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Blog

Meet the 2024 SFFILM Rainin Grant Finalists

Celebrate these 2024 SFFILM Rainin Finalists with us

Supporting feature filmmakers since 2009

SFFILM is thrilled to announce the finalists for the 2024 SFFILM Rainin Grant, the flagship artist development program offered by SFFILM Makers in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Twenty-three filmmaking teams have been shortlisted as contenders to receive funding and professional support for their narrative projects at different stages of production.

The SFFILM Rainin Grant program is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the US. It 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. Recipients are offered a cash grant of up to $25,000, residency at FilmHouse, and SFFILM’s premier artist residency space.

The 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.

Meet the 2024 SFFILM Rainin Grant Finalists

The Matriarch

Screenwriting
Zandashé Brown, Director/Screenwriter
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.

S.Q.A.G. (Short Quiet Asian Girl)

Screenwriting
Benedict Chiu, Director/Producer/Screenwriter
A S.Q.A.G. (short quiet asian girl), in a desperate effort to upend her anonymity, disguises as another student to take a test in her place, only to stumble upon a Secret Society that specializes in underground cheating operations.

Fonzel and Gloria

Development
Christopher Cole, Director/Screenwriter; 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.

Strangers

Screenwriting
Karishma Dev Dube, Director/Producer/Screenwriter
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.

Rainbow Girls

Screenwriting
Nana Fobi Duffor, Director/Screenwriter
As San Francisco’s tech boom gentrifies their city, three young black trans women decide to take matters into their own hands, staging a string of robberies targeting the city’s most exclusive luxury brand stores.

Requiem for a Glacier

Screenwriting
Stephanie Falkeis, Director/Screenwriter
When a young glaciologist returns to her remote ancestral village to assess the local glacier for its prospective use as a ski resort, she is confronted by her estranged eco-activist mother who is willing to defend the glacier from destruction at all cost. A feminist anti-western set in a dying landscape.

Dreamland

Screenwriting
Joie Estrella Horwitz, Director/Screenwriter
A love story blooms during the night shift in a slaughterhouse, where phantoms of the future sit with ghosts of the past.

Karolina and Udochi Dance in the Woods at Dusk!

Development
Osinachi Ibe, Director/Producer/Screenwriter; 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.

From a Crooked Rib

Screenwriting
Idil Ibrahim, Director/Producer/Screenwriter
Set against the backdrop of pre-independence Somalia, From a Crooked Rib follows independent yet naive Ebla (18) who dreams of life outside her suffocating village. When her grandfather promises her hand in marriage to Giumaleh, the oldest man in the village, Ebla makes a decision that alters the course of her life.

Mucho Power

Screenwriting
Fernando Frias de la Parra, Director/Screenwriter/Producer; Gerry Kim, Producer/Screenwriter
When a Korean immigrant opens up a store in a Mexican neighborhood outside of downtown Chicago, he expects that his hard work will translate into success. But his dreams can’t keep up with how quickly the world is changing around him.

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.

Honeyjoon

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

Daraluz

Screenwriting
Asia Nichols, Writer/Director
Returning home to honor her late mother in one of Mexico’s most religious states, a forlorn puppeteer becomes afflicted by a recurring pregnancy and must confront a fabled tunnel mummy hellbent on forcing the birth.

Searching for Mateo

Development
Nico Opper, Director/Screenwriter; Maria F. León, Producer
A queer couple from the Bay Area take their 10-year-old adopted son on vacation to Honduras, where his birth family is from, hoping to strengthen his connection to his roots. But when he suddenly disappears, the entire family must navigate the complexities of love, loss and belonging that bind them.

Pangea Ultima

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

Love Visa

Screenwriting
PJ Raval, Director/Co-writer; 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.

If we don’t burn, how do we light up the night

Post-Production
Kim Torres, Director; 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.

Fishtank

Screenwriting
Wendi Tang, Director/Screenwriter
Jules, a 28-year-old Chinese-American woman grappling with her troubled past and present, vomits living goldfish whenever she’s triggered. Haunted by her unstable reality, Jules must face the darkest secret she’s been hiding from the world and uncover the truth behind it.

SummerWinterSummer

Development
Thy Tran, Director/Producer/Screenwriter
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.

Half Orange

Screenwriting
Alejandra Vasquez, Director/Screenwriter
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.

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.

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

Screenwriting
LaTajh Weaver, Director/Screenwriter; 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.

Sweeping Graves

Screenwriting
Kevin D. Wong, Director/Screenwriter; Vanessa Gentry, Producer/Screenwriter
A gentrification ghost story, Sweeping Graves is a modern-day folk tale that tells the story of Brandon, a San Francisco realtor who buys a property in Chinatown and evicts the tenants, intent on flipping it. But as Brandon begins to renovate the building, he starts to suspect that not all of the previous inhabitants have left—and that driving them out may cost him more than he ever bargained for.

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.

SFFILM + Deadline: An episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk

SFFILM hosted Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast for an exclusive behind-the-scenes behind-the-scenes look at some of the films that played during the 10th Anniversary of Doc Stories.

Photo by Pamela Gentile.

Deadline and NOS Studios’ Doc Talk podcast hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey made their way to SFFILM FilmHouse for an insightful conversation and thoughts about the changes in the nonfiction filmmaking landscape with SFFILM’s Executive Director Anne Lai and Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks.

They continued by going behind the scenes with SFFILM Education alum and director Jonah Mosshammer and fellow filmmaker Brennan McGee, directors of the short film Arepas en Bici, which premiered at Doc Stories.

Watch the full conversation and stay tuned for the next episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk coming very soon!

Deadline’s Doc Talk—Featuring SFFILM Doc Stories

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 brings the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers all year long. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.

SFCM Joins SFFILM in Innovative Student Film Score Program

Students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) to work with SFFILM-supported filmmakers to compose original film scores set to screen at the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival in April 2025.

 
Shared with permission. Story by Mark Taylor, SFCM. Originally posted on October 16, 2024.

SFCM students Rafe Axne and Theo Popov. Photo Courtesy of SFCM

Picture a world where a students’ musical dreams reach the magic of the silver screen faster than ever before. That’s becoming a reality as the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) and SFFILM join forces for a groundbreaking collaboration.

For student Theo Popov (‘25) it’s a long-time wish come true. “Young composers rarely get a shot to work on movies that reach such a wide audience, so it feels like SFCM is propelling us forward in our careers before we’ve even graduated!” Popov said.

Popov is one of 15 Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) students at SFCM who will spend the next year collaborating with SFFILM-supported directors to to provide original score, sound design, and sound mix for films that will be presented during the annual San Francisco International Film Festival in April 2025.

Studio G inside SFCM’s Bowes Center. Photo Courtesy of SFCM.

“This new partnership gives our composers, sound designers, and producers real-world experience as they work alongside amazingly talented filmmakers,” said Executive Director of the TAC program Steven Horowitz. “Directors will have a chance to polish and complete their soundtracks in our state-of-the-art studios alongside our young composers. Perhaps best of all, these projects will become part of the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival.”

SFFILM is northern California’s premiere film organization. Since 1957, SFFILM has produced the longest-running film festival in the Americas, and has grown to provide a comprehensive artist development program for new generations of filmmakers through grants, fellowships, and residencies.

“This new collaboration allows us to shine a spotlight on the process of music and sound design, focus on cross-discipline collaborations, and celebrate the cinematic form in a unique way,” said Anne Lai, SFFILM’s Executive Director. “Our desire to provide access, resources, and expertise to ensure that independent voices in film can thrive through all stages—from development to being seen—is what drives our mission forward. We’re delighted to launch this new partnership with SFCM.”

Masashi Niwano, the Director of SFFILM’s Artist Development program concurs, “The SFFILM Sound and Cinema Fellowship exemplifies our mission by uniting our SFFILM supported filmmakers with SFCM’s Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) students to create original, independent work, and to have the opportunity to be showcased at our Festival.”

SFCM TAC students in class. Photo Courtesy of SFCM.

Over the school year, as part of their course curriculum, TAC students will essentially become a given film’s music and sound department, working with directors on four different short films. Directors and their films come from SFFILM’s FilmHouse Residency program, which provides San Francisco Bay Area-based filmmakers with artistic guidance and support from established film industry professionals.

The San Francisco International Film Festival produced by SFFILM is renowned for bringing voices and stories from around the world to audiences in the San Francisco Bay. In addition to exhibiting completed films, SFFILM provides support to all stages of filmmakers’ careers and creates opportunities for growth around every stage of filmmaking from development to post production.

For the students involved, they can’t wait to get started. “I’ve never worked on a project this big before, and it’s really exciting,” said student Rafe Axne (‘26). “Getting exposed to some of the work we’ll be doing in the future as composers and sound designers this early on is invaluable experience. I’m excited to get to know the producers and directors and work with them to make their film come to life,” he added.

TAC students Rafe Axne and Theo Popov. Photo Courtesy of SFCM.

“This project also does something else that is very important,” Horowitz added of this unique partnership. “It brings together two vital SF artistic communities that will help to raise the bar and foster a more vibrant and cohesive climate for all Bay Area artists. I really think this kind of collaboration between organizations is a big win-win for the entire SF creative arts scene.”

At the conclusion of the program, the films will be presented, with directors and composers in attendance, in a screening on campus as part of the SFFILM Festival in April 2025.

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 brings the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers all year long. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.

Learn more about Technology and Applied Composition at SFCM.

This story is written by Mark Taylor and was first published on the blog of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Behind the Lens: In Conversation with the filmmakers behind His Three Daughters

SF Honors is our annual award presentation in celebration of a filmmaker’s singular vision in our current cinema landscape, and we were honored with a discussion between director Azazel Jacobs and actors Elizabeth Olsen and Jovan Adepo.

SFFILM honored Azazel Jacobs and his film His Three Daughters in the world-class Premier Theater at One Letterman. Before the screening of the film, SFFILM Board President Todd Traina presented the award to Azazel with a very special introduction calling attention to the masterful storytelling in His Three Daughters. After the screening, SFFILM Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks was joined onstage by Azazel Jacobs and actors Elizabeth Olsen and Jovan Adepo. During the conversation, the filmmakers discussed everything from the structure of the film and the nuances behind its construction to the connection between the actors and their collaboration in the achievement of a singular goal.

“The fact that we get to be here is such a huge privilege to us. We didn’t make this with results in our minds. We made this because of a process that we had all missed. That’s where it came from,” said Elizabeth Olsen. “[We] wanted to support a filmmaker who we love as a person and as a creative.”

Watch the full conversation to hear more about the creation of Azazel Jacobs’s His Three Daughters, and be sure to watch the film on Netflix starting on Friday, September 20.

SF Honors: His Three Daughters—In conversation with Azazel Jacobs, Elizabeth Olsen, and Jovan Adepo

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 brings the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers all year long. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.

A Tribute to Joan Chen

At the 67th San Francisco International Film Festival, we celebrated the career of actor, filmmaker, and local legend Joan Chen. She discussed her love for storytelling and the history behind her work with the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Janet Yang.

SFFILM honored the inimitable Joan Chen with a career-spanning tribute. Before a very special 35mm screening of her award-winning feature directorial debut Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl, she and Janet Yang had an intimate—and illuminating—conversation about her path. From her early stardom in Beijing to her later ascension into fame in the US, their conversation touched on the difficulties of immigrating, learning how to navigate Hollywood, and making the jump from acting to directing.

“Films, Filmmaking, and being creative really has nourished me for almost 50 years.”

Watch the full conversation to hear more about Joan’s life and work including her most recent film Dìdi (弟弟), the Opening Night program for the 2024 SFFILM Festival. Dìdi (弟弟) opens in New York and Los Angeles on July 26, and in San Francisco on August 2. Be sure to get your tickets here!

A Tribute to Joan Chen—In conversation with Janet Yang

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 brings the most exciting films and filmmakers to Bay Area movie lovers all year long. To be the first to know what’s coming, sign up for our email alerts and watch your inbox.

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