Rashad Frett, an adjunct assistant professor and award-winning Caribbean-American filmmaker who teaches undergraduate film studies, won the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic competition for his film Ricky at the Sundance Film Festival. The film centers on 30-year-old Ricky, who navigates the challenging realities of life post-incarceration and the complexities of gaining independence for the first time as an adult. Shari Frilot, an artist, filmmaker, and chief curator of the New Frontier program at the Sundance Film Festival, wrote: “Rashad Frett’s directorial hand overflows with humanity and marks an auspicious feature debut.” Rashad Frett’s film “Ricky” centers on the challenging realities of life post-incarceration. Frett is a Spike Lee Film Production fellow, a Ryan Murphy HALF Initiative fellow, a Sundance Feature Film Lab fellow, and a Cary Fukunaga Production fellow. In 2023 he was named one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
