Congratulations to the 2025 scholarship recipients!
Filmmakers will be creating a short film, and composers will be creating a musical score, performed live by the Film Score Fest orchestra. Join us for the screenings on April 26, 2025.
Filmmakers
Abdimalik Ahmed
Film Score Fest Topic: Three friends have one final night to spend together as roommates before turning in their apartment keys in the morning and going their separate ways.
Abdimalik Ahmed is a filmmaker, writer, photographer, and poet in Minneapolis, MN. His screen acting credits include Little America on Apple TV+, as well as short films by local filmmakers. His one man play titled “The Place I Return To”, written and produced by himself, debuted at the Mixed Blood Theater in 2023. His 2023 Super8 silent short film titled “Isn’t This What I’m Supposed to Feel” won Best Actor at the first annual University of Minnesota Film Festival, and placed in two international festivals in Brazil. He works as a production coordinator on commercials as his day job, but he performs poetry, takes travel photos, and makes short films in his spare time.
Skye Reddy
Film Score Fest Topic: An experimental screendance film that explores questions about ancestral spirits and death rituals.
Skye Reddy is a South Asian writer, filmmaker, and performance artist. They are a 2024 Pillsbury House + Theatre Naked Stages fellow, a member of the 2024 Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) Spotlight Shorts documentary cohort, and the 2022-23 Production Management Fellow at Children’s Theatre Company. In different capacities, Skye has previously worked with The Southern Theater, Black Ensemble Productions, Red Eye Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Asian Media Access, Theater Mu, LimeArts, and on various Twin Cities-based short films. They hold a degree in Theater and Dance from Macalester College.
Benji Salinas
Film Score Fest Topic: This film will explore the complexity of immigration through the lens of family, time, land, and love.
Benji Salinas (They/Them) is a multi-disciplinary artist with a BFA in Photography and a Minor in Art Education from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Their work is based in storytelling to make space for complexities and intersectionality. Recently, this has come to fruition through themes of family, immigration, and land. They are deeply passionate about working within and in service for communities who have been systematically under resourced. Through a creative mindset, they wish to spread healing and connection through embracing each person’s complex story.
Composers
Ritika Ganguly
Ritika Ganguly, Ph.D., is a St. Paul-based composer and anthropologist born and raised in New Delhi, India. She has trained in genres within Bengali music, and is committed to vocabulary-building of South Asian folk music in the Twin Cities. Ritika is a 2021 McKnight Composers Fellow. Her body of work has been supported by the Minnesota Opera, Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation, MRAC, Red Eye Theater, Cedar Cultural Center, and Minnesota State Arts Board, among others. Her vocal, compositional, and coaching work push us to rely less on music notation and theory, and more on audiative practices that deepen our aptitude to hear and express. She is a long-leaf tea enthusiast, and has an impulse to connect with people over lal cha (red tea).
Asuka Kakitani
Asuka Kakitani (she/her) is a Minnesota-based composer whose work blends jazz and classical influences with the sounds of her Japanese heritage, reflecting her personal experiences and emotions. Described as “a musical impressionist and supreme colorist” (Hot House Magazine) with “the overflowing world of inspirational melody” (DownBeat Magazine), her projects span jazz big band, orchestras, vocal works, and electroacoustic music. Kakitani’s numerous honors include grants and fellowships from New Music USA, the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Fund, the BMI Foundation, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Arthur Xiong
Born and raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin, Arthur Xiong is a self taught musician of over 20 years. Arthur’s personal music is driven by his experiences as a second generation Hmoob American son where he integrates traditional Hmoob instrumentation with modern technology to create music that reflects the journey of his people. Arthur has played guitar and produced music in various acts that range from hip hop to punk to gospel, noise rock and everything in between. When Arthur is not making music you can find him hanging at distilleries and restaurants or spending time outdoors.
Original Scholarship Posting:
Do you have a unique story you would like to share?
We’re proud to offer a scholarship to support BIPOC filmmakers and composers/music-makers who would like to participate in Film Score Fest.
Scholarship Eligiblity
You can be considered for the scholarship if all of the following apply to you:
- You are a filmmaker or composer/music-maker:
- Filmmaker: all experience levels and filmmaking styles are welcome (narrative, documentary, experimental, animation).
- Composer/music-maker: all styles of music are welcome, with one requirement: there must be some human performance element possible during the festival screening. This could be writing music for our orchestra to perform and/or performing the music yourself. Or if you have a special idea for instruments or performers, please reach out and we can talk about what’s possible. If you don’t write sheet music but would like to compose for the orchestra, we can pair you with an orchestrator.
- You identify as Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color (BIPOC).
- You are a Minnesota resident.
- You plan to participate in Film Score Fest 2024-25 by making a 5-minute-or-less film or score, in collaboration with an assigned filmmaker or composer/music-maker partner (or a partner of your choice). Film Score Fest participation guidelines.
- You did not receive a scholarship in the previous Film Score Fest cycle (2022-23). Scholarship recipients are eligible to apply every other cycle.
Scholarship Details
Application deadline: October 20, 2024 by 11:59pm
Amount: $500 scholarship. $250 upfront / $250 upon completion of your film.
Number of scholarships available: 3 for filmmakers, 3 for composers/music-makers
Application fee: Free
Applicants will be notified in early November.
After applying for this scholarship, we also encourage you to sign up to participate in Film Score Fest, so even if you don’t receive the scholarship, you can be paired with a filmmaker or composer/music-maker and participate for free in the festival challenge. If your participation would rely on receiving scholarship funding, you don’t need to sign up; we would then only assign you a filmmaker/composer partner if you receive the scholarship.