Celebrity Guests/Presenters Include Peter Farrelly, Marissa Bode, Skye P. Marshall, Jessy Yates, Jesse Metcalf, Christopher Rich & More
LOS ANGELES — May 8, 2025 — For Immediate Release — Winners of the 2025 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge (EDFC) which is celebrating 12 years of leadership in advocating for authentic storytelling and casting in the entertainment industry, will be announced at the annual orange-carpet awards ceremony to be held May 8 at Sony Pictures Studios.
Best Film presented by Sony Pictures:
Winner: Everhand – Lee Cleaveland
Best Director presented by NBCUniversal:
Winner: Everhand – Shane Hillier
Best Actor presented by IMDbPro:
Winner: Day 21 – Dashiell Meier
Best Awareness presented by Amazon MGM Studios:
Winner: Emergency Plan – Anna Pakman
Best Writer presented by Netflix:
Winner: We’ll Meet Again – Steve Way & Danny Kurtzman
Best Editor presented by Adobe Foundation:
Winner: Hypothetically, the End – Lily Drummond
CELEBRITY GUESTS/PRESENTERS: Two-time Oscar®-winning writer, producer and director Peter Farrelly (Ricky Stanicky, Loudermilk, Greenbook, Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber); Skye P. Marshall (Matlock, Good Sam, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Black Lightning); Jessy Yates (Pulse, Me) Sofiya Sanchez (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes); Marissa Bode (Wicked: For Good, Wicked); Cesily Collette Taylor (Wicked); Nik Sanchez (The Accountant 2); Jesse Metcalfe (Chesapeake Shores, Dallas, Desperate Housewives), Christopher Rich (Reba, Murphy Brown, Boston Legal); Nic Novicki (“Lego Spider-Man” in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Boardwalk Empire); Danielle Perez (The Night Agent, “Sun-Spider” in Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse, Russian Doll); Angel Giuffria (Twisted Metal); Eileen Grubba (High Potential); Jamie Brewer (American Horror Story); Tobias Forrest (FBI: Most Wanted); Emmy-winning writer and producer Greg Garcia (My Name is Earl, Raising Hope); casting director Rick Montgomery (Dumb and Dumber, Green Book); casting director Robert Ulrich (Glee, The Boys); Nicole Evans (Supers Store); Gerri Jewel (Facts of Life, Deadwood); Jackie Flynn (Loudermilk, Something About Mary), Jason Shuman (Acapulco); BJ Lange (General Hospital); Cassidy Huff (Spirit Riding Free: Riding Academy); Caley Versfelt (Good Doctor); Mia Schaikewitz & Angela Rockwood (Push Girls); Kiersten Kelly (Jurassic World: Chaos Theory) and John Lawson (Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (2023), Daruma (2023) and The Hater (2022).
The featured genre for the 2025 Challenge was “Thriller & Suspense,” which was revealed at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, with finalists to be announced May 4 at ESSC’s Autism and Disability Services location in Irvine. The Film Challenge has received more than 850 submissions since its launch, including 123 this year from nearly every state and from around the globe, including entries from Austria, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, England, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Singapore, Timor-Leste and The Netherlands.
Winners will be announced in each of the following categories: Best Film presented by Sony Pictures Entertainment, Best Director presented by NBCUniversal, Best Editor presented by Adobe, Best Actor presented by IMDbPro, Best Writer presented by Netflix and Best Awareness Campaign Award presented by Amazon MGM Studios.
Also being presented, in addition to other prizes and mentoring opportunities, will be five $5,000 seed fund/film finishing grants, provided by Adobe, to EDFC winners and five $25,000 Alumni Adobe Grants to winners from previous years, to be utilized to further develop their short film into feature films or episodic series.
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 in front of and behind the camera.
According to the CDC, 28% 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.
“We have made significant progress over the years in creating opportunities for more disability inclusion in Hollywood, but there is still much work to be done,” said Novicki, who most recently voiced Lego Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation’s award-winning film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. “I created the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge to help accelerate change and to put a spotlight on talented filmmakers and actors, providing them with an opportunity to showcase their work and be seen. We are proud of the amazing films created over the past 12 years and I am grateful that the Challenge has provided a high-profile platform that has enabled many of our participants to go on to such prominent success, most recently Nik Sanchez who landed a role in the The Accountant 2 based on his participation in last year’s competition.”
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 – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, 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, Pulse, 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.
Winners receive invaluable access to entertainment leaders and resources, opening the door to an industry notoriously difficult to enter, as well as receive 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. Alongside these grants, Adobe will also donate Creative Cloud licenses to support the winners’ film development.
Dell Technologies computers.
One-year membership to Film Independent provided by Golden Globe Foundation.
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; Steven O’Dell, President of Marketing and Distribution for Sony Pictures Releasing International; Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i, Executive Vice President, Entertainment Diversity & Inclusion, West Coast, Paramount Global; and others to be announced.
The 2025 Film Challenge was 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.
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, SAG-AFTRA, Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery.
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 makes a lasting difference each day by providing essential disability and community services to children, adults and their families. 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 (ESSC) provides essential services and on-the-ground supports to more than 25,000 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.
Learn more at: https://www.easterseals.com/southerncal
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