Cinema Femme Film Festival Announces 2026 Award Winners and Breaking Down Walls Mentorship Recipients
Chaz Ebert honors Abby Pierce’s “So Boom” with the Phenomenal Person in Film Award as the festival closes after more than 400 submissions
CHICAGO, [Oct. 13, 2026] — The Cinema Femme Film Festival wrapped its closing night awards ceremony, live-streamed to audiences in the U.S., the UK, and Poland. The festival announced its juried awards and the four filmmakers selected for its Breaking Down Walls Mentorship Program. The festival received more than 400 submissions this year, reviewed by a team of about 40 programmers.
“The community that’s been built is just amazing,” said Rebecca Martin Fagerholm, founder of Cinema Femme. “I love seeing the filmmakers talk, meet, and work on projects together. I really feel like we are making a difference in the industry.”
Chaz Ebert Phenomenal Person in Film Award
The Chaz Ebert Phenomenal Person in Film Award recognizes women and gender-expansive people in the industry. This year’s honoree is Abby Pierce, co-writer and director of “So Boom.” A jury of Sonia Evans and Lillian Calfee selected the film.
Ebert, who attended the ceremony, said the jury found the film “energetic,” “funny,” and “relatable,” with an unexpected twist. She added that it embodies her FECK principles: forgiveness, empathy, compassion, and kindness. As part of the award, Pierce will receive a copy of Ebert’s book, a conversation with Ebert, and an interview in Cinema Femme magazine’s print and digital issues.
Pierce was unable to attend because she was hosting a performance with the incarcerated young people she teaches improv to. In a statement read at the ceremony, she said: “One of the reasons I became a filmmaker was to share their voices in places they cannot be, and that’s a superpower of film.”
Halyna Hutchins Producer Award
Named for the late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, whose work Cinema Femme has long covered, this award honors producers who build safe sets. Festival filmmakers submitted letters nominating their producers. The winner are the producers of “Peppermint Pixie Dream Girl,” Destiny Greer and Liz Davis. Accepting on behalf of the producing team, Greer said that viewers of the film “will understand the amount of layers that went into making it a safe set.”
Juried Craft Awards
The following awards were chosen by the festival’s Chicago community jury:
- Best Performance: Iryna Ostrovska, “Black Shawl“
- Best Cinematography: Lesbian Ditch Day, selected by Chicago-based director of photography Jessica Tolliver
- Best Editing: “reTired”
- Best Sound: “Stretch,” directed by Emma DuVall and Skyler Verity, with a score by Veritey
- Best Film: “Black Shawl”
Breaking Down Walls Mentorship Program
Founded alongside the festival and inspired by Oscar-winning production designer Hannah Beachler’s call to “break down walls and redesign the institutions,” the program pairs emerging filmmakers with established industry professionals for a three-month mentorship, January through March, in person or virtual. This year’s pairings:
| Mentee | Film | Mentor |
|---|---|---|
| Abby Pierce | So Boom | Tara Sheffer |
| Juliette Strangio | Learning to Eat Cake | Gabriela Ortega |
| Emma DuVall | Stretch | Angie Gaffney |
| Olivia Cade | Lesbian Ditch Day | Megan Seely |
Winners will receive digital laurels for promotion, and the festival will continue to share coverage of the honorees.
About Cinema Femme
Cinema Femme began in 2018 as a magazine and grew into a film festival, which launched virtually in 2020. Its mission is to break down walls for women and gender-expansive filmmakers through coverage, screenings, community, and mentorship.
