Annie Ning '25 Receives Prestigious Award from the Princess Grace Foundation; María del Mar Rosario (GS '15) Honored

Film alum Annie Ning '25 is a 2026 recipient of the highly prestigious Cary Grant Film Honor from the Princess Grace Foundation, which she was nominated for by Columbia University. Among the runners-up for the award was Undergraduate Film and Media Studies alum María del Mar Rosario (GS '15), who was nominated by 2018 Princess Grace Award winner Rafael Samanez and received a Film Honoraria from the foundation.

Dedicated to upholding the legacy of Princess Grace of Monaco (née Grace Kelly)—the Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated actress known for her iconic roles in classic Hollywood cinema—by uplifting emerging artists, the foundation is a non-profit, publicly supported charity headquartered in New York City. The 2026 Princess Grace Awards recognize the extraordinary talent of 18 winners and 11 honoraria recipients in theatre, dance, and film through career-advancing grants. 

Ning, a filmmaker from Suzhou, China, and the US, explores character-driven tensions as individual perspectives clash against shifting cultural landscapes. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MFA in Directing from Columbia, where she has taught courses in screenwriting. Her work has gained international festival recognition: her short film, Invasive Species, premiered at Slamdance, Raindance, the Palm Springs International ShortFest, and beyond before receiving Best Narrative Film at the San Diego Asian Film Festival in 2023. Her short Man Made Lake will make its world premiere in the Orizzonti Shorts Competition at the 83rd Venice Film Festival in September 2026. Ning has been featured on Staff Picks, NOWNESS Asia, and Short of the Week and was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2024 and a Vimeo Breakout Creator of the Year. She is currently developing her debut feature.

A filmmaker from Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, del Mar Rosario navigates narrative and nonfiction to trigger reflections on notions of the Caribbean under a decolonial, feminist lens. Her work has screened at IDFA, HotDocs, Tribeca, Palm Springs, SFFILM, New Orleans, Metrograph, and the French Cinematheque. With a BA in Creative Nonfiction and Film Studies from Columbia University, she later completed her postgraduate studies in Directing at the School of Film and Television in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba (EICTV). In 2026, her narrative short Punta Salinas was Oscar Qualified and nominated for Best of New Filmmakers LA Award. Her documentary Escambrón, Playa, which premiered at HIFF Hawaii and won Best Short at Puerto Rico Film Festival, is currently streaming on PBS. del Mar Rosario resides in Puerto Rico, where she is developing Cookbook, a feature documentary that tackles autonomy, matriarchy, and colonialism.