Sixteen up-and-comers in the documentary field — all of whom are women, nonbinary, and/or people of color — are being honored by DOC NYC. The festival announced the honorees for its inaugural Documentary New Leaders Award, which honors individuals whose “efforts and fresh thinking on distribution, sales, festivals, and marketing bring greater inclusion and equity to the field.”

Firelight Media SVP of Programming Loira Limbal, whose 24-hour daycare doc “Through the Night” is screening at DOC NYC this year, is among the recipients. Her fellow honorees include Brown Girls Doc Mafia Founder and Director Iyabo Boyd and Disney+’s Director of Original Documentaries and Docuseries Marjon Javadi.

The Documentary New Leaders “reflect the breadth and depth of rising talent in the documentary field,” DOC NYC explains. “The list of 16 recipients draws from eight U.S. cities and covers a wide range of experience, from grassroots organizing to non-profit grantmaking to international distribution and beyond. While several honorees are filmmakers, this program highlights their leadership in roles that shape industry practices and culture.”

As part of the program, the honorees will attend monthly meetings offering “a forum for mentorship, camaraderie, collaboration, and organizing.”

Selection for the Documentary New Leaders initiative began with an open call for submissions. A six-person selection committee — which counted DOC NYC’s Opal H. Bennett, Caitlin Boyle, Raphaela Neihausen, Thom Powers, and Basil Tsiokos, and IFC Center’s Asha Phelps among its ranks — reviewed nearly 100 candidates.

Head over to DOC NYC’s website to find out more about the Documentary New Leaders. DOC NYC 2020 will be held virtually through this Thursday, November 19.