Women Directing Mentorship 2026, Finalists

Kim Blanck’s short film Gloria, supported by the Berkeley FILM Foundation, Dementia Spring Foundation and PANO Network, made its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. It won both the Narrative Short Jury Award and the Audience Award at the 2025 Austin Asian American Film Festival, and was described by the jury as “a richly emotional experience…with an eye for the beauty in the mundane.”

Her pilot Half Full was a selection for the inaugural Refinery29 x TBS Comedy Lab, and she is co-creator and producer of Basic Witch, named the “witty web series you need this Halloween” by The Cut. Also an award-winning actor, she was seen on Broadway in the original company of the Tony Award-winning Suffs; her film and television appearances include Women Who Kill, Call Jane, New Amsterdam, and WeCrashed. She is currently developing a comedy about magic and heartbreak with comedian Sarah Adelman, as well as a feature film adaptation of Jenna Dioguardi’s stage play Nipples for Christmas, a chronicle of her true experiences as a 27-year-old breast cancer patient.

Robin Cloud is an award-winning director, writer, and comedian working across television and film. A recent alumna of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, Cloud has built a body of work that has screened at major festivals including BFI, Tribeca Film Festival, TIFF, and NewFest, reaching audiences around the world. In 2023, Cloud was selected as a Black List x WIF Feature Residency Writer, where she developed her feature film About Face. In 2025, she was named an Alliance for Women Directors Rising Director Fellow, receiving mentorship from Steve McQueen and writing and directing a proof of concept for About Face.

Her narrative feature This Old House is currently streaming on Hulu. Her docuseries Passing: A Family in Black & White, produced by Topic Studios, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is now available on Amazon. Cloud was also one of six filmmakers selected by Warner Bros. to reimagine classic films in celebration of the studio’s 100th anniversary, directing a bold new take on Calamity Jane, now streaming on Max. Cloud graduated cum laude from Howard University’s School of Communications and holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Architecture. She is represented by MetaMorphic Entertainment.

Sara Harrak is a British-Moroccan Director rep’d by Curtis Brown and 42 Branded. She has most recently finished shooting a ROM-COM for channel 5/Paramount. Airing November 25′ staring Anita Dobson and Nigel Havers. Also her comedy sketch for Comedy Central will be out the end of the year.
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Her last Short film Solers United, was premiered at BFI FLARE in March 2025 and will be on Film 4 mid october. She is developing this into a feature. The film toured before the womens Euros, being recognised by the FA, trailer played at a WSL Totenham Spurs stadium game and promoted on Itv News. Her previous short film, F**KED, aired live on Channel 4 in November 2023 and was on 4OD until November 2024. This is as a result of F**KED winning Best British Short at the Iris Prize 2023 and also Best Short Film at Roze Filmdagen. F**KED has since been recognised by the British Film Council, and has been featured in their catalogue of UK shorts and new talent. F**ked screened at many Bafta and Bifa festivals. F**KED is now in early development with Wild Mercury for a TV series.

Sara was selected by M&Ms film festival to produce and direct a trailer in 72 hours, based on her original idea ‘Solers United’. Her completed trailer can currently be found on M&Ms website. She appeared in May 2024 Empire Magazine talking about ‘Solers United’ and Kiss FM for promotions. Her films were screened for a month in 2024 at the Outernet in London, on Tottenham court road. She won Best Director at Sara Putts Agency Foundation at the end of 2024. Her next film ‘The Halal Chop’ has been given a fund to develop the short from Uncertain Kingdom

Rebecca Holstein is a writer, director, and producer from Chicago, Illinois. She began her filmmaking career as the Associate Producer and Director’s Assistant to Olivia Wilde on DON’T WORRY DARLING (2021), roles she has reprised on all of Wilde’s subsequent projects. Rebecca has written and directed 4 short films, the most recent of which received Jury Awards for both Directing and Cinematography at the SCAD Film Festival in 2024. She is set to direct her feature debut, an original thriller which she also penned, under Alex Cooper’s ACE/UNWELL production company. Her directing work spans comedy, horror, drama, and experimental projects. She finds working with actors to be the most exciting part of the directing process, and deeply enjoys discovering new aspects of the character and story through collaboration with other creative humans.

Enora Hope is a 24-year-old French-American filmmaker and screenwriter whose journey began with self-made short films—conceived, produced, and distributed independently—which today reach over two million viewers each month. Growing up in foster care shaped her voice as a director and fuels her advocacy for self-made women in cinema. In 2025 she won the Nikon Film Festival with La Dernière Vague, which led to a Canal+ interview and an international selection in Los Angeles. Inspired by works such as Black Mirror, Gattaca, Never Let Me Go, and Her, Enora pioneers vertical and horizontal-format sci-fi in France. She is now developing her first feature film and an international original series in collaboration with major platforms, continuing to merge emotional intimacy with societal critique in her work. Growing up in foster care, Enora developed a deeply personal perspective on resilience, belonging, and the hidden fractures of society. These themes have become central to her work, and they fuel her commitment to empowering other self-made women in cinema. In 2025, she was named to the Forbes “40 Women” list, recognizing her as one of the most influential young creatives of her generation. She is also an ambassador for L’Oréal Paris and its program Lights on Women promoting women in cinema, further extending her advocacy beyond her own films.

A major breakthrough came when she won the Nikon Film Festival with La Dernière Vague, a fantasy project on domestic violence that earned her national recognition, interviews on Canal+, and many festivals selection. The prior year, she was invited to direct an advertisement for the Star Wars franchise, an opportunity that confirmed her ability to merge independent artistry with major cultural institutions. Enora’s films aim to ask not just what the future will look like, but what it will feel like. Across all of her projects, Enora Hope seeks to craft cinema that is both intimate and universal, rooted in her personal history yet reaching toward broader cultural questions. Her ambition is to push the boundaries of independent filmmaking while proving that self-made voices can resonate on the biggest stages of world cinema

Joan Iyiola is a British Nigerian actress and filmmaker from the United Kingdom. She is co-founder of Apatan Productions, an award-winning company which centres Black and Global Majority narratives. She has been the recipient of the HBO Short Film Award, longlisted for a BAFTA and her work has been acquired by HBO, Netflix and Disney+.

Meera Angelica Joshi is a filmmaker and 2025 SFFILM FilmHouse Resident. In 2024 her short film “The Sale” was awarded the Tasveer x Netflix Film Fund which premiered at the Academy Award qualifying festival the following year. Investigating the personal stories of her family and community through humor and heart has been a huge source of inspiration for Meera. She is currently developing her first feature “Ancestor” based on the true ghost story that haunted her family.

Oanh-Nhi Nguyen is an award-winning filmmaker whose decade-long commitment to gender and racial justice drives her storytelling. Through her lens, she amplifies Asian women and girls, weaving narratives that explore diaspora, immigrant identity, and the complex bonds between generations. An AFI Conservatory MFA graduate, Oanh-Nhi has directed ten narrative shorts and documentary episodes that have reached audiences from the Smithsonian American Art Museum to festival circuits nationwide. Her acclaimed short “LITTLE BIRD” captured the Jury Award for Best Student Short at Cinequest 2025 and earned a Remi Award at WorldFest Houston, following its premiere at AFI Fest. Her work has also been showcased at the Tribeca Festival, CAAM Fest, Boston Asian American Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, and Viet Film Fest.

Recognition from industry leaders includes her selection for Tribeca’s 2024 Creators Market, where she pitched to top professionals, alongside acceptance of her comedy pilot “UNACCEPTABLE” into the Athena’s Writers Lab and her docuseries debut “TAKING ROOT” into the 2023 Tribeca Festival. As one of just ten filmmakers chosen for Hillman Grad and Indeed’s Rising Voices program, Oanh-Nhi recently directed and co-wrote “THE STAND,” which premiered at Tribeca Festival in June 2025.

Jacqueline Elyse Rosenthal is a DGA Student Grand Prize & Student-Emmy winning Writer/Director who makes projects that shine a light on those who feel forgotten by society. Her graduate thesis film, BACKLOG (Cannes Official Selection), following the key witness of the US Rape Kit Backlog Senate hearings, screened at over 85 film festivals internationally, receiving the Limelight Award for Social Justice at Ojai Film Festival and an Anthem Award for Film/Media in Social Justice. The film is currently streaming on Kanopy, Mometu, and Samansa. Her feature adaptation of BACKLOG was announced in Deadline as the Winner of Catalyst Studios/Stage 32 Empowering Women Screenplay Competition, receiving an option agreement.

Most recently, she was named “one of the Top Voices in Virtual Production” by the CTO of Paramount for her environmental sci-fi epic, EUROPA, a film she directed on SONY’s Culver City backlot, helming a +1,000 crew for 42 days on SONY’s Stage 7 LED Volume. Jacqueline is a recent graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA in Film & TV Production. Fellowships: Creator’s Playlab, Fox Fellowship, Athena Writer’s Lab, Stowe Story Labs, Athena List (Semi Finalist), Hallmark Make Her Mark (Finalist), ETC@USC R&D Innovation Grant, NFMLA NewNarratives. Memberships: Women in Film, Alliance of Women Directors, and Women in Film and Television. Jacqueline serves a volunteer position as Head of Development at The Reel Champions, a female and non-binary Executive Mentorship Program. She believes mentorship is the most valuable part of this industry and always aims to give back as well as keep growing. Reps: 3 Arts and CCE.