The American Film Institute has announced the six recipients of the 2026-27 Canva Fellowship at the AFI Conservatory, each of whom will receive a $40,000 scholarship over the course of their two-year Master of Fine Arts filmmaking program. The fellows began their studies in August.
This year's cohort spans six creative disciplines: Divli Bhat in producing, Elizaveta Kurilova in screenwriting, Lauren Moreno in directing, Zoey Punteney in production design, Colin Pham in cinematography and Auberin Strickland in editing.
"At the AFI Conservatory, we are empowering Fellows to take the helm of creative departments across the entire filmmaking life cycle," said Susan Ruskin, dean of the AFI Conservatory. "Now in its fourth year, our partnership with Canva prepares Fellows to lead — amplifying their voices and sharing diverse perspectives with audiences worldwide, in pursuit of telling great stories."
Bhat, a film production student at San Jose State University, has worked as a unit production manager, production coordinator, line producer and first assistant director on award-winning short films including "Margie and Mannequin," and is also a trained special effects makeup artist.
Kurilova, a Los Angeles-based writer and director, holds a Bachelor of Arts in the history of art from University College London, where she received the Frances Stracey Prize, and completed the One-Year Conservatory in Acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. Her short films include "Come Swim With Me" and "Sheep and Ants and Sugar."
Moreno, a third-generation Mexican American filmmaker, has focused on bringing her Latino identity to the forefront of her work. Her debut film "Palmdale" earned multiple awards and festival selections, following an earlier written film that screened at the Official Latino Film Festival.
Pham studied radio-television-film at the University of Texas Austin and has worked as a director of photography, assistant camera and G&E professional, contributing to award-winning shorts and larger projects.
Punteney, who minored in studio art at the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, is also a content creator with a YouTube channel of 10,000 subscribers, an experience she credits with sparking her interest in video editing. She hopes to eventually work on major feature films.
Strickland, originally from Alaska, speaks French, German and Italian and runs Crooked Footprint Productions alongside his brother, Dune Strickland. He has previously worked with filmmakers Dmitry Vasyukov, Hunter Nolan, Gina Papabeis, Vickie Curtis, Eyal Levy, Rachel Friedman and Grant Lafferty.
