Red Nation Celebration Institute

RED NATION CELEBRATION INSTITUTE
Creating systemic change through film television in all media.

Natives in Charge of Their Narrative

When Natives are in charge of their narrative, storytelling becomes a powerful force for cultural preservation, human rights, and lasting change.

Who Tells the Story Matters

Authentic voices shape culture, challenge perceptions, and create a more inclusive future.

Empowering Native Indigenous Storytellers Since 1995

Red Nation Celebration Institute® (RNCI) The Creative Enterprise by Natives Delivering to All People the Stories that Shape our World. Red Nation Celebration Institute, the longest-running and most successful Native women-led Indigenous impact media arts and cultural nonprofit organization, stands as a cornerstone of Native leadership in the entertainment industry. It is the first Indigenous nonprofit to receive funding from the City of Los Angeles, serving over 575 Native Nations in the U.S. and a total of 1,200 globally. Headquartered in Los Angeles, with an additional office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, RNCI continues to drive meaningful representation and visibility for Native and Indigenous voices in media and the arts.

Based in Los Angeles with office in Santa Fe New Mexico.

Honor & Elevate Native Storytelling

Every $100 donation helps power authentic Native Indigenous storytelling and creates lasting impact.

Your support advances systemic change by expanding opportunities for Native Indigenous filmmakers, artists, and creative leaders. Together, we are transforming the entertainment industry through authentic representation, cultural preservation, education, advocacy, and year-round programming.

RNCI is sustained by visionary donors, artists, industry leaders, and community members who believe that Who Tells the Story Matters®. Your investment helps ensure Native Indigenous voices are seen, heard, and celebrated for generations to come.

Join us. Support the stories that shape our world.

Connecting You to the Native Indigenous Storytellers Shaping Our World

Through RNCI’s global network of Native Indigenous filmmakers, artists, creators, industry leaders, and cultural visionaries, we are building a future where authentic stories are created, celebrated, and shared with audiences around the world.

For more than 30 years, RNCI has connected Native Indigenous storytellers with education, mentorship, industry opportunities, audiences, and strategic partnerships – strengthening a creative ecosystem that advances authentic representation, cultural preservation, economic opportunity, and systemic change through the power of storytelling.

Together, we are shaping the future of Native Indigenous media, arts, and entertainment.

Hollywood Bureau

Native Indigenous Industry Policy & Public Affairs Council

RNCI operates at the intersection of entertainment, media, public policy, education, advocacy, and cultural leadership. For more than 30 years, RNCI has worked to advance Native and Indigenous representation and equity across film, television, media, and popular culture. Through its Hollywood Bureau Native/Indigenous Industry Policy & Public Affairs Council, RNCI serves as a strategic liaison between Indian Country and the entertainment industry, advocating for meaningful representation, greater access, economic opportunity, and Native leadership in the creation and distribution of stories.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, with an office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, RNCI works nationally and internationally with Native Nations, Indigenous communities, filmmakers, artists, students, educators, cultural leaders, policymakers, and entertainment-industry professionals. Its programs and initiatives create platforms for Native people to tell, produce, preserve, distribute, and control their own narratives—while building pathways into the entertainment industry for the next generation.

RNCI’s work goes beyond representation on screen. It addresses the systems that determine who has access, who gets funded, who gets hired, who controls the narrative, and whose stories are preserved for future generations.

Through film festivals, television, education, industry policy, public affairs, cultural preservation, youth development, and human-rights initiatives, RNCI works to create lasting systemic change and establish Native and Indigenous voices as an essential part of the American and global cultural landscape.

Natives in Charge of Their Narrative.
Who Tells the Story Matters®.

Choosing Native Indigenous Stories Shapes Culture and Creates Change

Support authentic storytelling. Champion Native Indigenous voices. Help shape the future of entertainment.

Choosing Native Indigenous Stories Shapes Culture and Creates Change

Authentic storytelling transforms perspectives, strengthens communities, and creates lasting impact. Yet Native and Indigenous voices remain among the most underrepresented in the entertainment industry. RNCI is changing that.

For more than 30 years, RNCI has provided free and accessible resources, educational programs, industry insights, festivals, mentorship, and year-round initiatives that connect audiences, creators, and decision-makers with authentic Native Indigenous stories. By supporting Native-led storytelling, you help expand representation, preserve culture, inspire future generations, and ensure Native Indigenous voices are leading the stories that shape our world.

Support authentic storytelling. Champion Native Indigenous voices. Help shape the future of entertainment.

Mission is to break barriers of racism by creating systemic change through the arts, media and pop culture in order to eliminate Native American stereotypes. Our vision for the future of cinema is one in which Native Indigenous perspectives are authentically pictured, recognized, and valued in a way that promotes strong authentic Native identities, economic outcomes, equity, and wellness for our Indigenous communities.

Red Nation Celebration Institute receives the LMGI ‘Trailblazer Award’ 2022

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Human Rights Initiatives

Red Nation Celebration Institute’s Human Rights Initiatives use film, media, storytelling, and cultural advocacy to raise awareness and inspire action on critical issues impacting Indigenous communities and humanity as a whole. Through Only One Water, RNCI addresses climate action and environmental responsibility by amplifying Indigenous knowledge, traditional ecological practices, and the urgent need to protect water as a sacred and essential resource for all life. Through Why We Wear Red, RNCI advances awareness, remembrance, and advocacy for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Relatives (MMIWG2S), bringing visibility to the ongoing human rights crisis through media, storytelling, and public engagement. Together, these initiatives demonstrate RNCI’s commitment to using the power of arts and culture to advance justice, protect communities, honor Indigenous voices, and create meaningful social change.

Upcoming Events & Festivals

RNCI On The Road: 30th Anniversary

The Red Nation TV Podcasts Return

Indigenous Peoples Day

RNCI Awards Nominee Announcement

31st Edition RNIFF@ AMC The Grove

RNCI Red Nation Awards @ Beverly Hilton Hotel

Stay connected to get all updates from Red Nation Celebration Institute. Read all Press Releases & latest updates

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Red Nation Television Network

Nation Television Network holds the distinction of being the first streaming entertainment media company in the U.S. and worldwide—predating Netflix and all others. As the first Native-led streaming platform, it remains the longest-running Native and Indigenous content provider, delivering distinctive programming that celebrates Native and Indigenous culture, heritage, education, entertainment, and lifestyle.

Red Nation Television Network is a media content provider at the forefront of the Entertainment Industry. Native Indigenous Women owned entertainment media company. CEO and founder Joanelle Romero is an Award-Winning Director/Producer/Actor, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences member, short-listed for an Academy Award and founder/president of Red Nation Celebration Institute the longest-running Native Women-Led Indigenous Media Arts and Cultural non-profit enterprise in the history of the entertainment industry. Based in Los Angeles with offices in Santa Fe New Mexico, serving Indian Country & Entertainment Industry.

Representing over 570+ Native Nations, amplifying more than 5000+ Native and Indigenous content creators through its streaming company Red Nation Television Network, supporting 2700+ Native Indigenous filmmakers through its Red Nation International Film Festival, including films directed by women through its Native Women in Film & Television in All Media. In the last seven years as of 2024 RNCI has screened 280 films directed by women.

Red Nation International Film Festival

Empowering Native Indigenous Storytellers Since 1995.

Red Nation International Film Festival (RNIFF) is the largest Native Indigenous Film Festival in the world and the first in Los Angeles. A program of Red Nation Celebration Institute (RNCI) the Creative Enterprise by Natives delivering to all people the stories that shape our world.

Serving over 570+ Native Nations while amplifying more than 5000+ Native and Indigenous content creators through its streaming company Red Nation Television Network, supporting 2780+ Native Indigenous filmmakers through its Red Nation International Film Festival, including films directed by women through its Native Women in Film & Television in All Media, since 1995. In the last seven years RNCI has screened 280 films directed by women.

Los Angeles is home to the largest urban American Indian and Alaska Native population in the country, with over 200 tribes, including the original peoples of this land: the Tongva, Tataviam, and Chumash.

Native Women In Film & Television

The First and Largest Festival Dedicated to the Representation of Native & Indigenous Women Filmmakers.

The Native Women in Film & Television in All Media Festival (NWIFTV) is a groundbreaking media initiative created to address the persistent lack of representation, visibility, and inclusion of Native and Indigenous women across film, television, and all media.

Our mission is to raise global awareness of the vital role Native women play as filmmakers, directors, producers, writers, actors, creators, and cultural storytellers. This work is directly connected to the urgent crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP), particularly Native and Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people.

Representation matters because visibility can help affirm identity, challenge stereotypes, and ensure Native women are not erased from the stories that shape public consciousness.

Each year, NWIFTV presents a curated selection of films directed by Native and Indigenous women in the lead-up to the Academy Awards, placing Native women filmmakers and their work at the forefront of the entertainment industry.

Native Indigenous Student Academy for Cinematic Arts

The Native Indigenous Student Academy of Cinematic Arts is an international student academy of excellence in film competition, first established in 1995 with the name Native Youth Matter – If We Can See It We Can Be It. Since 1995, Native and Indigenous students have always been included in the submission process for RNCI program ‘Red Nation International Film Festival’.

RNCI Red Nation Awards

Since 1995, the RNCI Red Nation Awards has honored outstanding artistic achievements in television, film, comedy, music and the arts. The show is an integral part of RNCI’s mission and is held on the last day closing the Red Nation International Film Festival. RNCI’s mission is to create greater opportunities for American Indian & Indigenous families in the United States. As a national television special with a cause, the RNCI Red Nation Awards demonstrates how inclusion strengthens the entertainment industry and diversity strengthens our country by promoting fair, accurate, and representative portrayals of American Indian & Indigenous image.

Each November, in celebration of American Indian Heritage Month, the entertainment community and film fans around the world turn their attention to RNCI Red Nation Awards. Interest and anticipation builds as we lead up to the RNCI Red Nation Awards LIVE telecast on Red Nation Television Network, when hundreds of movie lovers tune in to watch the glamorous ceremony and learn who will receive the highest honors in native filmmaking.

World's First Native Indigenous Film Commissions

Economic Development of Native Lands™in partnership with the Entertainment Industry

Red Nation Celebration Institute made history in 2015 at American Film Market. It was the first time that Native Indigenous presence had a main stage at AFM. Establishing ground-breaking initiatives being the first time in the entertainment industry these four initiatives had a global audience.

Native Film Market | RNCI Crew Directory | California Native Indigenous Film Commission | New Mexico Native Indigenous Film Commission

RNCI NATIVE AND INDIGENOUS CREW WORLDWIDE DIRECTORY

Creating Systemic Change through Film & Television

The program is led by Red Nation Celebration Institute with Global partners, it’s a pathway that focuses on entry-level, below-the-line opportunities for Native and Indigenous talent.

The RNCI Indigenous Film Crew Directory provides qualified Native and Indigenous candidates for behind the camera, below the line positions to help studios and producers who want to have more diverse and inclusive film crews for their productions. A cohesive strategic comprehensive database for the entertainment industry.

We connect underrepresented Native and Indigenous crew members to hiring managers who practice inclusive outreach.

Explore All Year Round Programs

The nonprofit enterprise Red Nation Celebration Institute along with its partners of inclusion, hosts screenings and events year-round throughout the United States, as well as abroad and online, to celebrate Native Indigenous independent storytelling, help artists refine their craft, and reach global audiences.

Founded 1995 by Joanelle Romero is the longest standing Native Women-Led, Indigenous media arts cultural pioneer nonprofit enterprise in the Entertainment Industry.

Podcast Series

Red Nation Celebration Institute Podcast Series is an episodic storytelling platform dedicated to amplifying Native and Indigenous voices, perspectives, and narratives across film, television, media, and the arts. Rooted in RNCI’s mission of “Who Tells the Story Matters,” the series creates a space for authentic conversations, cultural exchange, and the preservation of Indigenous stories.

Available through Red Nation Television Network (RNTV) and the Red Nation Films YouTube Channel, the RNCI Podcast Series features live virtual play readings, filmmaker conversations, and engaging discussions with Indigenous and industry leaders, including directors, producers, actors, artists, and storytellers.

Through each episode, RNCI continues to expand access to Indigenous creativity, celebrate artistic excellence, and provide a platform where Native and Indigenous creators are seen, heard, and valued.

RNCI Podcasts Series with USC Bedrosian Center (In-person from 2017-2019)

American Indian Heritage Month In the City of Los Angeles

Collective Sovereignty

Red Nation Celebration Institute created and founded the American Indian Heritage Month in the City/County of Los Angeles in 2005 and officially recognized in 2006 by the State of California and the City of Los Angeles and in the State of New Mexico 2008.

Red Nation Celebration Institute (RNCI) is the first American Indian & Indigenous nonprofit enterprise organization to be funded by The City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department in 2000.