Hello 2026!

Here’s to 2025! Read on to hear about our highlights from this past year, and what’s in store for us here at Cheshire Moon in 2026. Happy New Year!

Scene House

This year, we celebrated the success of our proof-of-concept short film, Scene House, on the festival circuit. The ingenious absurdist comedy, written and directed by Annabella Fazio, had its World Premiere at Nòt Film Festival in Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy. The film took home two awards — Best Director for Annabella Fazio, and Best Performance for THE ENTIRE CAST!

The jury at Nòt decided to award the entire cast of Scene House the award for Best Performance for three reasons: great performances, emboding an entire world within a short film, and portraying actors playing roles, which added a double layer of complexity.

This was CMP’s third time screening at Nòt, and the third and fourth award win for the company. In 2022 Sarah Carter received the award for Best Director for In Her Name, and in 2023 David Agranov received the award for Best Performance for A Pity. Sarah has since been included to speak on their producers panel and partnered Nòt with her Los Angeles based film and music salon series, Petits Salons.

The award wins aren’t what makes this achievement so special: It was at Nòt in 2023 that Fazio met Carter. Nearly a year later, Carter officially joined Scene House, bringing her mentorship, expertise, and support. It was an incredibly full circle moment to not only premiere at Nòt, but to take home two awards.

Following the film’s success at Nòt, we continued to tour the festival circuit, receiving recognition and support from Proof Film Festival and Evolution Mallorca.

PROOF Film Festival is a Los Angeles-based festival dedicated to showcasing the best in proof-of-concept short films, fueled by American Cinematheque. PROOF is a highly competitive and uniquely curated short film festival dedicated to proof-of-concept storytelling—offering emerging filmmakers a launchpad for larger projects.

Evolution Mallorca is an independent film festival based in Spain. CMP screened at Evolution Mallorca previously, celebrating In Her Name at the festival in 2022. While attending in Mallorca, Sarah was featured in the “Finding Your Feet in the International Film Market” Panel alongside Academy Award Winner Kim Magnusson.

Thank you to everyone who came out to see the film on the festival circuit this past fall. We cannot wait to continue to celebrate the success of Scene House in 2026!

Petits Salons

On August 26th, 2024, we held our first Petits Salons. Since that evening, we have held 32 events on the rooftop of the Petit Ermitage Hotel, and celebrated our one year anniversary of this extraordinary events series.

Petits Salons is a film and music event series on the magical rooftop of Petit Ermitage Hotel in West Hollywood. These evenings are a beautiful community event and ongoing collaboration between Petit Ermitage, Cheshire Moon Productions, and Blkbrd Films.

Held every other Monday, doors open at 7:00pm for our guests to grab food, drinks, settle into the evening atmosphere. At 7:30pm, we gather to listen to live music inspired by the film in the iconic Wiggle Room. We’ve had some fabulous musical performers join us over the past year, including Viola Harlow, Haute & Freddy, and composer Ali Helnwein.

Following the musical performances, our guests move out to the fire deck on the rooftop for the film screening, which is always accompanied by a Q&A with one of the project’s filmmakers. This year we’ve celebrated some gorgeous, moving, and transcendent pieces of cinema from the Petit Ermitage Rooftop. Some highlights include (but are not limited to) the pilot of the iconic series Lost, Requiem for a Dream, Heathers, Ed Wood, Monos, Cadejo Blanco, Pools, our own A Pity, and showcases from short film festivals Proof and HollyShorts.

Heading in 2026, we will continue to host bimonthly installments of Petits Salons. Don't miss out on these very special evenings and unique opportunities to network with fellow arthouse film lovers.

Moon House

This year, one of our biggest projects was Moon House — the renovation project of our production house and Sarah’s family home. Moon House is another place where story and connection unfold. It’s where beauty and purpose can coexist; where every choice, from the smallest detail to the largest vision, reflects how we live and what we value.

Moon House is being shaped with local artists, craftspeople, and sustainable brands. Together, we’re creating a home rooted in story, nature, and family; a place that heals, welcomes, and transforms. Like independent filmmaking, every detail counts and everyone has to be committed to the vision for the result to shimmer with the sweat and tears that built it. This is the heart of the Moon House Series, an unfolding creative living and home design journey you’re invited into.

Thank you so much to all of our brand partners — Studio Luddite, Twenty One Tonnes, Stone Guard, Revival Rugs, Benisouk, Nordic Knots, Corsten Architectural Design, Lo & Co, Lulu & Georgia, Woodworking Masters, and Reclaimed Wood Source.

And a special thank you to everyone on our core team who helped turn this dream into a reality, including Kelsey Lansdowne, Amber Lestrange, Cristina Holmes, Kate Bruno, Eran Shapov, and Adam Petrishan.

You can follow the Moon House series now on Instagram.

Community Events

In 2025, CMP hosted numerous community events both in Los Angeles and internationally.

In June, we celebrated the book launch for Spirit of Love, the newest novel from New York Times Bestselling author Lauren Kate. In partnership with Annabelle’s Book Club, CMP hosted a book launch event with Q&A moderated by Sarah Carter. A book signing followed the conversation.

In September, we traveled to Italy to partner with Women in Film: A Panel Discussion at Venice International Film Festival. "Reframing the Lens: How Can Women Transform Global Filmmaking?" featured five female panelists whose work was featured at Venice this year, and was co-hosted with Mari-Bi Production, FEMS du Cinema, and Isola Edipo.

Panelists:

Fatima Al Quadiri — Composer, L’étranger

Odessa Rae — Producer, The Voice of Hind Rajab

Yun Huang — Actor, Silent Friend

Anuparna Roy — Director, Songs of Forgotten Trees

Marie-Elsa Squaldo — Director, Silent Rebellion

Moderator:

Rahmatou Keita — Writer/Director

Follow along for more exciting events in 2026.

Projects in Development

Heading into 2026 we have several exciting projects in development, including Darby Gaelle Hannon’s Iron Tears.

Iron Tears is a Western following a husband and wife whose lives are transformed by the unexpected visit of a stranger.

Reminiscent of Jungian psychologist Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ sacred work “Women Who Run With the Wolves”, this film is meant to reintegrate the mysticism of the feminine into our contemporary stories by weaving together monumental mythology of our Western world (the Greek Orpheus and Eurydice, the Judeo-Christian Adam and Eve, and the American Western) and illuminating the beauty and power we have been missing for too long.

Stay tuned for more projects on the horizon in 2026!

Thank You — A Message from CEO Sarah Carter

2025 was rough.

For me, every step forward came with debris to clear and decisions to make—at home, at work, in life. Progress wasn’t linear, but there’s no question I’m waking up in a very different space, and with a different perspective, than I was a year ago.

I’ve stopped saying the renovation is almost done. A home, like any creative act, is never finished. You live inside the making of it. Beauty shows up in flashes. The reward has been in learning to keep myself and my home strong enough to handle change and soft enough to let it move through.

The spaces I hold (Petits Salons, Moon House, the sets and stories at Cheshire Moon Productions) are built with the same intention: places that nourish, provoke, invite play, and hope that whoever enters leaves knowing a little more of themselves, what’s possible, and how essential it is that we all share our gifts.

Thank you for walking this road with me and helping to turn life into a work of art.

Here’s to the magic of 2026!
Happy New Year.