Jackson now finds himself as a co-executive producer with Hollywood royalty, all because he believed in childhood friend and her talents.

Selma native Rippin Sindher has landed one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed directors as an executive producer on her short film “Flight 182” as it campaigns for an Oscar nomination.

Ridley Scott, a four-time Oscar nominee behind films including “Alien,” “Blade Runner” and “Gladiator,” joined the project as executive producer, reported entertainment trade publication Deadline. Emmy-winning actor Archie Panjabi — cast member on the political drama television series “The Good Wife” — came on board as an executive producer earlier this year.

Panjabi, whom Scott directed on “A Good Year” and collaborated with on “The Good Wife,” which he produced, has a long history with the director, Deadline reported. “Ridley has been a guiding force in my career — not only as a master storyteller, but as a mentor who has helped me deepen my search for truth on screen,” Panjabi said.

Written and directed by Sindher, “Flight 182” is a dramatic short film about the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 by Canadian Sikh terrorists that killed all 329 people on board. The events are told from the perspective of a family.

The recognition marks a major milestone for Sindher and her longtime collaborator, Corey Jackson, owner and founder of Fresno-based ScrubCan. The Business Journal profiled the childhood friends in February 2024 after they produced “ZONE,” a documentary about redlining’s lasting effects in the Central Valley.

 

Jackson served as executive producer on Sindher’s projects. Now he finds himself as a co-executive producer with Hollywood royalty on the hunt for an Oscar, all because he believed in childhood friend and her talents.

“It’s wild,” Jackson said in an interview Thursday. “I clean garbage cans. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m not out there in LA, in the industry. But this was an easy decision with Rip’s ability.”

Sindher spent 10 years working for the Directors Guild of America before being selected for a directing fellowship run by Ryan Murphy, where she worked on his Netflix series “Ratched.”

“To have the support of a visionary like Ridley Scott and the incomparable Archie Panjabi is beyond anything I could have imagined,” said Sindher. “I still remember working at the Directors Guild of America when Ridley received the Lifetime Achievement Award; that same year, I released one of my first films. To have him champion my work today is profoundly meaningful and a true full-circle moment.”

Panjabi called “Flight 182” her “favorite film of the year,” praising Sindher as “one of the most electrifying new voices in film today.”

The film has won Best Narrative Short at Imagine This Women’s International Film Festival in New York and earned nominations at the Micheaux Film Festival in Los Angeles.

With those accolades, “Flight 182” is Oscar-qualified, meaning it is open for consideration by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for an award nomination, to be announced Jan. 22, 2026.