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Two-thirds of Asian representation in mainstream film and television remain confined to narrow archetypes. For the second year, the AAPI Renaissance Rally returns to keep rewriting the narrative. Building on last year's movement toward multidimensional and unexpected Asian and Pacific Islander leads, this year expands the canvas—championing creators who are redefining the culture across every genre, form, and feeling. This is the next evolution of the Renaissance: a moment for the stories we bring to life, and for the evolving ways we continue to tell them differently.
Mentors
Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
Writers, Producers
Brian Nemes
Head of Film & Television Strategy, Gold House
Anil Kurian
Vice President, Scripted Series, The Walt Disney Company
Willa Nielsen
Creative Executive, Madison Wells
Jennifer Petrilla
Director of Development & Creative Affairs, Madison Wells
Jeff Yang
Writer
S. Leo Chiang
Director and A-Doc Co-Founder
Grace Lee
Director and A-Doc Co-Founder
Bhawin Suchak
Co-Executive Director of Youth FX & NeXt Doc
Beth Aala
Director + Producer, Pinay Pictures, Inc.
New to crowdfunding rallies? Check out the FAQs.
How To Join
1. Submit Your Campaign
Start a project to launch your crowdfunding campaign for any style of motion picture (narrative or documentary, any genre, any format*) to advance your project to the next stage (pre-production through distribution), raising at least $2,500 on Seed&Spark. Submissions are open January 12th-March 5th, 2026 midnight EST, and you can submit your campaign for review at any time during these dates. All projects will receive personalized feedback from our Crowdfunding Specialists, and will be required to "re-submit for final approval" after updating their materials based on the feedback received. You must complete the mandatory feedback and approval process before launching. All campaigns will run from March 30 - April 29, 2026. *While shorts are accepted in the overall competition, please note that only feature films and series are eligible to pitch at Gold Pitch.
2. Build and Engage Your Audience, Launch!
We recommend spending time building your crowd before launching your campaign, and you can leverage the Crowdfunding Playbook anytime here.
To stay qualified, filmmakers must: raise at least $2,500 and hit their Green Light; post 8 project updates during your 30-day crowdfunding campaign; and gather at least 350 followers to your Seed&Spark campaign by April 29th at midnight ET. Followers include all contributors, but they also include anyone who clicks the "follow" button from your campaign page to receive email updates.
3. Finalists and Winners
Finalists will be determined by projects that have successfully raised their crowdfunding goal and completed the audience outreach outlined above. On April 30th, we will announce the finalists, who will have until May 9th at midnight ET to prepare a project deck and 30 second pitch for Gold House to review. Winners will be announced May 22, 2026.
Timeline
Partners
Jeff Yang
Timothy Tau
FAQs
We are looking for filmmakers making original motion pictures (shorts, features, series) at any stage from development to post-production, ready to build your audiences and advance your project to the next phase. Projects must lead with multidimensional or unexpected Asian and Pacific Islander characters. We're looking for novel, subversive, unique characters telling inspirational stories, cautionary tales, the weirdest mindf*cks, and everything in between. Only projects that can be pitched as feature films are eligible for the Gold Pitch Grand Prize.
You can submit your project January 12th-March 5th 2026 after which you will receive personalized feedback. All eligible projects will launch automatically on March 30th and crowdfund through April 29th 2026. Your "submission" date is the date you click "Submit for Approval" of your Seed&Spark campaign. You can submit your project for review and feedback by Seed&Spark's team at any time during the submission period. Don't worry: if you submit at the end of the submission period, there are still several weeks to receive and implement feedback before campaigns launch.
After submitting your project, one of our expert Crowdfunding Specialists will provide personalized feedback on your materials to help get you set up to run a successful campaign. Here's what we look for during feedback, and here are our minimum launch requirements. While we don't require that you make every recommended change from our experts, your chance of success is much higher when you do. After polishing your materials and making any necessary changes, you must "re-submit for final approval." You must get approval from your Specialist before the feedback period ends on March 25th. Be sure to plan accordingly, giving your Specialist at least 1 working day (M-Th) to review your changes.
All rally crowdfunding campaigns will end automatically on April 29th, 2026 at midnight EST. The projects that have reached their Green Light, gathered at least 350 followers, and posted at least 8 campaign updates will be selected as finalists and will be required to create a short (30-second or less) pitch video and project deck suitable to pitch to investors. This video will briefly explain any additional details about you, the team or your vision for the project, and will be posted to the campaign as an update no later than May 9th, 2026 at midnight (eastern US time) for continued qualification.
The finalists will be notified on April 30th, 2026, and announced publicly the following week.
Winners will be announced on May 22, 2026.
All filmmakers who gather 250 or more followers are eligible for Filmmaker Rewards that increase the more followers you gather, worth over $9,000 in production, post and distribution technology and services, as well as festival fee waivers. Lastly but most importantly, by raising funds and gathering an audience on Seed&Spark, participants take control of their creative future, creating a path to their own sustainable filmmaking career.