Producing alumnus and faculty mumber, Shrihari Sathe '09, won the Producers Award at the Spirit Awards Filmmakers Grant 2019. The 22nd annual Awards were presented at the Nominee Brunch on Saturday, January 5, 2019 in West Hollywood. The purpose of this award is to honor emerging producers who, "despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films,” as stated on the Film Independent website. As a recipient of this award, Sathe has become a Film Independent Fellow and received an unrestricted cash grant of $25,000. Past winners include Gina Kwon (Me and You and Everyone We Know), Caroline Baron (Capote) and Effie Brown (Real Women Have Curves).
With over 30 producing credits, Sathe has forged his career in independent cinema working with diverse content and directors from various countries. Some of the films he has produced include Eliza Hittman’s debut feature It Felt Like Love as well as her Sundance award-winning Beach Rats. Sathe’s most recent ventures include the Tibetan film The Sweet Requiem which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival 2018 to critical acclaim and the Palestinian film, Screwdriver (Mafak) which premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2018. Since graduating from the Columbia Producing program, Sathe has been part of the IFP Independent Filmmakers Labs, Film Independent Producing Lab and Fast Track Fellow as well as a Sundance Producing Lab Fellow. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America and Indian Motion Picture Producers Association.