“Parents, Inc.,” the story of a young woman dealing with parents in a post-apocalyptic world, is the winner of the latest Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, a short film contest that highlights the work of filmmakers with disabilities.
The annual challenge gives filmmakers 55 hours to make short films featuring at least one person with a disability in front of or behind the camera. This year’s films were written, shot and edited April 5-7. The awards were presented Thursday night.
The best film went to Amy Hopper for “Parents, Inc.” Best director went to Carl Hansen for “I/O.” Nicole Evans won best actor for “Human Helper” and Rachel Handler won best awareness campaign for “The Vanished.”
You can watch “Parents Inc.” above and all the other winners here.
Actor Nic Novicki founded the film challenge in 2014. When he started, only a few films were submitted. But this year’s contest had 71 entrants. Many have crews in which up to 90% of participants have disabilities.
The awards were presented by actors Micah Fowler (ABC’s “Speechless”), Geri Jewell (“Facts of Life”) and CJ Jones (“Baby Driver” and “Avatar 2”), joined Ryan O’Connell, creator and star of Netflix’s “Special,” as well as Phil Lord and Chris Miller (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “The Lego Movie,”) Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i, CBS Entertainment’s executive vice president of entertainment diversity, inclusion & communications, and Jeff Cafuir, NBCUniversal’s director of social impact.
Winners at this year’s challenge will receive mentorship from Lord and SK Global president John Penotti.
The event was held at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City.