Announcing the finalists for the Spring 2018 SFFILM Rainin Filmmaking Grants

Fifteen exciting narrative feature projects have been just been selected by the SFFILM Makers team as finalists for the Spring 2018 round of SFFILM Rainin Filmmaking Grants. The largest grant program of its kind in the US, the partnership between SFFILM and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation is celebrating ten incredible years of supporting important independent filmmakers telling critical socially driven stories.

The winning projects, which will split $250,000 in this round, will be announced in about a month. In the meantime, get to know this talented group of finalists!

As always, find out more about the filmmakers services provided by SFFILM Makers at sffilm.org/makers.

SPRING 2018 SFFILM RAININ FILMMAKING GRANT FINALISTS

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Cops and Robbers
Jinho “Piper” Ferreira, writer (screenwriting)
John “Jay” Punch is a social justice artist from Oakland, California. Frustrated with the lack of impact of his artistic efforts, and haunted by the police killing of Oscar Grant, he decides to pay his own way through the police academy in an attempt to create change from the inside.

50 Miles from Boomtown
Flo Linus Baumann, writer (screenwriting)
After six years of grueling work, the only woman working on the oilfields of North Dakota is months away from the dream she’s been saving for: trading in her truck for a new house with her daughter. But when the economy dwindles, and she finds herself falling in love with her younger partner on the oilfields, she begins to question which dream she should be chasing after all.

Huntress
Suzanne Andrews Correa, writer/director (screenwriting)
In Ciudad Juarez, a city where violence against women goes unnoticed and unpunished, an unlikely heroine emerges to seek justice.

I’m No Longer Here
Fernando Frias, writer/director; Gerry Kim, Gerardo Gatica, and Alberto Muffelmann, producers (post-production)
To prevent a life working for the drug cartels, a teenage Mexican boy is forced to migrate to New York City at the pleas of his family. But when he lands in Jackson Heights, Queens, he quickly realizes that he would rather return home to his family and friends than confront the alienation and loneliness that he faces in America.

Jimmy Salvador
Kirill Mikhanovsky, director; Alice Austen, writer/producer (screenwriting)
Jimmy Salvador depicts 36 hours in the life of a 14-year-old Mexican American sprinter who has to be faster than ever to save his undocumented mother from being deported.

Kayla & Eddie en Français
Iyabo Boyd, writer (screenwriting)
Eddie Williams is 20 years sober but has neglected to rebuild the tenuous relationship with his daughter Kayla, a film producer who’s heading to Paris to pitch an important funder. Hoping to reconnect, Eddie crashes Kayla’s trip, unearthing their long-standing tension around his addiction and emotional distance.

Leche
Gabriella Moses, writer/director; Julius Pryor, Marttise Hill, and Shruti Ganguly, producers (development)
When a reserved Dominican American girl with albinism believes she can perform miracles after she seemingly resurrects an illegally hunted albino deer, rumors spread to the popular clique at school, and she must choose to combat their cruelty with either revenge or peace.

Mafak
Bassam Jarbawi, writer/director; Shrihari Sathe and Yasmine Qaddumi, producers (post-production)
Driven to psychosis by the torture he underwent in an Israeli prison, an ex-basketball champ struggles to re-assimilate into Palestinian society. As the line between reality and hallucination blurs, he cannot help but drive himself back to the same event that started it all.

Omniboat
The Borscht Corporation (post-production)
Omniboat is an anthology feature film comprised of nine different interconnected stories about a speedboat in Miami. It’s not just a boat ride, it’s a Miami adventure.

Santosh
Sandhya Suri, writer/director (screenwriting)
In the corrupt hinterlands of Northern India, a newly widowed young woman inherits her husband’s job as a police constable. When a young girl’s body is found, she is forced to confront the brutality around her and the violence within.

Sealskin Woman
Tani Ikeda, director/co-writer; A-lan Holt, co-writer (screenwriting)
A young girl goes to live with her grandparents in Japan after her mother dies. When she discovers that the people who are supposed to protect her can’t, she must rely on her own magic to save herself.

Shit & Champagne
D’Arcy Drollinger, writer/director, Michelle Moretta, producer (screenwriting)
Shit & Champagne is a high-octane, high-camp, slapstick send-up of the iconic exploitation films of the 1970s. The film is a tribute to female empowerment flavored with borscht belt comedy, with an original funk score, fabulous vintage inspired fashion, and cross-gender casting.

Strange Fruit
Elizabeth Oyebode, writer (screenwriting)
In the 19th century South, a pugnacious Black journalist embarks on a life-threatening investigation that will upend her beliefs about all the Black men whose lives she and the rest of America thought did not matter.

Sutro Forest
Travis Matthews, writer/director; Mollye Asher, producer (screenwriting)
A young homeless woman prepares to leave San Francisco for a new opportunity, but when she finds her brother dead in Sutro Forest, she loses herself on a mysterious journey that may lead to his killer.

Todos los Cuerpos
Jennifer Reeder, director; Laura Heberton, writer/producer
In a not-too-distant dystopian future, in the wake of a climate-change-related disaster, two nearly wild mixed-race girls with special powers named Z and Bub fight to survive in the desert ruins of the former US/Mexico border wall.

Meet the Spring 2018 SFFILM Westridge Grant Winners

SFFILM and the Westridge Foundation have selected the inaugural winners of the SFFILM Westridge Grant, the newest filmmaker support program offered by SFFILM Makers.

A total of $100,000 has been awarded in the Spring 2018 granting round to five narrative feature projects from a diverse group of emerging storytellers tackling important social issues facing the nation.
 
The SFFILM Westridge program is designed specifically to support the screenwriting and development phases of narrative feature projects whose stories focus on the significant social issues and questions of our time. Providing support at these critical early stages protects filmmakers’ creative processes, and allows them to concentrate on properly crafting their stories and building the right strategy and infrastructure to guide them through financing and production.

The SFFILM Westridge Grant is open to US-based filmmakers whose stories take place primarily in the United States. Applications are now being accepted for the Fall 2018 round of grants; the final deadline to apply is July 31. Find out more at sffilm.org/makers.

SPRING 2018 SFFILM WESTRIDGE GRANT WINNNERS

Back Seat
Lana Wilson, writer/director; Shrihari Sathe, producer (screenwriting) — $20,000
An immigrant woman leaves her young son alone in the back seat of a car, setting off a firestorm of controversy in the liberal community where she lives. As the town’s latent xenophobia bubbles to the surface, and the woman’s parenting abilities are scrutinized in increasingly disturbing ways, she fights to prove that she’s a worthy mother — to the town, to her children, and to herself.

Mandeville
Russell Nichols, writer (screenwriting) — $20,000
A traumatized Black boy, whose brother was killed by a cop, volunteers for an experiment that tests his powers of prediction to prevent future murders.

Miss Juneteenth
Channing Godfrey Peoples, writer/director; Neil Creque Williams, producer (development) — $20,000
Turquoise, a former beauty pageant queen turned hardworking single mother, enrolls her rebellious daughter, Kai, in the “Miss Juneteenth” pageant to compete for the grand prize — a college scholarship. Determined to keep Kai from making her same mistakes in life, Turquoise saves her tips from working at a juke joint to buy her daughter the grandest pageant dress of all. However, Kai is more interested in her school’s dance team and chasing her high school crush.

Stay Awake
Jaime Sisley, writer/director; Kelly Thomas and David Ariniello, producers (development) — $20,000
For years, teen brothers Ethan and Derek Reynolds have tried to help their mother, Michelle, overcome her prescription drug addiction with little success. When Michelle goes missing after another binge, Ethan and Derek begin to question whether they should continue trying to find and help Michelle, or move on with their lives at the expense of saving her.

Taliesin
Maya Perez, writer (screenwriting) — $20,000
Based on actual events, Taliesin tells the story of a young Black couple hired to work at the infamous Taliesin home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The remote location becomes a pressure cooker, and tensions around race and gender boil over with tragic consequences — the most horrific mass murder in Wisconsin history.

In addition to the cash grants, recipients will receive various benefits through SFFILM’s comprehensive and dynamic artist development program, as well as support and feedback from SFFILM and Westridge Foundation staff. All grantees will spend one week in the Bay Area attending a programmed retreat geared towards honing their craft, strengthening their scripts, and making connections to other filmmakers and industry professionals.

For more information about SFFILM Makers artist development programs, visit sffilm.org/makers.

Meet the Inaugural SFFILM Westridge Grant Finalists

SFFILM and the Westridge Foundation have announced the inaugural finalists of the SFFILM Westridge Grant, the newest filmmaker support program offered by SFFILM Makers.
 
The SFFILM Westridge program is designed specifically to support the screenwriting and development phases of narrative feature projects whose stories focus on the significant social issues and questions of our time. Providing support at these critical early stages protects filmmakers’ creative processes, and allows them to concentrate on properly crafting their stories and building the right strategy and infrastructure to guide them through financing and production.

The SFFILM Westridge Grant is open to US-based filmmakers whose stories take place primarily in the United States. Applications are now being accepted for the Fall 2018 round of grants; the final deadline to apply is July 31. Find out more at sffilm.org/makers.

In addition to the cash grants, recipients will receive various benefits through SFFILM’s comprehensive and dynamic artist development program, as well as support and feedback from SFFILM and Westridge Foundation staff. All grantees will spend one week in the Bay Area attending a programmed retreat geared towards honing their craft, strengthening their scripts, and making connections to other filmmakers and industry professionals.

SPRING 2018 SFFILM WESTRIDGE GRANT FINALISTS

Back Seat
Lana Wilson, writer/director; Shrihari Sathe, producer (screenwriting)
An immigrant woman leaves her young son alone in the back seat of a car, setting off a firestorm of controversy in the liberal community where she lives. As the town’s latent xenophobia bubbles to the surface, and the woman’s parenting abilities are scrutinized in increasingly disturbing ways, she fights to prove that she’s a worthy mother — to the town, to her children, and to herself.

Bait
Jamie Ruddy, writer/director (development)
In a prosperous suburb in 1986, New Jersey, an 11-year-old girl discovers her father is a child molester and has been using her as bait. Will she protect him or tell the truth in this heartbreaking true story?
 
The Beautiful Ones
Neil Paik, writer/director (screenwriting)
A fateful night in the San Fernando Valley, an illicit affair in Afghanistan, a school shooting, and an activist journalist are all connected by an old Polaroid camera that exchanges hands over the course of 15 years following 9/11.

Mandeville
Russell Nichols, writer (screenwriting) 
A traumatized Black boy, whose brother was killed by a cop, volunteers for an experiment that tests his powers of prediction to prevent future murders.

Miss Juneteenth
Channing Godfrey Peoples, writer/director; Neil Creque Williams, producer (development) — $20,000
Turquoise, a former beauty pageant queen turned hardworking single mother, enrolls her rebellious daughter, Kai, in the “Miss Juneteenth” pageant to compete for the grand prize — a college scholarship. Determined to keep Kai from making her same mistakes in life, Turquoise saves her tips from working at a juke joint to buy her daughter the grandest pageant dress of all. However, Kai is more interested in her school’s dance team and chasing her high school crush.

A Night to Remember
Jessiline Berry, writer/director (screenwriting)
Just three hours ago, they were strangers at a party; now Will is stopping Rayna from getting into an Uber so she can spend the night getting into him. The two could-be lovers go on a moonlit LA adventure, falling into mischief and, perhaps, something like love. By morning’s light, Rayna will know Will all too well — for better or for worse.

Stay Awake
Jaime Sisley, writer/director; Kelly Thomas and David Ariniello, producers (development) 
For years, teen brothers Ethan and Derek Reynolds have tried to help their mother, Michelle, overcome her prescription drug addiction with little success. When Michelle goes missing after another binge, Ethan and Derek begin to question whether they should continue trying to find and help Michelle, or move on with their lives at the expanse of saving her.

A Storybook Ending
Lanre Olabisi, writer/director; Isaac LeFerve and Gabriel Sedgwick, producers (development)
A “Black” comedy set in Brooklyn, A Storybook Ending is also a highly stylized noir. The film unfolds through shifting time frames as it explores contemporary race relations experienced by multiple characters whose lives intersect thanks to a single, life-changing event.

Taliesin
Maya Perez, writer (screenwriting) — $20,000
Based on actual events, Taliesin tells the story of a young Black couple hired to work at the infamous Taliesin home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The remote location becomes a pressure cooker, and tensions around race and gender boil over with tragic consequences — the most horrific mass murder in Wisconsin history.

They Call Me Stacy
Atsuko Okatsuka, writer/director (development)
They call her Stacy…but that’s not her name. Asuka is an undocumented high school student living in her uncle’s garage with her grandmother and schizophrenic mother. With the help of her mother, she tries out for the school’s cheerleading squad and gets in. Her two best friends Nanette and Sandy act as the comedic relief and support system for Asuka as she navigates family stress, being a new member of the cheerleading squad, and now also going by Stacy, as suggested by her English teacher.

The Vanishing Point
Beth Pielert, writer (development)
On the verge of losing her home, a community-minded Latina is seduced by a group of senior women who offer her a solution to her money troubles — help them rob the pharmaceutical company where she works.

White
A. Sayeeda Moreno, writer/director (screenwriting)
White is a dystopian thriller set in a burning hot near-future where climate change has both devastated the planet and turned melanin into the world’s most valuable commodity. When Nuyorican beauty Luna has her newborn ripped from her arms just moments after giving birth, she is thrust into the merciless world of melanin harvesting to save her daughter, her community and spark a revolution.

For more information about SFFILM Makers artist development programs, visit sffilm.org/makers.

New SFFILM Makers programs select inaugural recipients

Two of the newest programs developed by the SFFILM Makers team have selected their first winners this week! Championing international voices and filmmakers telling stories about women and peace, these new initiatives broaden and diversify the SFFILM Makers family in exciting ways.

NEW AMERICAN PRODUCER FELLOWSHIP

First up, the inaugural New American Producer Fellowship was awarded to filmmaker Carlo Velayo. The first of its kind in the US film industry — this fellowship is made possible thanks to SFFILM’s collaboration with the Flora Family Foundation. It includes a $25,000 cash grant and a FilmHouse artist residency in San Francisco to an independent producer who has recently immigrated to the United States. Envisioned to provide a stage for the voices of international filmmakers and to support their work in the US, the New American Producer Fellowship seeks to support films by new American artists, ultimately providing meaningful and challenging experiences to public audiences.
 
The panelists who reviewed the applicants’ submissions are Abhi Singh, Flora Family Foundation, Board of Directors; Jihan Robinson, Vice President of Nonfiction Programming at First Look Media; Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM’s Director of Artist Development; and Lauren Kushner, SFFILM’s Senior Manager of Artist Development.
 
The jury noted in a statement: “We are thrilled to have chosen Carlo Velayo for SFFILM’s inaugural New American Producer Fellowship. In his work with directors to date, Carlo has explored challenging subjects with compassion and nuance, and his and Isabel Sandoval’s current narrative feature project Lingua Franca — in its moody intimacy, sensitivity and romanticism — is no exception. Carlo’s contribution to independent film in the US is the type of work we look forward to championing through this program.”

Carlo Velayo is a Philippine-born, Australian-raised, NYC-based producer at Stedfast Productions. He was an Associate Producer on Cheryl Furjanic’s Emmy-nominated film, Back on Board: Greg Louganis, and recently made his debut as a PGA Producer with Jessica M. Thompson’s The Light of The Moon, receiving the 2017 SXSW Audience Award for Narrative Feature. In 2016, Velayo spent two months at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), working on Emmy Award-winning Filipina-American filmmaker Michele Josue’s forthcoming documentary project Happy Jail, which participated in the 2017 IFP Week. Velayo is currently a producer on Isabel Sandoval’s third independent narrative feature, Lingua Franca, which tells the story of an undocumented, transgender Filipina woman who falls in love with the grandson of the elderly Russian Jewish woman she cares for in Brooklyn. Velayo is also developing an Australian-US co-production, Take Me to Paris, Johnny, with writer/director Alan Brown (Five Dances, Private Romeo). This narrative feature is about a gay, Black, Cuban refugee dancer who dreams of performing in Paris and falls in love with an Australian writer in 1970s NYC just before the AIDS epidemic.
 
WOMEN, PEACE, AND SECURITY FELLOWSHIPS

The first ever Women, Peace, and Security Fellowships, created with support from the Compton Foundation to elevate stories of women’s efforts to end conflict and advance peace, were awarded to Molly Stuart for her documentary Objector and to Deann Borshay Liem for her documentary Crossings. In addition to financial support, fellows will receive a residency and benefit from mentorships and meaningful networking opportunities.

The Women, Peace, and Security Fellowship is open to both documentary and narrative filmmakers who are telling stories of women’s efforts to end conflict and advance peace. Fellowships include a $25,000 grant and a FilmHouse residency, connections to advisors with expertise in the subject matter of each film, networking opportunities, and active support from SFFILM staff and mentors within the Bay Area creative community. This program seeks to inspire filmmakers to tell stories of courageous women leaders, to generate conversation across public audiences, and to encourage policymakers to invest in women as essential actors in effective peace-building and violence prevention.
 
The panelists who reviewed the finalists’ submissions are Ellen Friedman, Compton Foundation’s Executive Director; Carrie Lozano, Director of IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund; Elizabeth Weingarten, Director of Global Gender Parity Initiative at New America; Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM’s Director of Artist Development; and Lauren Kushner, SFFILM’s Senior Manager of Artist Development.
 
The jury noted in a statement: “We are delighted to support Objector and Crossings — two projects that offer nuanced portrayals of women’s brave efforts to counteract violence and advance peace. We believe that these films will generate important conversations among audiences and strengthen peace-building movements that recognize women as essential actors in the prevention of violence and extremism.”
 
Objector
Like all Israeli teenagers, Atalya is obligated to become a soldier. Unlike most, she questions the role of the military and becomes determined to challenge this compulsory rite of passage. Despite her family’s wishes, she joins a movement of conscientious objectors, is imprisoned for her dissent, and launches an unexpected life as activist for justice in Palestine.

Molly Stuart is an emerging filmmaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Growing up on a small commune in the Santa Cruz mountains, she developed a critical lens on society and a drive to tell stories that can transform it. From a young age, she became an avid home video producer, documenting the many eclectic personalities that appeared in her living room. As Stuart began to see the limits of communal idealism in affecting broad-scale change, she became a community organizer and worked on numerous grassroots documentary shorts. After studying sociology and film studies at Middlebury College, she went on to pursue an MFA at San Francisco State University. Stuart’s film work has won awards at film festivals around the US and has been published in outlets including the Nation and In These Times. She is the 2016 recipient of the Bill Nichols Excellence in Cinema Award from San Francisco State University.
 
Crossings
In Crossings, a group of internationally renowned women peacemakers, organized by intrepid Korean American activist Christine Ahn, attempts the impossible: crossing the DMZ from North to South Korea to call for peace on the Korean peninsula. This documentary feature follows 30 women leaders, including Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Laureates Leymah Gbowee and Mairead Maguire, on this historic journey. Through their story, Crossings explores enduring questions about war’s legacies and the role women play in resolving the world’s most intractable conflicts.

Deann Borshay Liem is producer and director of the Emmy Award-nominated documentary First Person Plural, and the award-winning films In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee and Memory of Forgotten War. She has produced, executive produced, and consulted on a variety of award-winning documentaries, including AKA Don Bonus, Kelly Loves Tony, The Apology, Breathin’: The Eddy Zheng Story, Mimi & Dona, Ishi’s Return, and others. In May 2015, as a member of an international delegation of women, Liem took a film crew to North Korea and covered the delegation’s journey from Beijing to Pyongyang and their crossing of the DMZ into South Korea. This footage is the basis of the work-in-progress documentary Crossings.
 
As always, for more info on SFFILM’s filmmaker services programs, visit sffilm.org/makers.

Narrative News: SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant Winners Announced

It’s an exciting time to be an independent narrative feature filmmaker in the SFFILM Makers family — in addition to the launch of the new SFFILM / Westridge Grant this week, our team has selected the winners of the Fall 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grants!

The nine winning projects split a total of $225,000 in funding to push their projects forward, with one film in the development phase, four films in screenwriting, one in production, and three in post-production. Plus, in a first under this partnership, a discretionary loan of $25,000 was awarded to Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You, which is currently in the final stages of post-production.

The review panel for this round of grants were Noah Cowan, SFFILM’s Executive Director; Paul Federbush, International Director, Feature Film Program at the Sundance Institute; Shelley Trott, Director of Arts Strategy and Ventures at the Kenneth Rainin Foundation; Diana Williams, Content Strategist at Lucasfilm; Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM’s Director of Artist Development; and Lauren Kushner, SFFILM’s Senior Manager of Artist Development.

They noted: “We are proud to support these emerging filmmaking teams, many of whom are embarking upon their first feature films. The SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grants program seeks to support filmmakers who are grappling with complex social issues through compelling and inventive artistic approaches. Ranging from a tense police procedural that tells the story of a marginalized Nepali inspector to a portrait of the personal impact of San Francisco gentrification that blends romanticism with a stark realism, this group of films clearly represents that vision.”

Applications are now being accepted for the spring 2018 round of SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grants! Find out more at sffilm.org/makers.

FALL 2017 SFFILM / RAININ FILMMAKING GRANT WINNERS

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All About Nina
Eva Vives, director; Natalie Qasabian, Eric Fleischman, and Sean Tabibian producers — post-production — $25,000

Just as Nina Geld’s brilliant and angry stand-up comedy kicks her career into high gear, her romantic life gets complicated, forcing her to reckon with what it means to be creative, authentic, and a woman in today’s culture.

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American Babylon
Yvan Iturriaga, writer/director — screenwriting — $12,000

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American Babylon is a gripping tale of love and revolution set in the gritty streets of Oakland, California in the months leading up to 9/11.

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Fremont
Babak Jalali, writer/director; Carolina Cavalli, co-writer; Marjaneh Moghimi, producer — development — $22,000

Troubled, edgy, unconventional Donya — an Afghani translator formerly working for the US military — now spends her days writing fortunes for a Chinese fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. As she struggles to put her life back in order, in a moment of sudden revelation, she sends out a message, wrapped in a fortune cookie — an act that sends her on an odyssey of deceit, mystery, and redemption.

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Jules of Light and Dark
Daniel Laabs, writer/director; Jeff Walker, Liz Cardenas Franke, and Russell Sheaffer, producers — post-production — $25,000

A young woman, Maya, struggles to rebuild her life after surviving a devastating car wreck with her girlfriend. The two are found and rescued by an oil worker, Freddy, who forges an unlikely friendship with Maya in this Texas-set drama.

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The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Joe Talbot, writer/director; Khaliah Neal, producer — production — $50,000

Jimmie Fails dreams of buying back the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Now living in the city’s last, dwindling Black neighborhood with his oddball best friend Prentice, he searches for belonging in the rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

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Me, My Mom and Sharmila
Fawzia Mirza, writer/director; Terrie Samundra producer/co-writer — screenwriting — $22,000

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A queer, Pakistani teen, her Muslim immigrant mother, and a Bollywood heroine’s destinies intertwine in this bittersweet coming of age tale.

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Monsters and Men
Reinaldo Marcus Green, director; Josh Penn and Elizabeth Lodge Stepp. producers — post-production — $25,000

Monsters and Men is an interwoven narrative about police violence, racial profiling, and the power of perspective. The story is told in three chapters, each shifting perspective to different protagonists who are from the same Brooklyn neighborhood: first, a man who captures an act of police violence on his cellphone, then, an African-American police officer working in the precinct, and finally, a high-school baseball phenom.

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Mr. Rob
Fawaz Al-Matrouk, writer/director — screenwriting — $22,000

The true story of Rob Lawrie, an ex-soldier who left his family in England to help migrants at the infamous Jungle refugee camp in France. Lawrie risked everything to rescue a four-year-old girl, entrusted to him by her father, but was arrested and charged with human smuggling.

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Raja
Deepak Rauniyar, writer/director — screenwriting — $22,000

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Raja is a socially-rooted police procedural, a race-against-time thriller, as well as a portrait of Nepal — a complex society on the edge of a new future.

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Sorry to Bother You
Boots Riley, writer/director; Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, Charles King, George Rush, Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams, producers — post-production — $25,000 loan

Sorry to Bother You tells the story of Cassius Green, a Black telemarketer who discovers a magical key to telemarketing success, propelling him into a macabre universe where he is selected to lead a species of genetically manipulated horse-people.
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SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the United States. The SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant program has funded more than 50 projects since its inception, including Geremy Jasper’s Sundance breakthrough Patti Cake$, which closed the 2017 Cannes Director’s Fortnight program, ahead of its summer release; Alex and Andrew Smith’s Walking Out starring Matt Bomer and Josh Wiggins, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival; Chloé Zhao’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which screened at Sundance and Cannes in 2015; Short Term 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013; and Ben Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012 and earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture).

For more info, visit sffilm.org/makers.