Academy Members 2026

This year, let’s celebrate Film Fatales members who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose overall membership is now approaching 36% women and 25% from underrepresented communities with plenty of room to grow. Let’s give it up for:

Amber Fares
Documentary
Amber Fares is an award-winning documentary filmmaker best known for Speed Sisters, which premiered at Hot Docs and streamed internationally on Netflix. Her recent work includes We Are Ayenda, Gutsy for Apple TV+, Convergence: Courage Under Crisis, and Reckoning with Laughter. She is a Sundance Momentum Fellow based in New York.

Julia Solomonoff
Director
Julia Solomonoff is an Argentine filmmaker based in New York. Her feature films include Hermanas, The Last Summer of La Boyita, and Nobody’s Watching, winner of Best Actor at the 2017 Tribeca Festival and a New York Times Critic’s Pick. She has also produced acclaimed films including Zama and teaches directing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Kryzz Gautier
Short Films
Kryzz Gautier is a Dominican-born, Afro-Latina writer and director working across film, television, and video games. She has written for HBO, developed projects with major studios, and is attached to direct multiple feature films. She is an alum of programs including Sundance, The Black List, and the DGA Director’s Fellowship.

Marcia Rock
Documentary
Marcia Rock is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work explores women’s issues, veterans’ stories, and international affairs. Her films include Service: When Women Come Marching Home, Daughters of the Troubles: Belfast Stories, and McSorley’s New York. She is also Director of News and Documentary at NYU’s Carter Journalism Institute.

Rea Tajiri
Documentary
Rea Tajiri is an award-winning filmmaker and visual artist whose work explores memory, family, and history. Her films have screened internationally, and her acclaimed short History and Memory is part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. She is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University.

Sara Khaki
Documentary
Sara Khaki is a documentary director, producer, and editor dedicated to telling stories that promote gender equity. Her feature documentary Cutting Through Rocks won the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Audience Award at Visions du Réel. Her work has been praised for its intimate, character-driven storytelling.

Shalini Kantayya
Documentary
Emmy-nominated filmmaker Shalini Kantayya creates documentaries exploring technology, science, and social justice. Her acclaimed features include Coded Bias, which premiered at Sundance before streaming on Netflix, and TikTok, Boom., which premiered at Sundance in 2022. Her debut feature, Catching the Sun, was executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Tamika Lamison
Short Films
Tamika Lamison is an award-winning writer, director, producer, and founder of the Make a Film Foundation. Her credits include Last Life, Ferguson Rises, Spin, and Hope & Monogamy. She also helped develop the Academy Gold program and the DGA’s Commercial Directors Diversity Program.

Vea Mafile’o
Short Films
Vea Mafile’o is a Tongan filmmaker and CEO of Taro Patch dedicated to Indigenous and Pacific storytelling. She became the first Pacific woman to direct a New Zealand primetime drama with The Panthers and earned recognition at Sundance in 2024 for her dramatic short film. She also co-founded Malosi Pictures and the Nuku’alofa and ʻOkalani Film Festivals.