The 2026 Sony Future Filmmakers Award Discovers The Future of Film

Established by Creo, an organization that initiates and organizes events and programming across photography, film, and contemporary art, and sponsored by Sony, the Awards aim to highlight outstanding original talents and launch them directly into the heart of the film industry.

For the 2026 Sony Future Filmmakers Award, awards were given in five different categories, including Fiction, Non-Fiction, Student, Animation, and Future Format.

Winner of the Fiction Category

Deadheading, directed by UK-based filmmaker Jack Hughes, took home the award for the Fiction Category. This short film follows the story of Doreen and her husband Jim, after they discover he has only a few months left to live. 

When Doreen and her husband Jim learn he has only months left to live, his lifelong dreams of an allotment garden plot seem dashed. Determined to make him happy, Doreen sets out to discover who's ahead of them on the waitlist and to take matters into her own hands.

Winner of the Non-Fiction Category

Directed by Christine Seow of Singapore, Two Traveling Aunties is a short documentary about two Singaporean women in their fifties who embrace the freedom of "van life.”

Norah and Susie, two Singaporean women in their fifties, leave behind conventional living for "van life", embracing newfound freedom and the joy of living life on their terms. They share new adventures and quiet strength, revealing a deeper story of resilience as a queer couple in a conservative society. A tender road trip that celebrates courage, joy, and chosen love.

Winner of the Student Category

Cuban filmmaker Ana A. Alpizar took home the Student Category award for her short film Norheimsund, which follows a girl and her long-distance romance with an older Norwegian man. 

A girl's long-distance romance with an older Norwegian man promises to pull her and her mother out of their austere life in Cuba, but her dreams are shaken when she realizes he isn't as idyllic as he seems.

Winner of the Animation Category

Created by filmmakers Michelle Brendum & Ida Melum, Ovary-Acting won the Animation Category award.

While stuck at her sister's baby shower, a thirty-something woman is forced to decide whether she wants to have kids or not after unexpectedly giving birth to her reproductive organs.

Winner of the Future Format Category

And finally, for the Future Format Category, which embraces new and emerging ways to explore the cinematic arts, filmmaker Innocent Yama Lamido received an award for Creating Without Permission.

Told through restrained visuals and minimal dialogue, Creating Without Permission is a quiet observation of what happens in between moments, when emotions are felt but rarely spoken. Allowing silence, gesture, and proximity to carry meaning, the film explores a sense of environment, rhythm, and emotional truth.

Shot on Sony

Of the 30 film shortlisted for the Sony Future Filmmaker awards, Gatorville was the only project in the US/Canada group that was captured with a Sony camera. Directed by Freddie Gluck, the short doc was shot on the Sony FX9 and shortlisted for the Non-Fiction Category. 

As childhood memories are made and fade in the same instant, siblings Lily and Bodhi diverge at the dawn of a life beyond their home, a Colorado alligator sanctuary. Their bond, forged by the exotic nature of their remote high desert landscape, begins to change as Lily enters her teenage years. Searching inward, Bodhi contemplates the meaning of friendship and family beyond his reptilian counterparts.

Honoring the Shortlisted Filmmakers

While only four films received awards, the shortlisted filmmakers were chosen from an astonishing 8,400 applicants, making their selection to the shortlist an achievement in creative expression. 

Visit the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards website to see the other shortlisted films for the awards program.