Her film "Wake" has won numerous awards, including the Outstanding Independent Short Film award in the Black Reel Awards of 2012 and the Best Short Film at the BET Urban World Film Festival. It has been screened at many film festivals including the 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival in France, the New York International Latino Film Festival, and the Montreal International Black Film Festival. Newsome was the first African-American undergraduate to be nominated for the prestigious Wasserman Award (Spike Lee having won the award as a graduate student).