Film Independent has selected its recipients for its fifth annual Amplifier Fellowship, TheWrap can exclusively reveal.

The six recipients chosen for the fellowship program include writer/director Akil Rashad Anderson, director/producer Aurora Brachman, producer Claire Brooks, writer/director A. Sayeeda Moreno, writer/director Philip Thompson and director/producer Thanh Tran.

As recipients pursue their feature projects (details below), each Amplifier fellow will receive a $30,000 unrestricted grant and participate in a 12-month program that provides creative and strategic support, including mentorship from industry advisors and a Film Independent Board member.

In addition to the grant, which is supported by founding sponsor Netflix and its fund for creative equity, fellows will also receive professional coaching in partnership with Renee Freedman & Co., as well as financial and business advisement in partnership with the Jill James.

“We are thrilled to partner with Netflix for a fifth year to support this incredibly talented cohort of filmmakers across fiction and non-fiction in our 2026 Amplifier Fellowship and provide the crucial granting, resources and community for these artists to thrive as both artists and entrepreneurs,” said Angela C. Lee, Film Independent’s director of artist development.

Past Amplifier fellows include J.M. Harper, whose film “Soul Patrol” won the U.S. documentary directing award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; Contessa Gayles, whose project, “Songs From the Hole,” won the 2025 Cinema Eye Honors Heterodox Award; and David Fortune, whose project “Colorbook” received a 2025 NAACP Image Award nomination.

See details on the six recipients and their feature projects, below:

Akil Rashad Anderson, Writer/Director

Project: “Mr. Negro” (Fiction Feature)
Logline: An elderly man discovers his deadbeat son transformed into an otherworldly creature, triggering a nightmarish odyssey in search of a cure for his ghastly baby boy.

Aurora Brachman, Director/Producer

Project: “Dear You” (Nonfiction Feature)
Logline: After escaping an abusive marriage and fleeing to the US, Grace James finds herself trapped in the US asylum system for 10 years.

Claire Brooks, Producer

Project: “The Presser” (Fiction Feature)
Logline: When a small-town business owner rents his store to a local politician, he lands himself and his employees at the center of a media circus.

A. Sayeeda Moreno, Writer/Director

Project: “Out in the Dunes” (Fiction Feature)
Logline: Provincetown/1992: In this summer romance, Soledad, a heartbroken romantic, starts a passionate affair with Jules, a butch lesbian artist who challenges her belief in love.

Philip Thompson, Writer/Director

Project: “Dance Monkey Dance” (Fiction Feature)
Logline: A fictional found-footage documentary tracing a Black comedian whose success catering to white audiences erodes his identity and reveals fame as a form of control.

Thanh Tran, Director/Producer

Project: “Finding Má” (Nonfiction Feature)
Logline: After decades apart, an Amerasian Vietnamese and Black family separated by foster care and prison reunite to heal, beginning with searching for their unhoused mother.