New Delhi, Apr 29 (PTI) India's Riah Taipodia and Muhammed Ashfaque are among the filmmakers shortlisted for Sony Future Filmmaker Awards 2025.

Taipodia, an animator and illustrator, has been selected in the non-fiction category for "Khiew Ranei" (Black Clay). It explores the craft of black clay pottery artisans in Larnai, Meghalaya through the eyes of 9-year-old La-ini Pyrtoh. Roilin Pyrtuh, La-ini's mother, is the village's only practitioner of the craft. The animated documentary talks about the challenges of preserving this unique art form.

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Ashfaque is a student of K R Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts. His project "URA" is in the student category and it revolves around Maria, a pregnant nun, whose unexpected arrival at isolated convent, run by a community of elderly nuns, sets of a chain of events.

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The 30 shortlisted filmmakers across four categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Animation, and Student, will get the unique opportunity to attend a four-day immersive behind-the-scenes programme at the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, which is set to take place between June 2 to June 5 this year, according to a press release.

The award ceremony will be held on June 5.

For the upcoming edition, the shortlist was made out of 11,750 films submitted by more than 7,500 filmmakers across 158 countries and territories.

In the fiction category, the names of the selected candidates are Miguel Angel Caballero and Luis Antonio Aldana for "The Ballad of Tita and the Machines" (USA), Robin Takao D'Oench for "Fireline" (USA), Ethan Evans and Jess Bartlett for "Outside Noise", Alexis Gomez for "Bumbumpapa" (Mexico) and Meng Han Hsieh and Menna Morgan for "The Test" (Taiwan).

Other names include Irene Lopez and Robin Asselmeyer for "Killing R" (Sweden) , Linda Ludwig (Germany) and James Curle (UK) for "Under the Blue", Andrew McGee's "First Sight" (UK), Rossana Montoya's "My Demon" (Colombia) and Florine and Kim Nuesch's "Marriage Unplugged" (Switzerland).

Other than Taipodia, non-fiction category includes Cesar Flores Correa's "A Field That No Longer Smells of Flowers" (Mexico), Will Hewitt and Austen McCowan's "Have You Seen The Beast?" (UK), Kieran Hodges (New Zealand) and Eduardo Vento's (Portugal) "Justice Brothers".

Juliet Klottrup for "Travelling Home" (UK), Annabel Moodie for "Friends on the Outside" (UK), Loic Niyonkuru and Floriane Kaneza's "Before 16" (Burundi), Stefan Pollak's "ALT Jay" (UK), Kirsten Slemint's "Burnt Country" (Australia), Shaquille Zaki Nathandra and Quina Qaumitaquna Mirxela's "Tanah Kitai" (Our Land) (Indonesia).

In the Animation category, the names of the shortlisted candidates are Rich Farris for "From The Top" and Leo Wright for "The Big Bad Wolf" from UK, Case Jernigan for "Noggin" (USA), Santiago O'Ryan and José Navarro (Chile) for "Hermanos Casablanca" (Casablanca Brothers) and Fadi Syriani and Jana Wehbe ,for "The Day Vladimir Died" (Lebanon).

In the Student category, the names are Luis J. Arellano for "Long Journey Till Dawn" (Mexico), Ashfaque's "URA", Gianfranco Fernandez-Ruiz and Gus Murray's "When Big People Lie" (USA), Hayder Hoozeer (UK) and Franz Bohm (Germany) for "Rock Paper Scissors" and Faith Olaewe and Doyinsola Ajayi's "Angel in the Stone" (Nigeria).

The judging panel will include filmmaker and writer Minhal Baig, president of 3000 Pictures Elizabeth Gabler, Jason Reitman and director and chair of the jury Justin Chadwick.

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