Jennifer Beals and Roshan Sethi receive Yale during Hollywood Fest Honors

Yale in Hollywood has announced Jennifer Beals and Roshan Sethi as winners for its sixth annual virtual film festival, which will take place December 4-6.

Beals will receive the festival’s 2025 Career Achievement Award, while Sethi will receive the Queer Voice Award. Both winners will receive their awards during the Yale in Hollywood Fest 2025 Awards Livestream on December 6.

The Career Achievement Award was previously awarded to actor CS Lee and television maker Justin Noble. The Queer Voice Award was established in 2024 by judge and 2023 fest award winner Justin Noble.

Beals executive produced and starred in “The L Word: Generation Q,” the Showtime revival of her original hit series. Her portrayal of Bette Porter earned her the GLAAD Golden Gate Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and a Satellite Award nomination. In 2012, she received the Ally for Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign for her advocacy in the LGBTQ+ community. Beals is also executive producer of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” for Freeform, along with “The L Word” creator Ilene Chaiken. In 2024, she launched Run-A-Muck with Chaiken, a cross-platform queer media brand that produces content for film, TV and live events.

Sethi, a writer, director and practicing oncologist, is known for co-creating the Fox medical drama “The Resident.” He directed the Independent Spirit Award-winning film ‘7 Days’, ‘World’s Best’ for Disney Plus and ‘A Nice Indian Boy’, and co-wrote ‘Call Jane’.

The three-day festival’s line-up consists of short films and livestream events, with all programs available to stream for free worldwide at yihfest.com from December 4 to 7.

VEEEU will award two prizes worth $500 to the winners of the competition, selected by the festival jury. Story-boards.ai, a Swiss AI storyboard software company, is sponsoring three one-year subscription prizes for winners of the competition.

Yale in Hollywood Fest features films in which at least one Yale student, alumnus or current staff member plays a significant creative role. The organization is led by founder Kevin Winston, while Melissa Dawn Johnson and Quentin Lee are the festival’s founding programmer and director, respectively.

Previous Yale honorees in Hollywood Fest include Oscar nominee Lee Isaac Chung, Robinne Lee, Justin Noble, Cory Finley, Kahlil Green and CS Lee.