Caroline Friend and Zenzele Niambi Ojore are the winners of the fifth annual Horizon Award, a press release announced. Their self-directed short films were chosen from over 400 submissions. Given in recognition of emerging female filmmakers, the Horizon Award includes grants and mentorship.
Comprised of industry execs, actors, and directors, this year’s judges included “Serenity” star Anne Hathaway, “Mudbound” director Dee Rees, and “Miss Bala” helmer Catherine Hardwicke. Judges compiled a list of their favorite submissions, and the final two filmmakers were decided by Horizon Award co-founders Cassian Elwes, Lynette Howell Taylor, and Christine Vachon, and Sundance Feature Film Director Michelle Satter.
Both Friend and Ojore had submitted to the Horizon Award three times previously. The former’s short, “Under Darkness,” tells the story of a female World War II photographer and soldier, and the latter’s, “The South is My Sister’s Skin” is inspired by the spirit of the American south. Friend is a graduate of USC, where she received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Ojore screened her first short, “Drop,” at SXSW 2013.
Check out bios for the winners below, courtesy of the Horizon Awards.
Zenzele Niambi Ojore
Official Title: The South is My Sister’s Skin
School: Rhode Island School of Design – Class of 2018
Bio: Zenzele Ojore is a writer/director and interdisciplinary artist. While studying photography and film at the Rhode Island School of Design, she traveled to Chile with Adobe to capture a story on the melting glaciers of Patagonia, and received a fellowship to work on a photo series in the Southwest section of Uganda titled “The Buhoma Side of Bwindi”. Zenzele screened her first short film at the 2013 SXSW film festival in Austin; raised in Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia her work is inspired by the eccentric spirit of the American South.
Caroline Friend
Official Title: Under Darkness
School: USC – Class of 2016
Bio: Caroline is a filmmaker with a passion for bringing the past to life through writing and directing. She is a recent graduate from the University of Southern California where she majored in Film & TV Production, as well as History. While at USC, she was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant to write and direct Under Darkness, a short film about a female World War II photographer and soldier. Caroline has directed other projects in collaboration with the USC History Department and Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, and her work has been screened at film festivals internationally. She currently lives in Los Angeles and continues to seek meaningful historical content to bring to the screen.
