The Princess Grace Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2025 Princess Grace Awards and among this year’s winners and honorees are three students from California Institute of the Arts: Tramaine Raphael Gray (Theater MFA 2026), Gabriella Mykal (Film/Video MFA 2023) and Jared Hall (Film/Video MFA 2025).

This year also sees filmmaker Sky Hopinka, a 2020 recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, honored with the 2025 Princess Grace Statue Award. The award recognizes past Princess Grace Award winners who have made significant contributions to their field since receiving their initial grant.

The Princess Grace Awards support emerging artists through career-advancing grants. Selection criteria emphasize artistic intentionality, technical excellence and the potential for innovation and impact within the artist’s field. The program continues the legacy of Princess Grace of Monaco (née Grace Kelly), whose commitment to advancing the arts in the United States inspired the foundation’s mission.

Gray is a multidisciplinary director and writer whose work spans film, theater and experimental installation art. His storytelling often engages with themes of sexuality, spirituality and self-enlightenment, aiming to illuminate and evolve narratives about marginalized communities. Gray is currently pursuing an MFA in Directing at CalArts. His work has been recognized by the Directors Guild of America, Lincoln Center, TheWrap, NewFest, Urbanworld, MVAFF, and PAFF, among others.

Mykal is a queer West Indian American filmmaker and visual artist based in Los Angeles. Her debut feature documentary Rape Play premiered nationally at the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival and will have its international premiere at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival’s Next Wave program. Mykal is currently a finalist for the inaugural Tyler Perry Studios Dream Collective Short Film Program and is developing her first narrative feature.

Hall, recipient of a Film Honoraria award, is a Jamaican filmmaker whose award-winning directorial debut, Anansi the Spider, adapts the popular Jamaican folktale of a trickster who must outwit the jungle’s fiercest predators. The film earned multiple honors and screened at festivals worldwide such as the FistUp Film Festival and Slamdance. His CalArts thesis film, The Blue Hole, also draws from Caribbean folklore, blending outer space and the deep ocean.