Yale in Hollywood has revealed Jennifer Beals and Roshan Sethi as honorees for its sixth annual virtual film festival, which takes place December 4-6.
Beals will receive the festival’s 2025 Career Achievement Award, while Sethi will receive the Queer Voice Award. Both winners will receive their awards during the Yale in Hollywood Fest 2025 Awards livestream on December 6.
The Career Achievement Award has previously been given to actor CS Lee and television creator Justin Noble. The Queer Voice Award was created in 2024 by 2023 festival juror and award winner Justin Noble.
Beals produced and starred in “The L Word: Generation Q,” the Showtime revival of his original hit series. Her portrayal of Bette Porter earned her the GLAAD Golden Gate Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and a Satellite Award nomination. In 2012, she received the Ally for Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign for her LGBTQ+ community advocacy. Beals also serves as executive producer of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” for Freeform alongside “The L Word” creator Ilene Chaiken. In 2024, she launched Run-A-Muck with Chaiken, a multi-platform queer media brand producing content for film, television and live events.
Sethi, a writer, director and practicing oncologist, is known for co-creating the Fox medical drama “The Resident.” He directed the Independent Spirit Award-winning film “7 Days,” “World’s Best” for Disney Plus and “A Nice Indian Boy,” and co-wrote “Call Jane.”
The festival’s three-day lineup will include short films and live-streamed events, with all programs streaming for free worldwide on yihfest.com from December 4-7.
VEEEU awards two prizes of $500 to the competition winners selected by the festival jury. Story-boards.ai, a Swiss AI storyboard software company, will sponsor three one-year subscription rewards for competition winners.
Yale in Hollywood Fest presents films featuring at least one Yale student, alumnus, or current staff member in a key creative role. The organization is led by founder Kevin Winston, with Melissa Dawn Johnson and Quentin Lee serving as founding programmer and festival director, respectively.
Past Yale in Hollywood Fest honorees include Academy Award nominee Lee Isaac Chung, Robinne Lee, Justin Noble, Cory Finley, Kahlil Green and CS Lee.
