The Academy has selected Erica Eng and July Jung as its 2023 Academy Gold Fellowship For Women recipients.
The fellowship is part of the Academy Gold global talent development and inclusion initiative and offers a one-year programme offering direct support, mentorship and access to top-level networking opportunities for emerging women filmmakers to further their careers.
Two fellowships are awards each year with a $35,000 prize for each category.
Eng and Jung will Fellows also get career advancement support through the Gold Alumni Program providing provides continued access, opportunity, professional development and education for alumni of Academy Gold programmes including Gold Rising, the Student Academy Awards and the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting.
Applicants must have gone through the Academy Gold initiative or be nominated by an Academy Gold partner company to be eligible for the US fellowship. International applicants must be recommended by a member of a key film organisation, production company or international festival.
Eng is a fifth-generation Chinese American director based in Los Angeles. Her 2021 short film Americanized screened at Newport Beach Film Festival and Cleveland International Film Festival among others, and won 25 awards including best short film at the Bentonville Film Festival.
Her latest short film Off Fairfax premiered at 2022 Tribeca Festival and received a grand jury honorable mention at Slamdance. Her next film The Ghost will premiere on Disney+ as part of Disney’s Launchpad shorts incubator programme.
Born in Yeosu, South Korea, Jung is a director and screenwriter who studied at Sungkyunkwan University and Korea National University of Arts. Her 2014 debut feature A Girl At My Door screened in 2014 Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and won awards elsewhere, including best directorial debut at the Stockholm International Film Festival.
Jung’s second feature Next Sohee produced in 2022 was the closing film of 2022 Cannes’ Critics’ Week and won best director at Fantasia International Film Festival, among others.
The other finallists for this year were Haley Anderson and Nanny director Nikyatu Jusu from the US, and international contenders Alisa Kovalenko and Rebekah Fortune.
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