We’re counting down the 40 days to NYWIFT’s 40th Anniversary Muse Awards with a look at some of our favorite honorees, all women of vision and achievement who have contributed to the film and television industry. Join us as we look back at #Muse40for40, and buy your tickets for the Muse Awards on Tuesday, December 10th at nywift.org/muse!
#26: Charlayne Hunter-Gault
By Mellini Kantayya
Journalist and author Charlayne Hunter-Gault began her career as a reporter to The New Yorker (where she still contributes) and was the Harlem bureau chief for The New York Times in 1986, specializing in coverage of the urban black community. She spent 20 years with PBS NewsHour where she was a national and international correspondent as well as a substitute anchor. She is a former foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, and the Public Broadcasting Service.
During her association with The NewsHour, Hunter-Gault won additional awards: two Emmys and a Peabody for excellence in broadcast journalism for her work on Apartheid’s People, a NewsHour series on South Africa.
She is the author of four books and spent six years as CNN’s Johannesburg bureau chief and correspondent. Amongst her many awards and accolades, Hunter-Gault holds thirty-six honorary degrees and was honored with the Washington Press Club Foundation’s Life Time Achievement Award.
Mellini_Kantayya
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Jackie Yunchang Zhang
Welcome to NYWIFT, Jackie Yunchang Zhang! Jackie Yunchang Zhang is a non-fiction filmmaker and video artist from Hangzhou, China, now based in New York. Working across lens-based media and animation, she uses a hybrid non-fiction approach to explore identity, resilience, and cultural displacement. With a strong sensitivity to emotion, memory, and interpersonal dynamics, her work examines how people navigate relationships, belonging, and the quiet negotiations of everyday life. Through an observational yet personal style, she creates films that reveal the subtle ways we understand ourselves and the world around us.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Nira Burstein
Welcome to NYWIFT, Nira Burstein! Nira Burstein is an award-winning filmmaker based in New York City. She is one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film and DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40. Her documentary debut Charm Circle won the Audience Award at Sheffield DocFest, is a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and had its streaming premiere on the Criterion Channel. Nira is a Gotham Fellow, and her work has been supported by the Jerome Foundation and Jewish Story Partners. She has made several narrative short films, including Gangrenous (Nantucket Film Festival) and Off & Away (Brooklyn Film Festival). Her latest short film, Dear Shop Girl, premiered at Woodstock Film Festival. She is currently in post on the documentary short Handymen.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Ashley Bacon
Welcome to NYWIFT, Ashley Bacon! Ashley is an actor and producer in New York. She leads the 80s thriller Something of a Monster which was released in December on AppleTV, and her claim to fame is a recurring arc on Orange is the New Black. She was nominated for Best Actor at Cindependent for her work in The Flip Side (2023). Upcoming projects include leading the film A Matchmaker’s Christmas, a star-studded community fundraiser of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and raising her small child. She lives in Brooklyn with - in her words - "two cats, one daughter, and one husband." We welcome actor and producer Ashley Bacon to NYWIFT! In her New Member Spotlight, we discussed the famous RDJ scene that inspired Ashley to become an actor, the community garden motivating her next project, and her favorite film she’s worked on so far.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Leah Gaydos
Welcome to NYWIFT, Leah Gaydos! Leah M. Gaydos is a New York-based attorney and independent producer whose work spans film, entertainment law, and nonprofit leadership. She has produced more than 20 shorts and two features, including Rounding, which premiered at Tribeca and was distributed by Doppleganger. Leah serves as Board Member & Entertainment Law Chair for Healing TREE and provides production counsel and strategic consulting to independent filmmakers. She currently practices law at Rebar Kelly while pursuing opportunities in business affairs and legal for film, television, and emerging media. Her career centers on balancing creative vision with the legal frameworks that allow meaningful storytelling to thrive. In our interview, Leah discussed her philosophy of producing, the production that shaped that philosophy, and her vision for the future of entertainment law.
READ MORE
Comments are closed