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UFO Announces Spring, 2025 Short Film Lab Cohort
#image_title UFO (Untitled Filmmaker Org) announced today the three new filmmakers comprising its 2025 Short Film Lab cohort. Selected filmmakers Daisy Friedman, Carin Leong (a Filmmaker 2025 25 New Face), and Emilio Subía will begin the Lab experience this month as they develop new scripted (Friedman and Subía) and nonfiction (Leong) projects.
Filmmakers Emily May Jampel, Arielle Knight, and Samuel Wright Smith from the second Short Film Lab cohort announced last spring will continue in the program through December to develop their second projects engaging scripted narrative, hybrid nonfiction, and animation, in keeping with the Lab’s staggered enrollment model.
The UFO Short Film Lab is an 18-month program designed to help early-career directors advance and refine their voice and craft, while receiving project financial support, mentorship, and professional development to produce two original short film projects in a collaborative community.
Each filmmaker is provided with $10,000 in unrestricted funding for each of their two UFO short film projects. In total, UFO will distribute $60,000 this year to support short film productions between May and December 2025. Beyond direct financial support, UFO secures in-kind production/consultation services on behalf of participating filmmakers. Filmmakers receive access to impact strategy and participant care consultation from Peace is Loud, in-kind lens rentals sponsored by Zeiss, and in-kind color grading and finishing services from Away Team, the boutique company helmed by renowned color scientist CJ Julian.
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) continues to provide core support as home base of the Short Film Lab, including hosting the Lab’s weekly in-person workshops, editing workspaces, and community screenings. The Short Film Lab has also engaged an ever-growing network of esteemed industry professionals as guest mentors. Featured guests in the last Short Film Lab cycle included Jomo Fray (director of photography, Nickel Boys); Bing Liu (director, Minding the Gap); Ekwa Msangi (director, Farewell Amor); Mollye Asher (producer, Nomadland); and Sabine Hoffman (editor, A Thousand And One).
Speaking to this cycle’s competitive selection process, UFO co-directors, Martha Gregory, Arno Mokros, and Sean Weiner said in a press release: “We once again received a significant response from many qualified candidates to our call for applications for the Short Film Lab. Daisy, Carin, and Emilio’s proposed projects deeply resonated with our team and selection committee due to their timely nature, and we’re excited to invest in the development of each of these talented filmmakers. We are equally delighted that they will build a community and collaborate closely in weekly workshops with current fellows, Emily, Arielle, and Sam.”
Find the list of the selected filmmakers below, including bios, project loglines, and social media.
DAISY FRIEDMAN (she/her)
Daisy Friedman is a writer and director based in New York City. As a multi-organ transplant recipient, she creates work that explores the intersections of tradition, intimacy, embodiment, and disability. Her short film Unholy (2024) premiered at Sundance 2025 before screening at SXSW. Her previous short, As You Are (2023), won multiple awards, including the U.S. Narrative Short Grand Jury Prize Special Mention at Outfest 2023 and the NewFest35 Emerging Filmmaker Award. Daisy’s work has been featured in Deadline, Variety, The Advocate, and Out Magazine. She is currently a Winter/Spring resident at the Woodward Artist Residency in Queens. She received the 2023 Colin Higgins Youth Foundation Grant. She is a graduate of Barnard College’s Film Studies program.
Project: In Please Be Gentle, a scripted narrative short, Stella, a disabled 20-year-old, suffers a sex injury during a casual hookup and must confront the failures of the medical system while waiting for care in the emergency room.
Instagram: @daisyfriedman_
CARIN LEONG (she/her)
Carin Leong is a Singaporean documentary filmmaker and multimedia journalist based in New York. Her work explores themes of science, cultural memory, and landscapes. Her documentary Sandcastles (distributed by Field of Vision) was selected for IF/Then SEA, jointly organized by the Tribeca Film Institute and IN-DOCS in 2020, and premiered at SXSW in 2024 before screening at festivals including Hot Docs, AFI, and the New Orleans Film Festival, among others. Her 2018 film Canciones de Memoriaspremiered at the Singapore International Film Festival. Her work has been featured in Scientific American, Hakai Magazine, and The Atlantic. In 2024, she was recognized by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film.
Project: Untitled Ultrasound Heartbeat Film is an essayistic documentary exploring the limits and ethics of ultrasound technology, its role in shaping public perception of pregnancy, and how the “fetal heartbeat” became a site of contested meaning scientifically, politically, and emotionally.
Instagram: @carinleong
EMILIO SUBIA (he/him)
Emilio Subía is a multifaceted filmmaker from Ecuador whose work spans fiction and documentary, often exploring themes of identity, sexuality, immigration, and family dynamics. He was the cinematographer for Ciudad a la Espalda (2023), which premiered at the Guadalajara International Film Festival and received the Socio-Environmental Award. As an editor, his work has earned a Telly Award, a Webby Award, and a Vimeo Staff Pick. His directorial debut, Ñaños (2022), premiered at the Tribeca Festival and has since screened and won awards at festivals across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. In 2023, he was awarded the Colin Higgins Youth Filmmaker Grant. He has also been a finalist for the Ida B. Wells Disrupting the Narrative Fund and a recipient of the NALIP Emerging Creators Scholarship.
Project: El retorno de Óscar Saquicela is a darkly humorous family drama about a middle-aged father who, after being deported from the U.S., returns to Ecuador expecting a hero’s welcome—only to find himself an awkward, unwanted guest in his own home.
Instagram: @emiliosubia
About UFO
Guided by a culture of care, UFO gives time, space, and money to filmmakers at under-resourced career stages. Through filmmaker support programs that emphasize in-person, inclusive community-building, UFO creates opportunities for filmmakers from wide-ranging, intersectional backgrounds to develop and produce uncompromising, boundary-pushing films. In coalition with partner organizations, UFO helps build a more equitable, sustainable, and interdependent film ecosystem.
UFO’s work is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, as well as generous support from corporate sponsors, foundations, and individual donors. For more information or to get involved, please visit untitledfilmmaker.org or email team@ufo-films.org
