Ten filmmakers are about to find out if a 12-week intensive can bridge the gap between creative potential and industry longevity. The Transgender Film Center (TFC) has officially revealed the 10 fellows selected for its 2025-26 Career Development Lab, a program designed to move beyond the typical "mentorship" model and into the mechanics of deal-making and professional sustainability.

This is the second year of the program, which is funded by Netflix. For the participants, the stakes are specific: they are looking to transition from independent projects to durable, career-defining roles in a film and television landscape that remains notoriously difficult for trans creators to penetrate at scale.

The Business of Access

The Lab is not a workshop in the traditional sense. Over the course of 12 weeks, the cohort participated in a hybrid curriculum of in-person sessions in Los Angeles and virtual workshops. The focus was on the "how-to" of the industry—navigating the festival circuit, pitching to executives, and understanding the nuances of representation.

"Our mission is to help more transgender professionals build durable careers in film and television — because that’s how more trans-made stories reach audiences at scale," said Sav Rodgers, Executive Director of the Transgender Film Center. The program’s rigor is underscored by a $15,000 honorarium provided to each fellow, a move intended to remove the financial barrier that often prevents working artists from taking time away from other employment to focus on professional development.

Bridging the Gap

The cohort includes a mix of writers, directors, and performers, ranging from those developing debut features to those already working within writers' rooms. The curriculum featured direct access to industry veterans, including Lilly Wachowski and Mark Duplass, and included a behind-the-scenes look at the Tribeca Film Festival.

As the fellows graduate, they are tasked with executing a 90-day roadmap designed to translate their lab experience into concrete professional progress. For many, the goal is securing representation or moving their current scripts from development into production.

The 2025-26 Fellows

The selected artists represent a broad spectrum of genre and narrative focus:

  • Stella Alfjaro: Developing her debut narrative feature through Moodrealm Films.
  • Dusty Austen: A director and VFX artist currently completing the horror-sci-fi feature Fiber Burn.
  • Betti: An actor and writer currently securing a premiere for her project Mones.
  • Gugu Issa: A writer-director developing the coming-of-age feature Khutbah with support from the Sundance Institute.
  • Ocean Vashti Jude: A writer-director expanding from independent drama into television directing.
  • Eva Reign: A writer focused on coming-of-age stories, currently working toward her first feature film.
  • Chris Renfro: An animator and performer currently pitching their first television series.
  • James Tom: A stand-up comic scripting a trans-masculine buddy comedy.
  • Jess Waters: A writer-director and current writers' room PA working toward industry representation.
  • Riley Westling: A writer and development executive expanding their work into feature film and original television.

Key Takeaways

  • Industry-Facing Focus: The TFC Lab prioritizes professional strategy and direct access to showrunners and agents over purely creative development.
  • Financial Support: Each of the 10 fellows receives a $15,000 honorarium to facilitate their participation, acknowledging the economic realities of early-career filmmaking.
  • Concrete Outcomes: The program concludes with a 90-day roadmap for each fellow, shifting the focus from the lab environment to post-graduation career momentum.

The true measure of the program’s success will not be found in the graduation ceremony, but in the months that follow. With the 90-day roadmaps now in hand, the next phase for these 10 creators is the transition from the lab to the writers' room and the production office. The industry will be watching to see which of these projects secures the financing and distribution necessary to reach a wider audience.