UNLV Film is celebrating the success of two alumni whose work has earned nominations during the 2026 Academy Awards season. Berenice Chávez, a 2013 Department of Film graduate, served as editor on Come See Me in the Good Light, which has been nominated for the 2026 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Additionally, Tamiya Nadine, a 2023 UNLV film graduate, served as assistant art director on The Singers, nominated for Best Live Action Short Film.
Directed by Ryan White, Come See Me in the Good Light premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary follows acclaimed poet Andrea Gibson and their wife, poet Megan Falley, as they navigate love, creativity, and mortality following Gibson’s incurable cancer diagnosis. The Oscars nomination brings a proud moment of LGBTQ+ representation to the Oscars this year. The film has received widespread critical acclaim for its emotional depth and intimate storytelling and is currently available to stream on Apple TV where you can see Chávez’s work as editor come to life.
Chávez is a Latina documentary film editor based in Los Angeles. She earned her MFA in Film Editing from the American Film Institute in 2016 after completing her BA at UNLV in 2013. During her time at UNLV, she produced and edited two short documentaries —Passing the Torch and North to Paradise — which collectively won two Pacific Southwest Student Emmys and received three nominations. Her feature editing credits include On the Divide, which premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, associate editor work on Good Night Oppy, which premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, and Pamela, A Love Story, now streaming on Netflix. In 2023, she returned to UNLV to receive the Nevada Woman Filmmaker of the Year award at the Nevada Women’s Film Festival for her work on Pamela, A Love Story.
The Singers is directed by Sam A. Davis (NaiNai & Wai Po [2023], Didi [2024] and Period. End of Sentence. [2018]) and written by Ivan Turgenev, starring Mike Young, Chris Smither, and Judah Kelly. In this Oscar-nominated short film, an impromptu singing contest at a dive bar turns a lonely night into a soul-baring moment of shared harmony. The nomination comes to no surprise to Davis, who has garnered 23 award wins and 16 nominations for his work as director, cinematographer, and more as a multihyphenate filmmaker. The Singers is currently streaming on Netflix, where you can step into the world that Nadine has built as assistant art director.
Nadine, a Bay Area-based filmmaker born and raised in the Philippines, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film. With experience spanning production design, graphic design, illustration, and tattooing, she brings a multidisciplinary approach to visual storytelling rooted in her background in architecture and design.
During her time at UNLV, Nadine served as production designer on a Business of Hollywood commercial that won a Student Emmy at the 2024 Pacific Southwest Student Emmy Awards. Since graduating from the Department of Film, she has worked in various roles across the art department in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Las Vegas.
UNLV is no stranger to Oscar success, with Constanza and Doménica Castro of 271 Films directing and producing We Are Here, which earned an Oscar qualification in 2022 after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Their company, 271 Films, has continued to grow and expand with the goal of being able to tell any story at any moment as a one-stop-shop. You can read more on their expansion in this article from The Wrap.
About UNLV Film
UNLV Film is an official department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), offering both undergraduate and graduate degree programs that blend current industry practices with traditional storytelling, film history, and real-world experience led by professionals in the industry. The department proudly prepares students by building a strong foundation for careers in the dynamic worlds of film, television, and digital media.
About the College of Fine Arts
The College of Fine Arts educates, empowers, and engages creative people to become visionary change-makers in the arts through acts of imagination. At UNLV we believe the arts are an essential good for society. We make education relevant and accessible through our programs and outreach. We create new knowledge in the arts. We celebrate independent thought and the power of bringing people together to foster creativity.
