Academy Gold Fellowship for Women goes to Alina Simone and Marlen Vinayo

Ukrainian-born journalist and filmmaker Alina Simone and El Salvador-based documentary director Marlén Viñayo have been chosen by the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as recipients of the 2025 Academy Gold Fellowship for Women. 

Part of the Academy’s global talent development and education work, the fellowship is a one-year programme that offers support, personalised mentorship and access to networking opportunities for emerging women filmmakers. Two fellowships are awarded annually, one to a US-based filmmaker, the other to a non-US based filmmaker. 

Simone’s debut documentary Black Snow, about pollution in a remote Russian mining town, has screened at a number of festivals and won awards including the Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight and the F:ACT Award at CPH:DOX. The film is being distributed in the US by PBS as part of the POV documentary series.

Director, writer and producer Viñayo founded the La Jaula Abierta Films production company in El Salvador. Her feature film Cachada: The Opportunity and short Unforgivable have won awards at festivals including SXSW, IDFA and Hot Docs. She was nominated for an IDA Documentary Award in 2020 and an Emmy in 2019. 

Simone and Vinayo were selected from a group of six finalists. The other finalists were Coleen Baik and Jasmín Mara López from the US, and Zaynê Akyol and Mor Israeli from other countries. 

Kim Taylor-Coleman, Academy governor and president of the Academy Foundation Board, said: “Championing and inspiring new generations of global filmmakers is core to the Academy’s mission, and we’re thrilled to continue this work through the Gold Fellowship for Women. We are incredibly grateful for the generous support of our partner Chanel, which shares our commitment to nurturing talented women filmmakers and opening doors to meaningful opportunities in the film industry.”

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