EXCLUSIVE: Film Independent has named the filmmakers set for the 2025 editions of its Fiction and Documentary Producing Labs.
Fellows on the Fiction side will include Ashim Ahuja, Gabrielle Cordero, Ebony Elaine Hardin, Betty Hu, Adam Kopp, David Rafailedes and Rui Xu. Documentary Lab Fellows included Jacob Fertig, Beth Levison, Hansen Lin, Khaula Malik, DaManuel Richardson and Bryn Silverman.
In its 25th year, Film Independent’s Fiction lab is taking place October 6-17, whereas the second annual Documentary Producing Lab concluded September 19. Both are intensive programs designed to strengthen the craft and careers of independent producers, where Fellows work closely with industry professionals and advisors, gaining practical insights into the art and business of producing while refining specific projects. In addition to mentorship, resources and strategic guidance, participants are given access to Film Independent’s year-round community of Fellows.
Film Independent also announced today that it will award its Alfred P. Sloan Producers Grant, recognizing an outstanding project that incorporates science or technology themes into a dramatic narrative, to David Rafailedes for his film, Satoshi. Additionally, the MPAC Hollywood Bureau Fellowship, a $10,000 grant awarded to a filmmaker who identifies as American Muslim, will go to Documentary Producing Lab Fellow Khaula Malik for Dear You.
“The 2025 Film Independent Producing Lab Fellows are building resilience and refining the craft needed to sustain long careers in both fiction and nonfiction,” said Daniel Cardone, Film Independent’s Senior Manager of Nonfiction Programs & Fiscal Sponsorship.
Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs, added, “As producing independent films becomes more of an uphill climb in today’s marketplace, we’re proud to provide a space for Fellows to further develop their bold and innovative projects and create a community that will continue to support them for many years to come.”
Advisors and Guest Speakers for the Fiction Lab will include Tyler Boehm, Jon Coplon, Fanshen Cox, Sheila Hanahan Taylor, Daniel Tantalean, Chris Kaye, Ben LeClair, Amanda Marshall, Alexandria Martin, Lauren Mann, Khaliah Neal, Ryan Paine, Anne-Elisa Schaffer, Lauren Shelton, Annalisa Shoemaker, Lena Vurma, Monique Walton and Zoë Worth.
Ina Fichman, Diane Becker, Alysa Nahmias, Trevite Willis, Megan Gilbride and Danielle Varga served as Lead Producing Advisors for the Docu Lab, with Sarba Das, Amit Dey, Steven Berger, Orly Ravid and Annalisa Shoemaker participating as guest speakers.
Learn more about the projects supported by this year’s labs below.
FICTION
Altrove
Producer: Gabrielle Cordero
Logline: After the family breaks apart, an Italian immigrant, an Afro-Latina American woman and their 7-year-old son struggle to find a sense of home. A revealing exploration of each of their lives uncovers the depths of their regrets, fears and sorrows, as well as their journey towards acceptance.
Challenger: An American Dream
Producer: Adam Kopp
Logline: A seventeen-year-old student, who is in love with her favorite teacher, Mrs. McAuliffe, strums the right chord on her Stratocaster and enters a wormhole that takes her back in time to the night of the Challenger explosion, beginning her fantastical journey to save her teacher and prevent the disaster.
Satoshi*
Co-writer/Producer: David Rafailedes
Logline: After her family loses everything in the 2008 financial crisis, a teenage anime-obsessed hacktivist realizes money isn’t fair, so she sets out to reinvent it with a new currency called Bitcoin.
*2025 Film Independent Alfred P. Sloan Producers Grant Recipient
Trashy People
Producer: Ebony Elaine Hardin
Logline: Stripped of her future by a lost scholarship, a brilliant teen infiltrates the college system from the inside—working at the recycling center by day and crashing lectures by night—all in a desperate quest to revolutionize plastic recycling and prove she belongs.
Uncle Hiep’s Casino
Producers: Betty Hu, Rui Xu
Logline: Somewhere between his mother’s house and his uncle’s illegal casino, an ex-prisoner finds a new life.
With Your Permission
Producer: Ashim Ahuja
Logline: A dark comedy about three Iranian-American Muslim sisters navigating their relationship to intimacy when they discover their widowed mother is getting remarried, forcing them to re-examine everything they thought they knew about love, family and forgiveness.
DOCUMENTARY
Abstract
Producer: Jacob Fertig
Logline: Two searches are underway in the deserts of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands— the most surveilled border region in the world. One seeks the dead, the other stalks the living. Each pursues the migrant body beyond recognition. What is lost – ethically, emotionally, and politically – when we fail to see beyond systems of control?
Artificial Horizon
Producers: DaManuel Richardson
Logline: Artificial Horizon explores the social and natural histories of former plantation land in Alabama, an origin point for the filmmaker’s family, whose members live on either side of (and sometimes cross) the “color line.” The film examines how boundaries are inscribed and looks to plants as models for subverting systems of control.
Dear You*
Producer: Khaula Malik
Logline: After escaping an abusive marriage and fleeing to the U.S., Grace James finds herself trapped in the US asylum system for 10 years. In this poetic portrait of a woman in limbo, haunting memories begin to resurface of Grace’s past life and her disappearing homeland—the island nation of Kiribati.
*2025 MPAC Hollywood Bureau Fellowship Grant Recipient