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Meet the 2022 Documentary Film Fund Winners

Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund (DFF) has supported feature-length documentaries in post-production that are distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters, and an innovative visual approach. DFF has distributed nearly $1 million to advance new work by filmmakers worldwide, many of whom go on to premiere at festivals like Sundance, our own San Francisco International Film Festival, Tribeca and more, as well as collect dozens of nominations and awards including the Oscars.

This year’s winners include Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn’s Going Varsity in Mariachi (premiering at Sundance this month), Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan’s Made in Ethiopia, Nadav Kurtz’s Untitled Sam and Omar Project, and Kevin Duncan Wong, Kar Yin Tham, and Todd Still’s Home is a Hotel (Working Title).

“In an incredibly competitive slate of submissions, we are thrilled with the winning selections. All of these films explore the human experience in new and powerful ways that truly moved our jury to tears,“ said Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development at SFFILM.

The panelists who reviewed the submissions were Ximena Amescua, Artist Manager at Firelight Media; Jameka Autry, Principal and Producer at Beholden Films; Joshua Moore, Manager of Documentary Programs at SFFILM; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development at SFFILM; Sabrina Sellers, Artist Development Coordinator at SFFILM.

“With over 300 submissions and ten exceptional finalists to choose from, this was one of the most competitive review panels we’ve had for the Doc Film Fund,” remarked the panel. “Ultimately our jury selected four superb and distinct films that we believe will be successful and accessible as they near the end of post-production.”

“We felt these four projects not only presented compelling, compassionate, and timely subject material, but each have a unique and creative approach that sets them apart,” they said. “The winners are all emerging filmmakers making their feature debuts, some having already made award-winning shorts, and we couldn’t be more excited to see the impact this grant will have on their burgeoning careers.”

Previous DFF winners include Sarvnik Kaur’s Against the Tide making its 2023 Sundance debut, Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s Writing With Fire, which won Audience and Special Jury Awards at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland, which won a record number of juried awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Academy Awards for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Language Film, RaMell Ross’ Hale County This Morning, This Evening, which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2018 and was nominated for the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and many others.

The 2022 Documentary Film Fund is made possible thanks to support from Jennifer Hymes Battat and the Jenerosity Foundation along with Tom Knutsen and Katie Hall.

2022 Documentary Film Fund Winners

Going Varsity in Mariachi

Alejandra Vasquez, Director; Sam Osborn, Director; Julia Pontecorvo, Producer; James Lawler, Producer; Luis Miranda, Producer

In the richly competitive world of high school mariachi, the musicians from the borderlands of South Texas reign king. Under the guidance of coach Abel Acuña, the teenage captains of Edinburg North High School’s acclaimed Mariachi Oro must turn a shoestring budget and motley crew of inexperienced musicians into state champions.

Made in Ethiopia

Xinyan Yu, Director/Producer; Max Duncan, Director/Producer/Cinematographer; Tamara Mariam Dawit, Producer

Three pioneering women navigate the bumpy expansion of the biggest Chinese industrial zone in Ethiopia.

Untitled Sam and Omar Project

Nadav Kurtz, Director/Producer; Diane Quon, Producer; Jeremiah Zagar, Executive Producer; Jeremy Yaches, Executive Producer; Abby Lynn Kang Davis, Executive Producer

Omar Bader was only eight years old when his father Sam, a film producer, was arrested and sentenced to a 24-year prison sentence. Now twenty-three, Omar struggles under the weight of his father’s long absence. But through a creative collaboration facilitated by prison visits and phone calls, Sam helps Omar summon the courage to pursue his artistic dreams and begins the process of healing their relationship.

Home is a Hotel (Working Title)

Kevin Duncan Wong, Director/Producer; Kar Yin Tham, Co-Director/Producer; Todd Sills, Co-Director/Producer

Within the walls of their 80-square-foot SRO hotel rooms, five diverse San Francisco residents strive against cyclical forces and a housing crisis in their search for a place to call home.

About SFFILM Makers

SFFILM Makers, SFFILM’s artist development program, provides significant strategic and creative resources to independent filmmakers through grants, fellowships, residencies, and individual consultations. Since 2009, over $8.5 million has been disbursed to more than 250 feature projects. SFFILM’s suite of grants includes the SFFILM Rainin Grant and several programs in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; and the Documentary Film Fund, a partnership with the Jenerosity Foundation.

Notable narrative films and filmmakers that have received support from SFFILM Makers include Rainin Grant recipients Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth, Fernando Frias’ I’m No Longer Here, Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men, Nia DaCosta’s Little Woods, Nijla Mu’min’s Jinn, and Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station. Supported documentary features include Documentary Film Fund recipients CJ Hunt’s The Neutral Ground, Assia Boundaoui’s The Feeling of Being Watched, Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland, Liza Mandelup’s Jawline, Luke Lorentzen’s Midnight Family, and RaMell Ross’ Hale County This Morning, This Evening.

Learn more about the SFFILM Makers program here.

Stay In Touch With SFFILM

SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM works hard to bring the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.

2022 Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellows Announced

$70,000 in fellowships has been awarded to filmmakers Temi Ojo and Mark Ingber for uplifting science in narrative films

SFFILM—in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the nation’s leading philanthropic grantor for science and the arts—has announced the recipients of fellowships for the SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Initiative. SFFILM launched the program in 2015 to celebrate and highlight cinema that brings together science and the art of storytelling, showing how these two seemingly disparate areas can combine to enhance the power of one another. The selections are meant to immerse a broad public audience in the challenges and rewards of scientific discovery, as well as to engage members of the scientific community.

The initiative includes exhibition programs, awards, and screenwriting fellowships that foster collaboration between scientists and artists and elevate filmmakers who tackle scientific or technological themes and characters. Past awards and exhibitions include Colin West’s Linoleum, starring Jim Gaffigan and Rhea Seehorn and Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio among many others.

Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellows

Two filmmakers have been selected to receive Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships, which will support the development of their narrative feature screenplays. The fellowship is designed to ensure that narrative feature films that tell compelling stories about the worlds of science and technology continue to be made and seen. From an open call for submissions, the 2022 Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships have been awarded to two outstanding filmmakers.

Microchip engineer-turned-filmmaker Temi Ojo’s screenplay A Man with a Missing Face tells the story of an elderly Black man undergoing a life-risking face transplant surgery. His daughter must reconcile her emotional trauma with the new person her father is becoming. Ojo’s project is Inspired by the true story of Robert Chelsea, the first Black man and oldest person to date to receive a full face transplant.

Filmmaker Mark Ingber delves into the world of winemaking for his screenplay Terroir. When Marianne, a rebellious biochemistry PhD candidate, is called back from university to her family’s failing Bordeaux vineyard, she inadvertently plummets the winery into an existential crisis when, in an attempt to save the business, she creates a wine in a laboratory better than any ever made from their grapes.

“We are excited to be awarding this grant to two powerful projects that explore fascinating scientific advancements while also addressing socially prevalent issues through artful storytelling,” the prize’s review committee said in a statement. “From a comedic and nuanced story about a struggling winery and how the advancement of synthetic wine may either make it or break it, to a heartfelt true story of a major life-changing surgery and the complicated journey to healing, both films lead conversations on the application of controversial technologies and how we grapple with truth, identity, the vital questions society must address, and how science holds the answers. We are thrilled to be able to support the distinct voices of these writers and their unique approaches to storytelling. SFFILM and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation are excited to continue to work together in championing films and filmmakers that inspire and expand the public understanding of science and technology.”

The review committee members who reviewed the finalists’ projects included: Aneeta Akhurst, Vice President of Content & Community, XPRIZE; Brad Balukjian, Ph.D., Director of Natural History & Sustainability Program at Merritt College; Patrick House, Ph.D., writer and neuroscientist; Rosa Morales, Artist Development Associate Manager of Narrative Programs at SFFILM; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development at SFFILM; Kelly Sutherland, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Biology at Oregon Institute of Marine Biology; Indre Viskontas, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of San Francisco; and Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Winners of the Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship will receive a $35,000 cash grant and a two-month residency at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s suite of production offices for local and visiting independent filmmakers. The residency program provides filmmakers with artistic guidance, office space, a vibrant creative community, and mentorship from established filmmakers and members of the independent film industry. To strengthen their film’s portrayal of science or technology, each fellow will be connected to a science advisor with expertise in the subjects at the center of their screenplays, as well as leaders in the Bay Area’s science and technology communities.

To learn more about Artist Development opportunities at SFFILM, browse our website and sign up for our newsletter.

Wrap Notes: SFFILM 2022—Our End-of-Year Reflections + Highlights

As 2022 comes to a close, SFFILM’s Anne Lai reflects on a wonderful year for film in the Bay Area.

A Letter from Our Executive Director

Fellow Film Lovers,

This year we had the privilege of seeing so many of you at in-person events in our city’s most beloved theaters. As a lover of movies, I felt both inspired by the enthusiasm of our audiences, filmmakers, and guests, and reinvigorated by sharing in our collective appreciation of cinema. As the Executive Director of SFFILM, I felt reaffirmed in our organization’s mission.

We believe deeply in the power of the arts and particularly cinematic storytelling to bring hope, inspiration, opportunity, and knowledge to the world. We believe that film brings communities together. Film was born as one of the most accessible art forms over a hundred years ago. And, especially now, it provides one of the most influential and impactful forms of storytelling we have. We invest in films, filmmakers (current and future), and audiences of all ages because it is imperative to advocate for independent voices, thoughts, and perspectives.

All of our successes would not have been possible without the generous support of our members, the guiding vision of our board members, the admirable contributions of our staff, and the meaningful efforts of our seasonal employees and year-round volunteers. Here, we’re revisiting these successes and other highlights, so please read on.
For now, I wish you a restful, reflective, and reinvigorating holiday season.

Warmly,
Anne Lai
Executive Director, SFFILM

SFFILM 2022 Review: From Michelle Yeoh to Ryan Coogler

San Francisco International Film Festival Highlights

As many of you know, this past year marked the 65th San Francisco International Film Festival. Deeply rooted in the notion of film appreciation—film as an art form and as a meaningful force for social change—the Festival encapsulates so much of SFFILM’s mission.

One of the Festival’s most exciting events was A Tribute to Michelle Yeoh, who graciously revisited her filmography while in conversation with Sandra Oh. “We are so blessed that we get to walk in and out of the lives of these characters,” Yeoh told a packed Castro Theatre about her experience leading the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once. “What I found is we were able to find joy. This family—they never gave up. And that’s what we have to do for each other… At the end of the day, stay strong.”

Since we returned to in-person programming in earnest this year, Yeoh’s words felt even more striking. However, that tribute was just one of the many memorable moments from this year’s Festival. The 11-day event featured a range of marquee premieres, international competitions, compelling documentaries, short and mid-length programs, live music performances, and dazzling red carpet events.

Audiences who attended the latest chapter of the longest-running film festival in the Americas had access to a slate of 130 films from 56 countries. Not to mention, 16 of those screenings marked world premieres. Showings of Stay Awake (Jamie Sisley; USA), Breaking (Abi Damaris Corbin; USA), and Cha Cha Real Smooth (Cooper Raiff; USA) comprised The Festival’s distinguished Opening, Centerpiece, and Closing events, respecitvely.

Other programs of note included tributes and honors to Jenny Slate (Marcel the Shell With Shoes On; USA) and the Persistence of Vision Award for Trinh T. Minh-ha (What About China?; USA, China). We also celebrated our Academy Awards-qualifying* 2022 Golden Gate Awards (GGA), which included:

McBaine Documentary Feature—I Didn’t See You There (Reid Davenport; USA) and Master of Light (Rosa Ruth Boesten; USA, Netherlands)
New Directors Prize—Hit the Road (Panah Panahi; Iran)
Animated Short*—Sierra (Sander Joon; Estonia)
Documentary Short*—Long Line of Ladies (Shaadiin Tome and Rayka Zehtabchi; USA) and Holding Moses (Rivkah Beth Medow and Jen Rainin; USA, Japan)
Family Films—Battery Daddy (Seung-bae Jeon; South Korea)
Mid-Lengths—The Time of the Fireflies (Mattis Appelqvist Dalton, Matteo Robert Morales; Mexico, USA, Belgium)
Narrative Shorts*—Busan, 1999 (Thomas Kim; South Korea) and Half-Day (Morgan Mathews; USA)
New Visions—Listen to the Beat of Our Images (Audrey Jean-Baptiste, Maxime Jean-Baptiste; France, French Guiana)
Cine Latino—The Employer and the Employee (Manolo Nieto; Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, France)
Youth Works—Honeybee (Emilio Vazquez Reyes; USA)

SFFILM Presents Review

While the San Francisco International Film Festival is our headlining event, Bay Area cinephiles also enjoyed special screenings of some of 2022’s most significant movies during summer and fall which started with Adamma Ebo’s Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. with Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown in person in August; a September sneak peek of Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, with Hair and Makeup Department Heads Jaime Leigh McIntosh and Tina Roesler Kerwin in attendance; in October, a tribute to Gina Prince-Bythewood with a screening of The Woman King with composer Terence Blanchard presenting the award to Gina, as well as a screening of Charlotte Wells’s debut feature Aftersun featuring the director herself in person; and in November, we celebrated SF Honors with Guillermo del Toro and his newest feature, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio at the Dolby Theater.

All of this was rounded out by Doc Stories—our documentary showcase of some of the year’s finest works, including the world premiere of Marina Zenovich’s Jerry Brown: The Disruptor; Laura Poitras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli’s Lakota Nation vs. United States; Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes; and Chris Smith’s Sr., which was produced by its subject’s son: Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr.

Photo by Tommy Lau

Vogue Theatre at SFFILM Doc Stories

Photo by Pamela Gentile

Marina Zenovich at SFFILM Doc Stories

Photo by Tommy Lau

Governor Jerry Brown at SFFILM Doc Stories

Photo by Tommy Lau

Shaunak Sen at SFFILM Doc Stories

Photo by Tommy Lau

Laura Poitras at SFFILM Doc Stories

Photo by Tommy Lau

Photo by Pamela Gentile

Lakota Nation Vs United States Filmmakers at SFFILM Doc Stories

As awards season neared, we hosted SFFILM Awards Night, which honored four of contemporary cinema’s greatest talents. This year’s awardees were:

Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) — Irving M. Levin Award for Directing
Sarah Polley (Women Talking) — SFFILM Award for Storytelling
Margot Robbie (Babylon) — Maria Manetti Shrem Award for Acting
Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once) — George Gund III Award

Photo by Tommy Lau

Joan Chen

Photo by Tommy Lau

Stephanie Hsu

Photo by Tommy Lau

Danai Gurira

Photo by Tommy Lau

Danai Gurira and Ryan Coogler

Photo by Tommy Lau

Margot Robbie and Diego Calva

Photo by Tommy Lau

Jessica Fairbanks, Sarah Polley, Mariecar Mendoza, and Anne Lai

SFFILM Director of Programming Jessica Fairbanks, Sarah Polley, Mariecar Mendoza, and SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai

SFFILM Makers at a Glance

After many years spent in the Presidio and Chinatown, SFFILM staff took time this year to really settle into our new headquarters in SoMa. In doing so, we reopened a space for FilmHouse, our community hub that provides Bay Area-based documentary and narrative filmmakers with artistic guidance, office space, a vibrant creative community, and support from established film industry professionals. We were thrilled to welcome filmmakers back to an in-personal, communal gathering space.

In 2022, we also provided funding and artist development support to independent filmmakers through several annual grants. In partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, SFFILM awarded $450,000 in grants to 18 narrative feature projects in various stages of production in the latest round of the SFFILM Rainin Grant program. While you can read about the projects in full, recipients included:

1791 | Stefani Saintonge, writer/director/producer + Sebastien Denis, writer/director/producer
Cousins | Adrian Burrell, writer/director; Alex Bledsoe, producer; Sue-Ellen Chitunya, producer + Saeed Crumpler, co-writer
Dìdi (弟弟) | Sean Wang, writer/director/producer; Carlos López Estrada, producer + Kelly Marie Tran, producer
Dreaming of Lions | Paolo Marinou-Blanco, writer/director
From Honey to Ashes | Emily Cohen Ibañez, writer
In My Father’s House | Abbesi Akhamie, writer/director
Joyride | Edwin Alexis Gómez, writer/director + Evelyn Angelica Martinez, producer
Late Spring | Yuan Yuan, writer/director
Rowdy By Nature | Morningstar Angeline, writer/director
Ruby: Portrait of a Black Teen in an American Suburb | Raven Johnson, writer/director
Santa Anita | David Liu, writer/director + Xin Li, producer
Signs Preceding the End of the World | Joie Estrella Horwitz, writer/director; Luis Gutiérrez Arias, writer/director; Kindred Spirit, producer + Bahìa Colectiva, producer
The President’s Cake | Hasan Hadi, writer/director
The Stud | Matthew Puccini, writer/director
Tokyo Forever | Andres Piñeros, writer/director; Federico Piñeros, producer + John Chaparro, producer
Uncle Hiep’s Casino | Richard Van, writer/director + Betty Hu, producer
Welcome to Roswell | StormMiguel Florez, writer/director/producer
Where Is the Healer? | Tebogo Malebogo, writer/director/producer + Petrus van Staden, producer

But these weren’t the only grants SFFILM provided this year. We collaborated, again, with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for the SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities grant, awarding the funds to Sarah Granger in support of her film The Pain-Free Day. In partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation—the nation’s leading philanthropic grantor for science and the arts—SFFILM awarded filmmakers Temi Ojo (A Man with a Missing Face) and Mark Ingber (Terroir) 2022’s Sloan Science in Cinema fellowships. Our Documentary Film Fund winners will be publicly announced in January.

There was no better way to cap off a wonderful year for SFFILM Makers than with the announcement of the Sundance International Film Festival lineup. Of the 99 films that will screen at Sundance, seven of them are SFFILM-supported projects, including:

Against the Tide | Sarvnik Kaur, director/producer; Koval Bhatia, producer | SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund; SFFILM Invest | Appearing In—International Documentary Competition
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt | Raven Jackson, writer/director; Maria Altamirano, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, producers | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant; SFFILM Westridge Grant | Appearing In—U.S. Dramatic Competition
Fancy Dance | Erica Tremblay, writer/director/producer; Miciana Alise, writer | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant | Appearing In—U.S. Dramatic Competition
Fremont | Babak Jalali, writer/director; Marjaneh Moghimi, producer; George Rush, producer | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant | Appearing In—Next
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project | Joe Brewster, co-director/producer; Michéle Stephenson, co-director/producer | SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund; SFFILM Invest | Appearing In—U.S. Documentary Competition
Going Varsity in Mariachi | Alejandra Vasquez, director; Sam Osborn, director; Julia Pontecorvo, producer; James Lawler, producer; Luis Miranda, producer | SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund | Appearing In—U.S. Documentary Competition
The Tuba Thieves | Allison O’Daniel, director/producer; Rachel Nederveld, Wendy Ettinger, Maida Lynn, Su Kim, Maya E. Rudolph, producers | SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant | Appearing In—Next

SFFILM Education, In Brief

Our Education team ensures that filmmaking and film literacy are more accessible to the Bay Area’s youngest movie fans. The annual Schools at the Festival program, which took place at the 65th San Francisco International Film Festival, is just one example of this vital outreach; in connecting the Bay Area community and schools with the Festival, students of all ages can be inspired, moved, and connected to stories from around the world.

SFFILM’s Director of Education Keith Zwölfer said, “It’s been an extremely difficult two years for parents, students, and teachers. We were fortunate to be able to implement online resources and still provide meaningful and impactful experiences, but our passion truly lives in the impact we achieve through in-person educational events. So, it was fantastic to be able to bring school groups back in 2022. Nothing compares to seeing and hearing hundreds of students reacting to world class cinema in a theater with their peers. The silver lining of the pandemic is that we’ve learned to utilize online programming to supplement our in-person offerings, providing a level of accessibility we didn’t have previously for the Bay Area while also allowing us to expand our reach throughout the country and internationally.”

This year’s program reached 11,000 students and teachers for 19 in-person and online screenings and 24 school visits. Along with our Bay Area participants, we also had school groups from 14 states—as well as the UK and Canada—who viewed our online offerings.

When it comes to hands-on experiences, our annual Youth Filmmaker Camp allows participants to learn from local professionals, and then take what they learn and apply it to their own short narrative films. This year, 38 campers learned about screenwriting, filming, and editing over each of the camp’s two-week sessions. SFFILM provided 20 full scholarships ($1000) and one partial scholarship ($600). In addition to our in-house educators, Bay Area filmmakers Trevor Jiminez, Morgan Mathews, Joshua Pausanos, Ashley Valenzuela, Kar Yin Tham, Kein Wong, and Jim LeBrecht all provided campers with invaluable insight, too.

Other events throughout the year included a family screening of Turning Red, with Oscar-winning director Domee Shi (Bao) and production designer Rona Liu (Kitbull) in attendance. The screening had roughly 600 attendees, making it a wonderful way to welcome families back to in-person movie-going. In the fall, over 800 people attended the world premiere of ONI: Thunder God’s Tale, a 3D stop-motion hybrid animated fantasy series created by Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi (Dam Keeper).

A few weeks later, SFFILM made Doc Stories more accessible to students with Education’s first in-person iteration of Schools at Doc Stories. Across nine in-person and online screenings, and one in-person school visit, we served 4,772 students and teachers. School groups from 12 states as well as the UK also tuned in, building on our resolve to make film education more accessible and equitable to all students.

Throughout Doc Stories weekend, Disney Legend and long-time animator Floyd Norman (The Jungle Book, 1967) and Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot (The Queen of Basketball) of Breakwater Studios both stopped by to speak with young film lovers. To close out Schools at Doc Stories we held online Q&A sessions with filmmakers, which were attended by 3,400 K–12 students.

To close out a successful 2022, Youth Residency sessions will be held at FilmHouse (and virtually) in the coming weeks.

SFFILM 2023: What’s Ahead?

As we look ahead to a fresh year of exhibitions, artist development initiatives, and educational programming, the whole SFFILM team is motivated to continue our organization’s essential work. Make sure to save the date for the 2023 of the San Francisco International Film Festival, which will be held April 13–23. Until then, we will see you at the movies.

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Announcing the 2022 SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant Winner

SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grantee to receive $25,000

Writer Sarah Granger and her film, The Pain-Free Day, has been selected to receive funding through SFFILM’s suite of artist development programs, which provides financial and artistic support to artists worldwide. The SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant, introduced in 2020, supports Bay Area-based filmmakers whose films specifically address stories from the disability community. Ensuring historically excluded communities have access to artistic and financial support in order to create a more inclusive film landscape is at the core of SFFILM and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s partnership.

“We are thrilled to be supporting Sarah and her film at this exciting screenwriting stage. We are deeply moved by the personal nature of the story and the sensitive mother-daughter relationship at its core,” the panel who chose the grantee noted in a statement. “The Pain-Free Day is a powerfully written script, as well as a particularly exciting opportunity to expand the scope of understanding disability within our communities. We are extremely grateful to the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for their continued partnership in new initiatives to support filmmakers in sharing their stories with the world.”

The panel that reviewed submissions for the SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant included Emily Smith Beitkis, Associate Director, Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University; Rosa Morales, Artist Development Associate Manager: Narrative Film, SFFILM; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development, SFFILM; and Shelley Trott, Chief Program Officer, Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

About the Filmmaker and Film

Sarah Granger is a writer and producer drawn to stories of misunderstood people seeking connection—to one another and the world around them. Originally from Kansas City, she studied computer science, playwriting, and screenwriting at the University of Michigan before making her way to the San Francisco area, where she built a career working with technology, digital media, and social good organizations.

In 2006, Sarah sustained pelvic nerve damage while giving birth, leading to permanent neuralgia—and a pivot to writing, first as a journalist and author, and then as a screenwriter in 2018. Her feature screenplay, The Pain-Free Day, was selected as one of eight juried scripts on the 2020 Disability List curated by The Black List and the WGA Writers with Disabilities Committee. Her scripts have been recognized in multiple competitions and she participated in the 2021 RespectAbility Entertainment Lab and 2022 Stowe Story Lab.

Sarah strives to amplify underrepresented voices. She is an associate producer on three upcoming short films and executive producer of a micro-budget feature, Stay With Me, which is now at festivals. Sarah’s own narrative projects tend to include at least one character with a visible or invisible disability. Her bestselling nonfiction book, The Digital Mystique, was published by Seal Press, while her articles her articles have been published in The Huffington Post, LA Weekly, Slate, Inverse, and SFGate.

The Pain-Free Day Synopsis

After struggling for years housebound with severe pelvic pain, a dejected mother takes a risk and pulls her teenage daughter out of school for one day in an attempt to mend their strained relationship.

About the SFFILM Rainin Grant

The SFFILM and Kenneth Rainin Foundation partnership is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the United States. SFFILM Rainin Grants are awarded to filmmakers whose narrative feature films will have a significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community and/or meaningfully explore pressing social issues.

The SFFILM Rainin Grant is currently accepting applications for the 2023 cycle; the final deadline to apply is April 28, 2023. For more information learn more here.

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Record Setting 8 SFFILM-Supported Films Headed to Sundance 2023

Meet the SFFILM Makers behind the SFFILM-supported titles

On Wednesday, December 7, the Sundance Institute revealed the slate of films that will premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. After two years of virtual programming, the long-running film festival will return in-person to Park City, Utah on January 19, 2023.

Securing a spot in the Sundance Film Festival lineup is no easy feat. Thanks to our SFFILM Makers programs, which include our FilmHouse Residency, the Documentary Film Fund, the Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship, and the flagship SFFILM Rainin Grant — the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the US — SFFILM helps independent filmmakers break through. And, for the second time, a filmmaker supported by the SFFILM Rainin Grant for Filmmakers with Disabilities has been invited to show their work at Sundance.

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival slate includes a record-setting eight (8!) SFFILM-supported features, validating the integral part SFFILM plays in providing independent storytellers with the necessary advisory services, work space, and artist community for filmmakers to develop, complete, and submit their projects to festivals. “We are thrilled for our supported filmmakers, who will be premiering their films at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival,” said Masashi Niwano, SFFILM’s Director of Artist Development. “Their voices are fresh and diverse, and they all share a similar strength: bold storytelling and unique perspectives that we believe can change the world. We cannot wait for audiences to see these eight powerful films.”

The eight SFFILM-supported projects screening at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival are:

Against the Tide
Sarvnik Kaur, director/producer; Koval Bhatia, producer
SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund; SFFILM Invest
Appearing In—International Documentary Competition

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Raven Jackson, writer/director; Maria Altamirano, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, producers
SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant; SFFILM Westridge Grant
Appearing In—U.S. Dramatic Competition

Earth Mama
Savanah Leaf, writer/director/producer; Cody Ryder, producer; Danielle Massie, co-producer
SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant

Fancy Dance
Erica Tremblay, writer/director/producer; Miciana Alise, writer
SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant
Appearing In—U.S. Dramatic Competition

Fremont
Babak Jalali, writer/director; Marjaneh Moghimi, producer; George Rush, producer; Laura Wagner, producer; Carolina Cavalli, writer
SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Grant
Appearing In—Next

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Joe Brewster, co-director/producer; Michèle Stephenson, co-director/producer
SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund; SFFILM Invest
Appearing In—U.S. Documentary Competition

Going Varsity in Mariachi
Alejandra Vasquez, director; Sam Osborn, director; Julia Pontecorvo, producer; James Lawler, producer; Luis A. Miranda, Jr., producer
SFFILM Support Received—Documentary Film Fund
Appearing In—U.S. Documentary Competition

The Tuba Thieves
Alison O’Daniel, director/producer; Wendy Ettinger, executive producer; Rachel Nederveld, Maida Lynn, Su Kim, Maya E. Rudolph, producers
SFFILM Support Received—SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant
Appearing In—Next

Since 2009, SFFILM has distributed more than $8.5 million to over 300 films through our various filmmaker-centered initiatives. SFFILM-supported projects include works by SFFILM Rainin Grant recipients, such as Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth, Fernando Frias’ I’m No Longer Here, Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Nia DaCosta’s Little Woods, Nijla Mu’min’s Jinn, and Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station. On the documentary feature side, SFFILM-supported projects include those by Documentary Film Fund recipients, such as CJ Hunt’s The Neutral Ground, Assia Boundaoui’s The Feeling of Being Watched, Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland, Liza Mandelup’s Jawline, Luke Lorentzen’s Midnight Family, and RaMell Ross’ Hale County This Morning, This Evening, among many other remarkable films.

Sharing compelling works from up-and-coming independent filmmakers with fresh perspectives, inventive ideas, and singular styles aligns deeply with the work SFFILM does. Outside of the San Francisco International Film Festival, events like Sundance help such works reach a wider audience and, hopefully, secure distribution deals that will continue to amplify the films’ messages and increase their visibility.

Congratulations to all the filmmakers on this major accomplishment!