Moonshot Initiative to Premiere 5 Short Films By Women and Gender-Expansive Filmmakers

Moonshot Initiative brought together over 150 women and gender-expansive filmmakers to shoot five films in one weekend in October — and those films will premiere on Jan. 16, 2026, at a screening and reception held at SVA Theatre in Manhattan.

The films to premiere were made as part of Moonshot Initiative's Moonshot Film Challenge, the nonprofit’s signature program, which connects underrepresented filmmakers so they can create high-quality material for their reels and build a network of peers to hire, refer, and collaborate with in the future. It’s part of the organization’s larger mission of working toward gender equity in the film and TV industry.

Moonshot Initiative accepts applications from hundreds of professional filmmakers in every role of production and post-production, then selects participants with the help of industry experts. Moonshot puts together crews of all strangers who must collaborate under a time crunch. During the pre-production meeting, when crews meet for the first time, Moonshot pulls a different genre from a hat for each crew and assigns a prop that every team must incorporate.

The next weekend, the teams have just two days for production, and must edit and submit a picture-locked version of the 3- to 10-minute short by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday. The post teams have one final weekend for tweaks to color, post sound, and the score before the films are premiere-ready.

Moonshot provides cinema-quality gear and production insurance for the crews thanks to sponsors including AbelCine, Gotham Sound, Lightbulb Rentals, Cinelease, Lux Lighting, Endcrawl, Broadway Stages, and Rollin’ Studios. Moonshot partnered with HUDSY to provide this programming to Hudson Valley-based filmmakers. This program was supported by New York State Council on the Arts, Warner Media, Amplify Her Foundation and Artists Thrive.

This was Moonshot’s sixth film challenge, with four crews based in NYC and one Hudson Valley crew. Previously, Moonshot has hosted four film challenges in New York City and one in Los Angeles.

Moonshot Initiative provides year-round programming to support equity in film and TV, including its Pilot and Feature Accelerators for emerging screenwriters to pitch to HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, and more; networking mixers for folks in all roles of the industry; and virtual education opportunities. Learn more at moonshotinitiative.org or @moonshotinitiative on Instagram.