Screenwriting student Leon Ristov was one of ten Sundance Institute Ignite X Adobe Fellows selected for their 2025 cohort. Over a thousand filmmakers applied for the incubator for early career artists, which includes a weeklong residency at Mass MoCA, monthly development seminars both with the cohort and one-on-one with mentors, a $3,000 award and a year-long subscription to Adobe. The fellows' films will screen at a private event at the 2026 Sundance Festival in Park City, Utah.
Ristov was the first person from his home country of Macedonia to enroll as a filmmaking student at the School of the Arts. He first picked up a camera at 11 and has pursued a career in film ever since.
The Mass MoCA retreat brought the 2025 cohort together from June 23–27, 2025. "The focus was on us as artists, rather than just filmmakers, which I found to be a useful reframing, encouraging us to think less about industry demands and more about the kinds of stories we’re drawn to tell, the unique perspectives we have to offer," Ristov said. As part of the fellowship, Sundance is supporting the development of Ristov's first feature film, NETTLES, while he's an Ignite X Adobe Fellow.
The fellowship seeks to develop filmmakers from underrepresented backgrounds, between the ages of 18 and 25. "Bespoke support for early-career storytellers is more crucial now than it ever has been—there are so many ways to grow as a young artist and finding a community to do that within is really special," said Toby Brooks, the assistant director of Sundance Institute Ignite, to Deadline.
Ristov's short film, NIKOLA, NIKOLA, will screen at a private event at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. The coming-of-age thriller is set in his hometown of Skopje, Macedonia, and was supported by Columbia's Katharina Otto-Bernstein Mentorship Grant. 2026 will be the last year the iconic festival takes place in Utah before moving to Boulder, Colorado.
Leon Ristov is currently completing the film MFA at Columbia University as a Miloš Forman Fellow. His films have screened at the Sarajevo Film Festival, NFFTY, and over 30 international festivals. He is an alum of Clermont-Ferrand Euro Connection.
