Brooklyn College is proud to announce that Mirta Desir ’23 M.F.A., a graduate of the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, has been awarded a 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in screenwriting. She is one of only 99 artists across New York State to receive this prestigious honor. Desir has earned widespread recognition for her compelling work as a writer and director. Her accolades include the highly competitive Lynn Shelton “Of a Certain Age” Grant, the Caucus Foundation Grant, and the New York Women in Film & Television Award. Her most recent short film, Jean & I, won the Directors Guild of America Grand Prize for the East Coast for 2024–25. Additionally, her manuscript Saving Jude was selected for the Penguin Random House / We Need Diverse Books Revisions Workshop grant. A passionate storyteller, Desir is dedicated to exploring the complexities of the human experience through both narrative and documentary work. Her projects often illuminate the nuanced emotional and psychological landscapes that define the human spirit. Desir joins an esteemed list of past fellowship recipients, including Tony Kushner (playwriting/screenwriting, 1987), Lynn Nottage (playwriting/screenwriting, 1994, 2000), and Spike Lee (film, 1985). The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program, administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts, awards unrestricted $8,000 grants to artists working in 15 artistic disciplines. The program recognizes five disciplines each year on a rotating basis. Earlier in 2025, Desir won the grand prize at the Directors Guild of America Student Film Awards for her film “Jean & I,” which tells the story of Michelle, a 10-year-old survivor of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
