Masami Kawai Selected as the 2026 Merata Mita Fellow; Isabella Madrigal and Tsanavi Spoonhunter Named 2026 Graton Fellows During Native Forum Celebration in Park City
PARK CITY, UTAH, January 24, 2026 – Today the nonprofit Sundance Institute celebrated the filmmakers selected for the 2026 Merata Mita Fellowship and the Graton Fellowship. The fellows were announced at the Sundance Film Festival’s Native Forum Celebration presented by Merrell during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. The Merata Mita Fellowship is given each year to an Indigenous woman-identified artist looking to direct a feature film, and it is named after late Māori filmmaker Merata Mita. This year’s Merata Mita fellow is Masami Kawai (Ryukyuan). The Graton Fellowship, now in its third year, provides support to Indigenous storytellers from California-based tribes. This year’s Graton fellows are Isabella Madrigal (Cahuilla, Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) and Tsanavi Spoonhunter (Northern Arapaho and Northern Paiute).
“The Indigenous Program is excited to be supporting Masami, Isabella, and Tsanavi and their respective films. Their work spans many different formal approaches, and both the Merata Mita and Graton Fellowships have generously allowed our program to expand the way in which we are able to increase the ways in which we meet these artists and their projects where they’re at and to help them step up to their next phases of production. They have been catalytic to this new era of Indigenous Cinema,” said Adam Piron, Director, Sundance Institute Indigenous Program.
Merata Mita fellow Masami Kawai is a Los Angeles–born, Oregon-based filmmaker. She’s of Ryukyuan descent from the island of Amami. Her work, which integrates issues of race, class, and Indigeneity in the United States, has screened globally. She was a 2023 Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Lab fellow.
“It’s a tremendous honor to receive the Merata Mita Fellowship. Mita’s life and work give me the courage to be the kind of filmmaker I am. She has paved a path that shows I can simultaneously be a filmmaker, educator, and mother, with each role enriching the others, making me a more engaged artist,” said Masami Kawai. “I am also inspired by Mita’s mentorship of Indigenous filmmakers at Sundance, which has helped the diaspora reconnect with their Indigeneity and fostered a vibrant global Indigenous community that I am eager to contribute to.”
The groundbreaking Merata Mita (Ngāi Te Rangi/Ngāti Pikiao) was the first Māori woman to solely write and direct a dramatic feature film. As an advisor and artistic director of the Sundance Institute Native Lab from 2000–2009, Mita was passionate about supporting a generation of Indigenous storytellers. The Merata Mita Fellowship is in its 11th year providing an Indigenous woman-identified filmmaker from anywhere in the world with a cash grant, mentorship, and year-round creative development opportunities, along with attendance at the Sundance Film Festival and access to strategic services offered by Sundance Institute’s artist programs.
The Graton fellows have projects in development or production, and they will receive critical financial and creative assistance throughout 2026. Each will be granted $25,000, mentorship from Indigenous Program staff, creative and professional development opportunities, and attendance at the Sundance Film Festival. The Graton Fellowship exists thanks to an endowment from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, who also support the Graton Artist Opportunity, which provides creative support and access to Sundance Collab for artists from California Native tribes. Graton fellow Tsanavi Spoonhunter is a Northern Arapaho and Northern Paiute nonfiction storyteller based in Northern Nevada who serves as director, producer, and writer. She holds a Master of Journalism degree from the University of California, Berkeley, concentrating in documentary film. In 2023, she founded the independent multimedia company Mahebe Media.
“It’s a true honor and privilege to be selected for the Graton Fellowship at the Sundance Institute. I’m humbled to have been born and raised among my Paiute people in California — it has cultivated an immense sense of pride in who I am and has inspired so much of my work — which is the purpose for this California-based fellowship,” said Tsanavi Spoonhunter. “I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, especially the current tribal chairman, Greg Sarris, who has been previously supported by the Institute and its revered founder, Robert Redford.”
Graton fellow Isabella Madrigal (enrolled Cahuilla, Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) is a writer-director-actor. She is a Harvard alum, a 2025 Sundance Institute Native Lab fellow, a winner of the Yale Young Native Playwrights Contest, and a Native Theater Project MMIR Awareness awardee. Her work in film/theater often centers ancestral wisdom, healing, and Indigenous futurisms.
“I am deeply honored to receive the Graton Fellowship, supporting the development of my first feature film. This story began as a community theater play performed with Native communities across California, and I am thrilled to be able to reimagine this story for the screen,” said Isabella Madrigal. “This project is informed by Cahuilla cosmology and created in dedication to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. I hope to tell it in a good way, imagining how cultural wisdom can combat gender-based violence and empower Indigenous peoples. Achama to the Graton Rancheria Tribe and the Sundance Indigenous Program for investing in California Native storytelling.”
The Native Forum Celebration unites Sundance Institute Indigenous Program fellows, grantees, and alumni on Traditional Ute Nation Territory during the Sundance Film Festival. At this annual event, the Merata Mita and Graton fellows are announced, and all Indigenous-led projects in the Festival lineup and the 2025 Native Lab fellows are recognized alongside program funders and contributors.
Sundance Institute has supported Indigenous storytelling since its founding. Native American artists participated in the first Sundance Institute filmmaking lab in 1981. The Institute’s Feature Film Program, Documentary Film Program, and Sundance Film Festival engage in outreach to Indigenous artists and work with the Indigenous Program to identify artists for support across the globe. Fellows and projects supported through Sundance Institute programs include: Erica Tremblay, whose film Fancy Dancepremiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival after going through the Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Lab and won Best Narrative Feature at NewFest; Sterlin Harjo, his Independent Spirit Award–nominated Four Sheets to the Wind, and his follow-up feature, Barking Water; Academy Award nominee Taika Waititi, his feature debut, Eagle vs. Shark, and his follow-up feature, Boy; Billy Luther’s award-winning Miss Navajo and his second feature documentary, Grab; Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize–winning Sikumi and his feature debut, On the Ice, which was awarded the Crystal Bear and the Best First Feature Prize at the 61st Berlinale; Aurora Guerrero’s Independent Spirit Award–nominated Mosquita y Mari; Sydney Freeland’s Outfest Award–winning Drunktown’s Finestand her second feature, Deidra & Laney Rob a Train, which debuted in 190 countries on Netflix; Blake Pickens’ The Land (IFC Films); Ciara Lacy’s nationally broadcast documentary Out of State; Shaandiin Tome’s Mud (Hashtł’ishnii); and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open.
