Announcing the Recipients and Titles of the 2024 SFFILM Rainin Grant

San Francisco, CA – December 5, 2024 – Today, SFFILM announced the recipients of the 2024 SFFILM Rainin Grant, the leading program of the organization’s expanding narrative film grant programs anchored by its flagship partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Recipients receive an unrestricted cash grant of up to $25,000 for screenwriting, development, or post-production, and a two-month residency at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s premier artist residency space. This year’s class is comprised of 17 feature film projects receiving a total of $425,000 in cash grants. In addition, the SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant, now in its fourth cycle, is being awarded to three projects with $25,000 in total granting, and the newly launched SFFILM Krishnan Shah Family Foundation Grant is supporting two projects with a total of $45,000 in direct artist grants. Recipients of these grants will also receive SFFILM’s artist development support and access to FilmHouse.

“The film that an audience gets to see on screen is the finished product, but there are countless months and years of work that have to happen before that moment. This is what our granting programs are all about, giving filmmakers the time and tailored resources they need to get their films to that goal,” said SFFILM’s Executive Director Anne Lai. “Our long partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation has allowed SFFILM to devote attention and expertise to independent filmmakers as they realize their visions. We’re thrilled to welcome the Krishnan Shah Family Foundation as new funders in this space who recognize the immense value in investing in new voices.”

Since 2009, the SFFILM Rainin Grant has supported pioneering films and the visionaries behind them, including Sean Wang’s DÌDI (弟弟), Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, and Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station. The SFFILM Rainin Grant program is the largest granting body for the development and production of independent narrative feature films in the US. The program supports films that address social justice issues—the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges—in a positive and meaningful way through plot, character, theme, or setting. Awards are made to multiple projects once a year, for screenwriting, development, and post-production.

Since 2020, the SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant has been offered to filmmakers whose films specifically address stories from the disability community, ensuring this historically excluded community has better access to artistic and financial support. Joining the ranks of films such as Alison O’Daniel’s The Tuba Thieves and Reid Davenport’s I Didn’t See You There, the recipients of the 2024 SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant are Alice Wong’s Mise En Place; Nathan R. Stenberg, Mike Attie, and Katarina Poljak’s Untitled Pennhurst Documentary; and Liz Roberts and Bree Laursen’s Midwaste. In addition to cash grants of up to $5,000 for short films and $10,000 for feature films, recipients secure a one-year residency at FilmHouse and benefit from SFFILM’s comprehensive and dynamic artist development programs.

This year, SFFILM is also proud to announce the inaugural recipients of the Krishnan Shah Family Foundation Grant, which expands support to feature-length projects exhibiting a distinctive voice and perspective in narrative storytelling. The first-ever recipients of the Krishnan Shah Family Foundation Grant are Kim Torres, Luisa Mora Fernández, Alejandra Vargas Carballo’s If We Don’t Burn, How Do We Light Up the Night and Nico Opper’s Searching for Mateo.

“This year’s cohort of supported filmmakers across all three of these granting programs represents a breadth of storytelling that exemplifies creativity, perspective, and craft, ” said Masashi Niwano, SFFILM’s Director of Artist Development. “We are inspired and passionate for these emerging filmmakers and thrilled to work with them.”

MEET THE 2024 SFFILM RAININ GRANT RECIPIENTS

The SFFILM Rainin Grant program is open to filmmakers from anywhere in the world who can commit to spending time developing the film in San Francisco. Applications for next year will open in early 2025.

Dreamland

Screenwriting
Joie Estrella Horwitz, Screenwriter/Director; Barry Jenkins, Producer; Adele Romanski, Producer; Mark Ceryak, Producer; Catalina Rojter, Producer
A love story blooms during the night shift in a slaughterhouse, where phantoms of the future sit with ghosts of the past.

Fonzel and Gloria

Development
Christopher Cole, Screenwriter/Director; Devin Tusa, Producer; George Rush, Producer; Caroline Kaplan, Producer
When an aging one-hit wonder is diagnosed with a terminal illness, she enlists her rapper grandson on a crime-filled bumbling romp from LA to Oakland.

From a Crooked Rib

Screenwriting
Idil Ibrahim, Screenwriter/Director/Producer
When her grandfather promises her hand to Giumaleh, the oldest man in the village, eighteen year old Ebla makes a decision that alters the course of her life.

Half Orange

Screenwriting
Alejandra Vasquez, Screenwriter/Director
Lucia navigates life as a teenager born to now-divorced teenaged parents, shuttled between her mother’s place in rural Texas and her father’s suburban life in California. As she turns 16, Lucia finds herself in a coming-of-age story about three people, only two of those people happen to be her parents.

Honeyjoon

Post-Production
Lilian T. Mehrel, Screenwriter/Director/Producer; Andreia Nunes, Producer; Alex C. Lo, Producer
Kurdish-Persian Lela and her American daughter June take a trip to the romantic Azores after their major loss—with opposite ideas about this trip, grief, and June’s bikini. Between honeymooners, Woman Life Freedom, and their hot philosophical tour guide João, they find each other… coming back to life.

Karolina and Udochi Dance in the Woods at Dusk!

Development
Osinachi Ibe, Screenwriter/Director/Producer; Thomas Ethan Harris, Producer; Megan Carlson, Producer
During their first summer apart, two childhood best friends discover they have fallen in love with each other and embark on a spiritual journey that changes them forever.

Love Visa

Screenwriting
PJ Raval, Co-writer/Director; Eileen Cabiling, Co-writer; Derek Nguyen, Producer
When Filipino hottie Jon Jon arrives in Texas to marry his Black closeted online lover Harvey, their relationship is put to the test by familial obligations and the social stigmas of a transactional marriage, all while attempting to fit into the American dream.

The Matriarch

Screenwriting
Zandashé Brown, Screenwriter/Director
A young woman, haunted by her mother’s long battle with psychosis, struggles to reconnect after her unexpected recovery. When the death of an estranged family matriarch brings them back to their ancestral home in rural Louisiana, she forms a mysterious connection with her late grandmother—one that threatens to unravel her own grip on reality.

Mouna Tharangam (A Silent Wave)

Development
Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda, Director; Janani Vijayanathan, Producer
In Post-Roe Texas, Amal, an Indian-American woman, grapples with an unexpected pregnancy when her path crosses with a newlywed Indian immigrant, Charulata. Their love sparks a journey of sexual awakening, cultural clash, and profound choices as the specter of abortion looms large.

Mucho Power

Screenwriting
Fernando Frias de la Parra, Screenwriter/Director/Producer; Gerry Kim, Screenwriter/Producer
In 1990s Chicago, Korean immigrant Luke Jung opens a store in the Mexican enclave of Little Village, believing hard work will lead to success. However, his aspirations are challenged by cultural clashes and systemic forces during a time when corporate voracity dominates an increasingly globalized world. Hypnotized by the American Dream, Luke struggles to recognize the futility of a system that moves fast and waits for no one.

No One Turned Away For Lack Of Funds: A Queer-Inclusive Memoir

Screenwriting
LaTajh Weaver, Screenwriter/Director; Sean Gillane, Producer
An escape room master builds an inescapable puzzle room for tourists, while trying to comprehend their own sense of belonging within Oakland’s surreal, radicalized Queer scene.

Pangea Ultima

Development
Estevan Padilla, Screenwriter/Director
Determined to heal their fractured family, a misguided brother and sister take drastic action, kidnapping their estranged parents in a bid for forced reconciliation.

Requiem for a Glacier

Screenwriting
Stephanie Falkeis, Screenwriter/Director
When a young glaciologist is tasked with assessing the glacier near her ancestral village in the remote Alps, she is soon caught in the crossfire of competing interests and her scientific impartiality is put to the test. While the town council expects her green light to build a ski resort they believe will save them from economic ruin, her estranged eco-activist mother is willing to defend the glacier from destruction at all costs. A feminist anti-western set in a dying landscape.

Rosemead

Post-Production
Eric Lin, Director; Mynette Louie, Producer; Andrew Corkin, Producer; Lucy Liu, Producer
An immigrant mother in California’s San Gabriel Valley takes desperate measures to help her unstable teenage son as she uncovers his obsession with mass shootings. Inspired by true events.

Strangers

Screenwriting
Karishma Dev Dube, Screenwriter/Director/Producer
Pari and Tara are complete strangers, until a chance encounter on a New York City subway platform instigates inexplicable and profound connections between them. Set between New Delhi and New York, the film explores how these two women quietly unravel in tandem: with lovers, at home, and in public.

SummerWinterSummer

Development
Thy Tran, Screenwriter/Director/Producer
Grappling with a heartbreak, a gay, Vietnamese American creative drifts through the cycle of disappointment, rejection, and quiet despair, spiraling into self-destruction until he confronts the weight of familial scars and rediscovers his true self.

Sweeping Graves

Screenwriting
Kevin D. Wong, Screenwriter/Director; Vanessa Gentry, Screenwriter/Producer
Chinese American realtor Brandon buys a building in San Francisco Chinatown and evicts the tenants, eager to make the biggest sale of his career. But as he begins to renovate, the building’s hidden history returns to haunt him, and he’s drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the former tenants that will cost him more than he bargained for.

The jury panelists who reviewed the finalist’s submissions are Danielle Massie, Producer and Head of Development & Production, Park Pictures; Joenique Rose, Project Involve Manager, Film Independent; Inês Pedrosa e Melo, Filmmaker; Moy Eng, Board Member, Kenneth Rainin Foundation; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development, SFFILM; Rosa Morales, Artist Development Manager of Narrative Programs, SFFILM; and Erika Arnold, Artist Development Associate Manager, SFFILM.

MEET THE 2024 SFFILM RAININ FILMMAKERS WITH DISABILITIES GRANT RECIPIENTS

Midwaste (Documentary Feature)

In Production
Liz Roberts, Director; Bree Laursen, Director
Two friends from the Midwest reunite after 25 years by using a VHS archive to connect the long thread of their past selves to who they are now. Midwaste is a vivid and personal exploration of drug use, healthcare inequity, and the carceral system.

Mise En Place (Documentary Short)

In Production
Alice Wong, Director
Several months in the life of Alice Wong, an Asian American disabled activist and writer in San Francisco, as she dreams about food and feeds her loved ones even though she cannot eat or drink by mouth.

Untitled Pennhurst Documentary (Documentary Feature)

In Production
Nathan R. Stenberg, Director; Mike Attie, Director; Katarina Poljak, Director
After a lawsuit shutters an institution for disabled people due to years of horrific abuse, a new group of disabled actors reclaim the space to create a haunted house inspired by their own history. This character-driven film follows one season in the life of the Pennhurst community, as a group of disabled actors prepare for the opening of Pennhurst Asylum—from auditions to construction to performance—while also preserving the memory of the embattled space.

The jury panelists who reviewed the finalist’s submissions are Olivia Handrahan, Development Coordinator, Inevitable Foundation; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development, SFFILM; Joshua Moore, Artist Development Manager of Documentary Programs, SFFILM; Rosa Morales, Artist Development Manager of Narrative Programs, SFFILM; and Erika Arnold, Artist Development Associate Manager, SFFILM.

MEET THE 2024 KRISHNAN SHAH FAMILY FOUNDATION GRANT RECIPIENTS

If We Don’t Burn, How Do We Light Up the Night

Post-Production
Kim Torres, Screenwriter/Director; Luisa Mora Fernández, Screenwriter; Alejandra Vargas Carballo, Producer
In a realm where mystique weaves through the ordinary, thirteen-year-old Laura ventures into a secluded town, haunted by tales of a beast that preys on women. When she meets the radiant Daniela, their friendship quietly—but surely—takes her on a journey that unravels the true nature of the beast.

Searching for Mateo

Development
Nico Opper, Screenwriter/Director
Searching for Mateo is a psychological drama about a queer couple from Oakland who take their ten-year-old adopted son, Mateo, on vacation to Roatán, Honduras—the island where his birth family is from—to help him learn about his roots. Early in the trip, Mateo disappears without a trace.
Review participants for the Krishnan Shah Family Foundation Grant include Anne Lai, the Executive Director of SFFILM; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development, SFFILM; Rosa Morales, Artist Development Manager of Narrative Programs, SFFILM; grant funder Lata Krishnan; and Laura Wagner, film producer and co-founder, Bay Bridge Productions.

ABOUT THE KENNETH RAININ FOUNDATION

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation enhances quality of life by championing the arts, promoting early childhood literacy, and supporting research to cure chronic disease.

ABOUT THE KRISHNAN SHAH FAMILY FOUNDATION

The family foundation (KSF) is an active philanthropic supporter of local, national and international development organizations. Lata Krishnan is the co-founder and Chairperson of the American India Foundation (AIF) and is also on the board of Stanford Hospital and a few other community organizations such as the Accion Opportunity Fund. The foundation is a supporter of both US and international development organizations in education, healthcare, livelihoods, climate and conservation, public broadcasting and media, and in supporting advanced research organizations.

ABOUT SFFILM MAKERS

Since 2009, SFFILM Makers programs have granted over $10 million to more than 750 independent filmmakers worldwide. Through its partnerships with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Jenerosity Foundation, and more, SFFILM Makers provides sustained creative resources, fellowships, residencies, and advisory services. In addition to premiering at marquee festivals around the world, SFFILM supported films are showcased annually at the San Francisco International Film Festival and Doc Stories documentary series.

ABOUT SFFILM

SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM connects and inspires audiences, students and teachers, and filmmakers through film exhibition, youth education, and artist development programs. Annual public film programs include the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) which is the longest running film festival in the Americas, Doc Stories documentary showcase, special events with the best and boldest in contemporary film, and family programming. SFFILM Education serves more than 15,000 local students and educators with learning opportunities designed to cultivate media literacy, global citizenship, and a lifelong love of movies. SFFILM Makers supports the careers of independent filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond with grants, residencies, and other creative development services.

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