantees
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The four recipients of the 2022 New Voices Filmmaker Grant were Blanche Akonchong, Livia Huang, Rodney Llaverías, and Nyala Moon.
The New Voices Filmmaker Grant is presented by
“By empowering the next generation of filmmakers, NewFest and Netflix will work to amplify queer films and support authentic stories that showcase the talent of emerging storytellers”
– David Hatkoff, Former NewFest Executive Director