For Immediate Release

Easterseals Disability Film Challenge Celebrates 12 Years of Advocacy for Disability Inclusion

Announces 10 Adobe Seed Fund/Film Finishing Grants

LOS ANGELES, CA, January 24, 2025

Media Contact:
Vicki Greenleaf
vicki@greenleafandassociates.com
323-573-5111

Celebrating 12 years of leadership advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion in the entertainment industry, the 2025 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge (EDFC) opens Jan. 25, with the competition to be held April 1-6. The awards ceremony will be held May 8 at Sony Pictures Studios.

Once again this year—in addition to the traditional Film Challenge awards of cash, goods, subscriptions, mentorships and screening opportunities—the EDFC will be awarding seed fund/film finishing grants. Made possible by a grant provided by Adobe, as part of the Adobe Film & TV Fund, the EDFC grants are presented for use in further developing the awardee’s submitted short film and/or to accelerate the development of their projects into feature films or episodic series. 

Five 2025 Film Challenge winners—in the categories of Best Film, Best Director, Best Writer, Best Actor and Best Editor—will automatically receive a $5,000 grant. Additionally, five grants of $25,000 will also be made available to all past EDFC participants who may submit their previous Film Challenge submissions for consideration by a review committee, with winners announced at this year’s EDFC awards ceremony. The grant will also fund EDFC workshops and other activities throughout the year.

The 12^th annual Film Challenge was once again officially launched during this year’s Sundance Film Festival by actor, comedian, producer and disability advocate Nic Novicki, a board member of Easterseals Southern California and founder and director of the Film Challenge. Novicki announced the 2025 competition’s genre of “Thriller & Suspense” during the panel Reimagining Hollywood: A New Lens on Disability Inclusion, presented by Easterseals Disability Services.

Since the Film Challenge was launched in 2013, aspiring filmmakers have created and submitted more than 750 short films (a record 135 last year) from nearly every state and from around the globe, including submissions from Austria, Bolivia, Canada, England, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Singapore, Timor-Leste and The Netherlands. 

According to the CDC, 25% of U.S. residents, more than 70 million people, have a disability, making it today’s largest minority population. Yet, according to a study released last summer by USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, the number of speaking characters with a disability in a major film was just 1.9% in 2022¹. GLAAD also published a report in 2022 which found that only 2.8% of series regulars on primetime broadcast TV (22 of 775) were characters with disabilities². And per the most-recent Ruderman Family Foundation study, about 95% of characters with disabilities in Hollywood’s top films and TV shows are played by able-bodied actors³.

“Disability continues to be frequently overlooked in discussions,” said Novicki, who recently voiced Lego Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation’s award-winning film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. “As the entertainment industry continues to strive to build a more diverse and inclusive workplace, we must continue to keep disability in the conversation. We are honored to be a resource to Hollywood for talent with disabilities and appreciate the industry’s long-standing support of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. That support has enabled us to be able to showcase outstanding new talent and provide educational workshops throughout the year.  These opportunities have led participants from across the country and around the world to prominent success in front of and behind the camera.”

Previous Film Challenge winners and participants have gone on to land roles or direct segments of such popular films and TV shows as The Accountant 2, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, New Amsterdam, Superstore, The Good Doctor, Loudermilk, Dahmer, The Handmaid’s Tale, Marry Me, Moxie, Special, Good Trouble, Curb Your Enthusiasm, One Day at a Time, Dollface, So Help Me Todd, NCIS: Origins, NCIS: Hawai’i, NCIS: New Orleans, Dragons: The Nine Realms, Pupstruction, Not Quite Narwhal, Interview With the Vampire, Best Foot Forward, As We See It, Growing Up and Lucky Hank, among others. Additionally, Challenge films have gone on to win awards at an array of other film festivals; participants have earned accolades and grants from prestigious organizations around the world (including admission to the Sony Pictures Television Diverse Directors Program and being presented the AT&T Underrepresented Award), given Ted Talks; and lectured about the experience at Harvard. 

During the Film Challenge, registered filmmakers are given a span of five days over the designated timeframe to write and produce short films (one-to-five minutes), based on the year’s announced genre, which promote disability inclusion. Submitted films are judged in six award categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Writer, Best Editor and Best Awareness Campaign.

Winners receive invaluable access to entertainment leaders and resources, opening the door to an industry notoriously difficult to enter, as well receive as a variety of prizes to help them achieve their career goals, including:

• $2,000 cash prize awards to each winner.
• $5,000 seed fund/film finishing grant provided by Adobe to winners of Best Film, Best Director, Best Writer, Best Actor and Best Editor to further develop the winning short film and/or to accelerate the development of their projects into feature films or episodic series. 
• Dell Technologies computers.
• One-year premium membership to IMDbPro, the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals.  IMDbPro empowers professionals to choose whether to self-identify as a member of the disability community and manage the display of this information on their IMDb and IMDbPro name pages and in IMDbPro search results. IMDbPro worked closely with ESSC and other organizations to develop this feature, which is intended to support talent, particularly from under-represented communities, looking to be discovered and advance their careers; and makes it easier for industry decision-makers to find historically excluded cast and crew to hire and for collaboration.
• Screenings at Academy Award-qualifying festivals, including the Heartland Film Festival and HollyShorts Film Festival.
• Mentorship meetings with entertainment industry executives and talent, including Robert Baltazar, Vice President, TV Programming DEI for NBCUniversal; Ivana Lombardi, Director of Film, Netflix; Karen Noble, Director, Filmmaker & Content Strategies, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group; Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i, Executive Vice President, Entertainment Diversity & Inclusion, West Coast, Paramount Global; and others to be announced.

The 2025 Film Challenge will be judged by a diverse group of influential entertainment industry talent, including: Nicole Castro, Managing Director, Hollyshorts Film Festival; director Kat Coiro (She Hulk, Dead to Me, Marry Me); Jerome Core, head of Inclusive Content for Amazon MGM Studios & Prime Video; director and activist Jenni Gold (CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion); Tim Gray, Executive Vice President of the Golden Globes;  Stacey Wilson Hunt, Contributing Editor, The Hollywood Reporter; Andraéa LaVant, disability inclusion expert and founder of LaVant Consulting; filmmaker and activist Jim LeBrecht (Crip Cramp, Battlefield Earth, Pitch Black); model/actress Jillian Mercado (The L Word: Generation Q); IMDb Founder & Executive Chair Col Needham; three-time Emmy nominated journalist Allison Norlian; actor Mark Povinelli, President, Little People of America; journalist Richard Propes, The Independent Critic; journalist Cara Reedy (CNN, NPR, The Guardian); Gil Robertson, President, African-American Film Critics Association; actor, dancer and Deaf advocate Shaheem Sanchez (Sound of Metal); journalist Lindzi Scharf (Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, WWD); producer and entertainment executive  Annalisa Shoemaker; Film Independent Nominations Director Jennifer Wilson; actor and comedian Danny Woodburn (Mirror Mirror, Jingle All the Way, Seinfeld); and others to be announced.

For rules + regulations and to register: www.DisabilityFilmChallenge.com 

Questions?  Email us at:  Info@DisabilityFilmChallenge.com

The Easterseals Disability Film Challenge is made possible by the generosity of its supporters: Adobe, Amazon MGM Studios, Dell Technologies, Golden Globe Foundation, IMDbPro, Intel Corporation, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures Entertainment and The Walt Disney Studios.

About the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge: 

As someone with a disability, actor, comedian and producer Nic Novicki launched the Disability Film Challenge in 2013 in response to the under-representation of talent with disabilities both in front of and behind the camera. Novicki created the challenge to give aspiring filmmakers the opportunity to showcase their work and provide them with meaningful exposure. In 2017, Novicki joined forces with Easterseals Southern California – the nation’s leading nonprofit supporting people and families with disabilities – to expand the event, now known as the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. Learn more at www.DisabilityFilmChallenge.com

About Easterseals Southern California: 

Easterseals is leading the way to full equity, inclusion and access through life-changing disability and community services. For more than 100 years, we have worked tirelessly with our partners to enhance quality of life and expand local access to healthcare, education and employment opportunities. Easterseals Southern California provides essential services and on-the-ground supports to more than 19,000 people each year—from early childhood programs for the critical first five years, to autism services, daily and independent living services for adults, employment programs and more. Our public education, policy and advocacy initiatives positively shape perceptions and address the urgent and evolving needs of the one in four Americans with disabilities today. Together, we’re empowering people with disabilities, families and communities to be full and equal participants in society.

Learn more at:  https://www.easterseals.com/southerncal

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Join the Inclusion Conversation …

www.DisabilityFilmChallenge.com

Facebook:  Facebook.com/DisabilityFilmChallenge

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/disabilitychall

IG:  https://www.instagram.com/disabilityfilmchallenge

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd0PQTVAsQpJCPOm4_QYqqQ

Sources:

³ Ruderman White Paper: On Employment of Actors with Disabilities in Television