Seven talented women have been selected as winners of the 2006 Acceleration Grant for Emerging Filmmakers competition. The winners are:

Narumol Sriyanond Bartone, Los Angeles, Calif. — A native of Thailand, Bartone’s work has focused on the plight and culture of the Thai people. Founder of Women In Focus Productions, her short, Thai Women: Challenging AIDS, which profiled northern Thai women with the disease, screened at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival in 2006. Bartone is currently making the film into a feature with the help of the Planned Parenthood Association of Thailand. Bartone received her M.F.A. and Ph.D in 2000 from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Bartone also has an impressive background in anthropology and performance studies and has served as a guest lecturer at New York’s Julliard School of Music.

Margaret Brown, Austin, Texas — Margaret Brown is the producer and director of the acclaimed documentary, Be Here to Love Me: Townes Van Zandt, which was released theatrically in 2005 by Palm Pictures and is currently airing on the Sundance Channel and available on DVD. Be Here to Love Me was the opening night film at North America’s premiere documentary film festival, Full Frame, and the closing night film at the Nashville Film Festival. She recently produced Catpower's Living Proof video and directed a film about Austin musician Ruthie Foster for the Austin City Limits Festival. As a producer, she has received a Student Academy Award for the film Six Miles of Eight Feet. She produced the narrative feature Mi Amigo, which stars Josh Holloway of Lost and will be released in December by ThinkFilm. Margaret is currently working on a feature documentary and narrative screenplay about Mobile, Alabama's Mardi Gras carnival. Margaret earned her B.A. from Brown University and her M.F.A in Film from New York University.

Shelley Niro, Brantford, Ontario, Canada — Niro received her M.F.A. from the University of Western Ontario in 1997 and has participated in initiatives like the Women In The Director’s Chair Workshop at the Banff Centre for the Arts and, most notably, the Sundance Producer’s Conference in Park City, Utah. Her film, The Shirt, was chosen to represent the Indian Arts Alliance from New Mexico in 2003 at the Venice Biennale film festival before going on to be screened at Sundance. It Starts With a Whisper was also screened at Sundance. Her film Honey Moccasin took top honors, including “Best Feature” and “Best Director,” at the 1998 Red Earth Film Festival. A Native-American, Niro is a member of the Six Nations Reserve, Turtle Clan, Bay of Quinte Mohawk. She is currently working on a full-length dramatic film, Kissed By Lightning.

Pamela K. Johnson, Long Beach, Calif. — A graduate of Stanford University, Pamela's short, Talk Me to Death, about rampant cell phone use at a funeral, was the recipient of the “Best Editing” and “Audience Awards” at the 2006 Duke City Shootout in New Mexico. She is now developing it into a feature-length romantic comedy. Johnson is a journalist and published author with a novel, Santa and Pete, under her belt, as well as the anthology Tenderheaded: A Comb-Bending Collection of Hair Stories. The former was made into a 1999 TV movie which starred James Earl Jones and Hume Cronyn. The latter was adapted into a musical stage play, which drew sold-out audiences in Philadelphia and also played New York in 2001 and 2002. Johnson is the former west coast editor of Essence magazine. Post grant, Pamela was accepted into the prestigious American Film Institute's Director's Lab in Los Angeles.

Sandra Pfeifer, Simpson, Ill. — Pfeifer’s two films, Kathryn and Her Daughters and Truck Stop, have screened at multiple festivals throughout the midwest. Since earning her undergraduate degree in film production from Southern Illinois University in1994, she has been the recipient of audience awards and honorariums from Muskegon, Mich., to New York City. Pfeifer is the mother of two and lives on a 40-acre farm in the heart of rural America. Her current project, Against all the Odds, explores the history, commerce and racial roots of the city of East St. Louis, Ill.

Marie Francoise Theodore, North Hollywood, Calif. — A native of Chicago, Theodore’s work has taken her all over the world, from writing and directing commissions in Minnesota, to London, where her film Blood/Memory was screened at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in 1999, and to Berlin, where her film Rebel in the Soul earned an award for “Best Film Highlighting the Black Experience” at the 2004 XIX Black International Cinema Screenings. Theodore, who was awarded a Media Arts Grant from the prestigious Jerome Foundation in 2001, has been a visiting artist at various universities and colleges in Minnesota. Her screenplay, The Street, was a finalist for the 2007 Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab.

Sue Vicory, Stilwell, Kan. — Founder of Heartland Films, Inc., Vicory’s short documentary, Homelessness and the Power of One, has been screened at multiple fundraisers, including one in Harlem, NY, and more throughout the heartland, raising more than $75,000 for homeless shelters nationwide. Her film was also screened at a film festival in Washington, D.C. She has created a pilot program, Power of One, modeled after the film, to continue to educate and raise awareness about the plight of the homeless. Most recently, her documentary screened in Detroit, MI at the Summer Motown Concert, an event she has been asked to film as well. Sue currently serves as board member for the Kansas City chapter of Women In Film (KCWIFT).