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| The Easterseals Disability Film Challenge finalists Photo: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Easterseals Disability Film Challenge |
Chrissy Marshall's Rain In My Head was the big winner in this year's Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, winning the Best Film award along with two others. The 10th annual event of its kind, the challenge aims to create opportunities for disabled people to break into an industry where they are at present poorly represented. The 115 entrants hailed from all over the world, including Austria, Bolivia, Canada, England, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Timor-Leste and The Netherlands.
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| The winning team: Sebastian Gonzalez, Sophia Morales, Christine Marshall, Layne Apffel and Camilo Godoy Photo: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Easterseals Disability Film Challenge |
This year's event was themed around romance, a genre from which disabled people are almost entirely absent unless in the process of dying tragically. In the US, as in the UK, one in every four people has a disability, yet according to a Nielsen study released in 2022, about 95% of characters with disabilities in Hollywood’s top TV shows are played by non-disabled actors and, during the 2019 Oscars — a year when disability inclusion was reported at its highest to date — only two of the 61 nominees and 27 winners who played disabled characters were actually disabled.
"Hollywood has only begun to tap into the power of inclusion and to showcase this significant segment of our society," said Mark Whitley, President and CEO of Easterseals Southern California. "The Easterseals Disability Film Challenge gives filmmakers, actors and their crews invaluable entertainment experience and a chance to network with industry professionals. Likewise, it’s an opportunity for studios, networks, guilds, talent agencies and people working in entertainment to get involved to change the way we all experience and understand disability."
"I created the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge to help accelerate change within Hollywood and to provide filmmakers and actors with tangible work experience and with an opportunity to tell authentic stories," said actor, comedian, producer and disability advocate Nic Novicki. "Once again, I am humbled by the overwhelming response. We are proud of the amazing films produced this year and over the past 10 years—which have been viewed around the world—and the successes our participants have gone on to achieve."
Those award winners in full:
Best Film
- Kryptonite – Penni Wilson
- Winner: Rain In My Head – Chrissy Marshall
- Smash Or Pass – Cory Reeder
- Unlucky In Love – Rachel Handler
Best Director
- Winner: Rain In My Head – Chrissy Marshall
- Smash Or Pass – Cory Reeder
- To Be Loved By Elliott – Samantha Bartow & Carmen Flood
- Unlucky In Love – Catriona Rubenis-Stevens
Best Actor
- A Stupid Man – Shannon Devido
- Kryptonite – Ryan Lane
- Winner: Rain In My Head – Layne Apffel
- Smash Or Pass – Joci Scott
Best Editor
- Rain In My Head – Mario Fierro
- Reverie – Chase Chambers
- Winner: Smash Or Pass – Nathan Cox
- Unlucky In Love – Crystal Arnette
Best Writer
- Kryptonite – Joshua Friedman, Penni Wilson, Cameron S. Mitchell & David S. Zimmerman
- Rain In My Head – Chrissy Marshall
- Say What?! – Sarah Beth Budd, Grant Cleaveland, & Lee Cleaveland
- Winner: Unlucky In Love – Rachel Handler
Best Awareness Campaign
- Cripfished – Anna Pakman
- Winner: Leap Of Love – Judith Rubin
- Reverie – Justin Jackerson
- Safe Place – Scott Klumb
- They – Allison Friedman
