Yale in Hollywood has announced Jennifer Beals and Roshan Sethi as the winners of its 6th annual virtual film festival, which will be held from December 4th to 6th.
Beals will receive the festival’s 2025 Career Achievement Award, and Sethi will receive the Queer Voice Award. Both winners will receive their awards during a livestream of the Yale in Hollywood Fest 2025 Awards on December 6th.
The career achievement award has previously been presented to actor CS Lee and television creator Justin Noble. The Queer Voices Awards were founded in 2024 by judge and 2023 Fest Award winner Justin Noble.
Beals executive produced and starred in “The L Word: Generation Q,” the Showtime revival of the original hit series. For her portrayal of Bette Porter, she received a GLAAD Golden Gate Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and one Satellite Award nomination. In 2012, she received the Human Rights Campaign’s Ally for Equality Award for her advocacy work for the LGBTQ+ community. Beals is also an executive producer on Freeform’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, along with The L Word creator Irene Chaiken. In 2024, she launched Run-A-Muck with Chaiken, a cross-platform queer media brand producing content across film, television, and live events.
Sethi, a writer, director, and practicing oncologist, is known for co-creating Fox’s medical drama “The Resident.” He directed the Independent Spirit Award-winning film 7 Days, Disney Plus’s World’s Best, A Nice Indian Boy, and co-wrote Call Jane.
The three-day festival lineup includes short films and livestream events, and all programs will be streamed for free worldwide on yihfest.com from December 4th to December 7th.
VEEEU will award two $500 prizes to contest winners selected by festival judges. Story-boards.ai, a Swiss AI storyboard software company, is sponsoring three one-year subscription prizes to contest winners.
Yale in Hollywood Fest features films in which at least one Yale student, alumni, or current employee plays a key creative role. The organization is led by founder Kevin Winston, with Melissa Dawn Johnson and Quentin Lee serving as the festival’s founding programmer and director, respectively.
Past Ale in Hollywood Fest winners include Oscar nominee Lee Isaac Chung, Robin Lee, Justin Noble, Corey Finley, Kahlil Greene, C.S. Lee and more.
