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    Shaka King Named Spirit Awards’ Honorary Chair; Grant Winners Unveiled

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments2837 Views
    Director Shaka King (l) and Daniel Kaluuya on the set of “Judas and the Black Messiah.” (photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
    LOS ANGELES --

    Film Independent has named filmmaker Shaka King (Judas and the Black Messiah) as its Honorary Chair at the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards. In this capacity, King helped announce the winners of three unrestricted $25,000 Spirit Awards cash grants–$75,000 total, provided by Spirit Awards premier sponsor Genesis Motor North America–given to emerging filmmakers: the Someone To Watch Award, the Producers Award and the Truer Than Fiction Award.

    Ekwa Msangi, director of Farewell Amor, received the Someone to Watch Award. The award recognizes talented filmmakers of singular vision who have not yet received appropriate recognition. The award is in its 27th year and includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant. Finalists for the award were David Midell, director of The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain, and Annie Silverstein, director of Bull.

    Gerry Kim received the Producers Award. The award honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films. The annual award, in its 24th year, includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant. Finalists for the award were Kara Durrett and Lucas Joaquin.

    Elegance Bratton, director of Pier Kids, received the Truer Than Fiction Award. The award is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award is in its 26th year and includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant. Finalists for the award were Cecilia Aldarondo, director of Landfall, and Elizabeth Lo, director of Stray.

    “Shaka King electrified audiences this year with his tour de force film Judas and the Black Messiah. As a director who won the Someone to Watch Award only a few years ago, we can’t think of a better person to serve as our Honorary Chair at this year’s Spirit Awards,”  said Film Independent president Josh Welsh. “With the Spirit Award grants, we celebrate the most talented emerging writers, producers and directors, working today in fiction as well as non-fiction, and are deeply grateful to Genesis for their generous support.”

    King previously won the Someone To Watch Award in 2014 for the film Newlyweeds and announced the 2021 recipients alongside two other prior Spirit Award grant winners: Mel Eslyn (2016 Producers Award) and Nanfu Wang (2017 Truer Than Fiction Award.)

    Past Honorary Chairs include Lena Waithe, Ava DuVernay, Jessica Chastain, Ang Lee, David Oyelowo, Jodie Foster, Javier Bardem, Kerry Washington, Tom Cruise, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore, among others. Previous Spirit Award Grant Award winners include Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Effie T. Brown, Elizabeth Chai Vaserhelyi, Karin Chien, Justin Chon, Larry Fessenden, Debra Granik, Bing Liu, Lynn Shelton, Chloe Zhaó and Kelly Reichardt.

    Winners for the remaining categories will be revealed at the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards, hosted by SNL’s Melissa Villaseñor and airing exclisively on IFC and AMC+ on Thursday, April 22. The Spirit Awards are the primary fundraiser for Film Independent’s year-round programs, which cultivate the careers of emerging filmmakers and promote diversity in the industry. 

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    Category:News
    Tags:Film Independent Spirit AwardsShaka King



    A New Mexico Judge Ordered New Child Safeguards For Meta. Advocates Hope Other Courts Follow

    Saturday, August 8, 2026

    In a landmark ruling against Meta, a New Mexico judge likened the company's social media platforms to factories. The psychological harm to children who use Facebook and Instagram, he said, can be seen as their pollution.

    Judge Bryan Biedscheid fined the company $567 million in his ruling Thursday, but he also prescribed steps to clean up what he described as its byproducts. He ordered new safety measures, including a time limit of 90 hours per month for users under 18, AI chatbot restrictions, and mandatory warnings on the platforms.

    How easily those features can be implemented, and how effective they could be at protecting young users from mental health harms, are unresolved questions. They also would apply only to children in New Mexico, Meta has no deadline to introduce them, and the company has said it will appeal the ruling.

    But the judge's order showed a possible path forward for other court fights around the country as Meta faces mounting legal, regulatory and public pressure to do more to protect young people.

    The ruling came in the second phase of a trial in a lawsuit the state of New Mexico filed against the social media giant. The new financial penalty is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March after determining the company knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

    Meta said in a statement Thursday that it works to keep people safe on its platforms and has been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content.

    "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent... Read More

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