EXCLUSIVE: NewFilmmakers Los Angeles has revealed the winners of its 14th Annual Best of NFMLA Awards, honoring “some of the most exciting emerging voices in independent cinema today.”
Nani Sahra Walker earned the 2026 Best New Filmmaker Award, which comes with the $2,500 Anthony Rhulen Grant (awarded in memory of the film producer known for The Butterfly Effect and Lucky Number Slevin). Walker received the honor for her narrative feature debut, Shakti, which celebrated its Los Angeles premiere through NFMLA.
Shakti, about a single mother “drawn into Kathmandu’s supernatural underworld of shamans and secrets” after her mischievous daughter falls
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