Vision Maker Media (VMM), a leading source of media by and about Native Americans since 1976, has named filmmakers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald, members of the Blackfeet Nation, as recipients of the 2025 Frank Blythe Award for Media Excellence. The award, named for VMM’s late founder, recognizes individuals or organizations that advance Indigenous media opportunities by engaging and empowering Native American and Alaska Native creators. The MacDonalds will receive $2,000 for professional development.
The siblings first drew VMM’s attention when Ivy MacDonald applied for funding through the organization’s 2023 Creative Shorts Fellowship for her short film Buffalo Spirit. The film follows a young Blackfeet woman who reconnects with traditional knowledge and finds healing while caring for buffalo on her aunt’s ranch.
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Ivan MacDonald is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker and an inaugural fellow of the Netflix and IllumiNative Producers Fellowship. He also received early support from the Hulu and Firelight Kindling Fund and is the 2024 Mark Silverman honoree for the Sundance Producing Lab.
During the Creative Shorts Fellowship, the MacDonalds worked with mentor Daniel Glick to produce Buffalo Spirit. The team later expanded the project into Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya, a documentary on efforts by the Blackfoot Confederacy to restore wild buffalo to the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. Narrated by Academy Award–nominated actress Lily Gladstone, the film won the Big Sky Award at the 2024 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and premiered on public television in November 2025.
After completing the fellowship, the MacDonalds have continued to support their community by training young Indigenous filmmakers through VMM’s Native Youth Media Project.
“My father was always a visionary, and before he died, he emphasized his hope that VMM would support and fund young filmmakers,” said Vision Maker Media president and CEO Francene Blythe-Lewis, Frank Blythe’s daughter. “At Vision Maker Media, we’re committed to making that happen. Even as we grapple with the loss of funding brought on by the closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, we will continue to support films made by Native filmmakers for the benefit of all Americans. I am thrilled that we are able to honor Ivy and Ivan MacDonald’s advancements with the 2025 Frank Blythe Award for Media Excellence, and I hope that this recognition brings inspiration to others.”