Meet the SFFILM-Supported Filmmakers Headed to Sundance 2020

The 2020 Sundance Film Festival is just around the New Year corner and the lineup includes three projects supported directly by SFFILM artist development programs! The SFFILM Makers team is thrilled to see our funding partnerships including the Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowship and SFFILM Westridge Grant yield their first completed films, building on the success of our longest partnership through the SFFILM Rainin Grant. We are excited to celebrate the continued success of these programs and our supported filmmakers, the expansion of SFFILM Invest, and three of SFFILM’s esteemed FilmHouse mentors who will be premiering documentaries at this year’s festival. Congratulations to all the films and filmmakers making their debut in Park City next month!

From our grantees and fellows:

Feels Good Man
US Documentary Competition
(USA) Arthur Jones, director; Giorgio Angelini, Caryn Capotosto, Aaron Wickenden, producers
When indie comic character Pepe the Frog becomes an unwitting icon of hate, his creator, artist Matt Furie, fights to bring Pepe back from the darkness and navigate America’s cultural divide. 
 — SFFILM Invest, 2019 slate
 
Miss Juneteenth
US Dramatic Competition 
(USA) Channing Godfrey Peoples, writer/director; Neil Creque Williams, Jeanie Igoe, James M. Johnston, Toby Halbrooks, Theresa Steele, Tim Headington, producers
Turquoise, a former beauty queen turned hardworking single mother, prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the “Miss Juneteenth” pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating the same mistakes in life that she did. 
 — Spring 2018 SFFILM Westridge Grant for development
 — Fall 2019 SFFILM Rainin Grant for post-production
 
Tesla
Premieres
(USA) Michael Almereyda, writer/director; Avi Lerner, Jeffery Greenstein, Uri Singer, Christa Campbell, Lati Grobman, Isen Robbins, producers
Highlighting the Promethean struggles of Nikola Tesla, as he attempts to transcend entrenched technology–including his own previous work–by pioneering a system of wireless energy that will change the world.
 — Spring 2017 Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowship for screenwriting

From our FilmHouse mentor community, all in the US Documentary Competition section:

Boys State
(USA) Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine, directors; Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss, producers
In an unusual experiment, a thousand 17-year-old boys from Texas join together to build a representative government from the ground up.
 — Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss, 2018 FilmHouse mentors

Crip Camp
(USA) Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht, directors; Sara Bolder, Jim LeBrecht, Nicole Newnham, producers
Down the road from Woodstock in the early 1970s, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers, transforming their young lives and igniting a landmark movement.
 — Jim LeBrecht, 2019 FilmHouse mentor

Dick Johnson Is Dead
(USA) Kirsten Johnson, director; Nels Bangerter, Kirsten Johnson, screenwriters; Katy Chevigny, Marilyn Ness, producers
With this inventive portrait, a cameraperson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
 — Nels Bangerter, 2019 FilmHouse mentor

Find out more about the grants, residencies, and fellowships offered by SFFILM Makers here.

Announcing the Golden Gate Award Winners at the 2019 SFFILM Festival

On April 21, SFFILM announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Award (GGA) competitions at the 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival (April 10–23), at an event held at the Brava Theater Center. This year the Festival awarded nearly $40,000 in prizes to emerging and established filmmakers.

The SFFILM Golden Gate Awards have honored deserving filmmakers and their projects for over 60 years, bringing recognition for unique and innovative filmmaking to the Bay Area’s local and international audiences. Among the most significant awards for emerging global film artists in the United States, the Golden Gate Awards embody SFFILM’s commitment to global storytelling and independent filmmaking.

GOLDEN GATE NEW DIRECTORS AWARD (FICTION FEATURE)

The New Directors award is given to a debut feature by an international filmmaker whose work exhibits unique artistic sensibility or vision. The New Directors jurors were TIFF former director and CEO Piers Handling, film critic Amy Nicholson and writer Jada Yuan.

GGA New Directors Award winner: The Chambermaid, Lila Avilés (Mexico/USA)
 — Receives $10,000 cash prize

In awarding this top prize, the jury stated, “This film drew us into its character’s claustrophobic world with precision, sophistication, restraint, and warmth. A devastating portrait of a working class woman who gradually challenges her circumstances, this young filmmaker creates unbearable tension from ordinary, overlooked moments. And yet there’s joy, too, and above all the beautiful dignity of its lead actress, Gabriela Cartol, and the co-workers who complicate her days.”

Special Jury Mention, New Directors: Suburban Birds, Qiu Sheng (China/Taiwan)

The jury gave special attention to Suburban Birds as “a film that is all contradictions. It’s hypnotic and punk rock, languid and jerky. If that weren’t weird enough, it’s an art film made by a visionary with an engineering degree, and captures the atmosphere of a rapidly developing country that is currently swallowing independent voices in a metaphorical sinkhole.”

MCBAINE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AWARD

For more than 60 years, a significant element of the SFFILM Festival has been its broad selection of acclaimed documentaries from across the globe. There are two awards in this category — Best Documentary and Best Bay Area Documentary. Films in the Bay Area Documentary Feature category are also eligible for the Best Documentary Feature award. This year’s Documentary Feature jury was comprised of Associate Vice President at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Gina Duncan, Web Editor and Digital Director at Harper’s Magazine and a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, Violet Lucca, and Film Programmer Sudeep Sharma.

McBaine Documentary Feature Award Winner: Midnight Traveler Hassan Fazili (USA/Qatar/Canada/UK)
 — Receives $10,000 cash prize

The jury described the Feature Award winner as “an incredible document that is beautiful and compelling. A true achievement of filmmaking and parenting.”

McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature Award: The Seer And The Unseen, Sara Dosa (USA/Iceland)
 — Receives $5,000 cash prize

The jury applauded Dosa’s film as “a novel approach to belief systems and their power to shape our physical world.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARDS FOR SHORT FILMS

The Festival is proud to have a variety of shorts in competition across programs. The GGA Short Film jury consisted of programmer Emily Doe, filmmaker Trevor Jimenez, and programmer Jacqueline Lyanga. It’s worth noting that in the variety of categories, all the winning short films with the exception of two (Selfies and One Small Step) have women directors or co-directors.

Narrative Short Winner: Brotherhood (Ikhwène), Meryam Joobeur (Canada/Tunisia)
 — Receives $2,000 cash prize

In awarding the prize to Brotherhood, the jury stated, “this intimate portrait of a family torn apart by radicalization, loyalties and the desire to serve a greater good is masterfully directed, and brilliantly cast. Its engaging close-ups and beautiful cinematography communicate the pain, love and disillusionment lurking in the subtext of every scene.”

Special Jury Mention, Narrative Short: Fuck You, Anette Sidor (Sweden)

The jury acknowledged Anette Sidor’s short with this statement: “this film sets out to upend the familiar narrative of teenage sexual awakening, portraying a bold young woman who unapologetically forges her own path of sexual discovery.”

Documentary Short Winner: Where Chaos Reigns, Braulio Jatar, Anaïs Michel (USA/Venezuela)
 — Receives $2,000 cash prize

The jury awarded the documentary shorts prize to Where Chaos Reigns, “for its audacity, its haunting images and its ability to bring us closer to the crisis in Venezuela than anything we’ve seen thus far in America. In a country grappling with an unprecedented economic and humanitarian crisis, the filmmakers take their cameras to the streets and join the throngs of brave protesters risking arrest, injury and death to call for change. Their unflinching cameras capture singular moments of courage, fearlessness and violence that linger long after the film has ended.”

Special Jury Mention, Documentary Short: Edgecombe, Crystal Kayiza (USA)

The jury was very moved and gave this special mention, stating, “with a lens that was both historical and present, both tender and raw, this documentary transported us to a place and connected us to its community. Through three moving character portraits we saw the ways in which trauma and injustice travel across generations, and yet how hope persists.”

Animated Short Winner: Selfies, Claudius Gentinetta (Switzerland)
 — Receives $2,000 cash prize

In awarding the animated short prize, the just commented, “this film’s playful take on our social media lives encapsulates the highs and lows of the human experience, all packed into a succinct 4 minutes. We loved its creative transitions, absurd sense of humor, and painterly style all used expertly to reflect back on ourselves in these rapidly changing times.”

New Visions Short Winner: Cold Pudding Settles Love, Urszula Palusińska (Poland)
 — Receives $2,000 cash prize

The jury described their selection for the new visions prize as, “hypnotic disco ball suits, body casts, neon skies, ghost like limousine rides, and mysterious powerful figures that make up a bleak disorienting world- captured vividly with lo-fi mixed media animation. This film demands repeated viewing to unpack the many themes and dreamlike moments that stayed with us days after seeing it.”

Bay Area Short First Prize Winner: Enforcement Hours, Paloma Martinez (USA)
 — Receives $2,000 cash prize

In awarding the Bay Area short prize award, the jury stated, “this documentary illuminated the harrowing experience of being undocumented in the United States today without compromising the identities and safety of its subjects. It opened our eyes to the threat that lurks in familiar places, it flooded our ears with firsthand accounts of fear, confusion and spite, and filled our hearts with sympathy.”

Bay Area Short Second Prize Winner: Confidence Game, Kathleen Quillian (USA)
 — Receives $1,500 cash prize

The jury praised the work for “its sharp and strong sense of design, and compelling subject matter. This animated short film employed a layered, collage style that perfectly mirrored the complex, layered issue at the heart of the film.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARD FOR FAMILY FILM

The Family Film jury was comprised of producer Courtney Lockwood, filmmaker Paloma Martinez and teacher Anne Smith.

Family Film Prize Winner: One Small Step, Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas (USA/China)
 — Receives $1,500 cash prize

The jury praised the film for “its complex story arc executed in an imaginative way, and further complimented its “beautiful message of the people who support your dreams are just as important as the achievement itself, and as you achieve your dreams, you carry those people with you.”

Special Jury Mention: The Pen Licence, Olivia Peniston-Bird (Australia)

The jury gave special recognition for the film, stating that “this film is much more than just penmanship, but shows that the cycle of failure and practice and success (or not) is so valuable for everything you do. It was an incredibly appealing and crowd-pleasing film about handwriting.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARD FOR YOUTH WORK

The Youth Works jury was comprised of SFFILM FilmHouse resident Daniel Freeman, filmmaker Leslie Tai, and students Maya Dighe, Keilah McKeown-Pool and Max Rosenberg.

Youth Works Prize: Meeting at Half Past Five, Daria Litvichenko (Russian Federation)
 — Receives $1,000 cash prize

In awarding the price to this film, the jury admired it for “an innovative animation style, with a funny and unexpected story. The film was strengthened by a strong voice-over performance and a unique point of view.”

Special Jury Mention: This House Has Eyes, Theo Taplitz (USA)

The jury commended the film as “creative, original, and daring. We loved the symbolism, effects, and cinematography that was used in this avant-garde take on a relationship between a boy, man, and an anthropomorphic house. The art direction of this innovative and unusual short made it amusing and exciting to watch.”

The 2019 Golden Gate Awards were proudly sponsored by The Chloe Wine Collection.

Meet the Golden Gate Award winners at the 2018 SFFILM Festival

On Sunday, April 15, the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival (April 4–17) announced the winners of the juried Golden Gate Award (GGA) competitions at an event held at The Lab. The Festival’s Audience Awards were also announced from the Castro Theatre stage at the Closing Night screening. This year the Festival awarded nearly $40,000 in prizes to emerging and established filmmakers.

AUDIENCE AWARDS
Determined by audience ballot throughout the Festival, Audience Awards are given in two categories — fiction feature and documentary feature.

Audience Award – Fiction Feature: Eighth Grade, Bo Burnham (USA)

Audience Award – Documentary Feature: A Thousand Thoughts – A Live Documentary by Sam Green and Kronos Quartet, Sam Green & Joe Bini (USA)

GOLDEN GATE NEW DIRECTORS AWARD (FICTION FEATURE) 
The New Directors award is given to a debut feature by an international filmmaker whose work exhibits unique artistic sensibility or vision. The New Directors jury included Programmer Dilcia Barrera, Producer and Editor-in-Chief of Filmmaker Magazine Scott Macaulay, and Producer Adele Romanski.

GGA New Directors Award winner: Scary Mother, Ana Urushadze (Georgia/Estonia) 
 • Receives $10,000 cash prize

The jury awarded its Golden Gate prize to Ana Urushadze for Scary Mother “for its confident tone and unquestioning commitment to its fearless protagonist, a complicated artist caught between motherhood and the wilds of her own imagination.”

MCBAINE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AWARD 
For more than 60 years, a significant element of the SFFILM Festival has been its broad selection of acclaimed documentaries from across the globe. There are two awards in this category — Best Documentary and Best Bay Area Documentary. Films in the Bay Area Documentary Feature category are also eligible for the Best Documentary Feature award. This year’s Documentary Feature jury was comprised of filmmaker and journalist Carrie Lozano, journalist Noel Murray, and nonfiction filmmaker, visual artist, and writer AJ Schnack.

McBaine Documentary Feature Award Winner: The Distant Barking of Dogs, Simon Lereng Wilmont (Denmark/Sweden/Finland) 
 • Receives $10,000 cash prize

The jury described the Feature Award winner as “Remarkable, exquisite, and unforgettable.”

McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature Award: The Judge, Erika Cohn (USA/Palestine) 
 • Receives $5,000 cash prize

The jury applauded The Judge for “turning a lens on a charismatic and influential woman who is fighting for equality against all odds, and for its nuanced portrayal of a culture that is often misunderstood.”

Special Jury Mention, McBaine Documentary Feature: City of the Sun, Rati Oneli (Georgia/USA/Qatar/Netherlands) 
The jury granted this mention to Oneli’s film “for its stunning use of cinematography and sound design that immerses us in a place that is at once stark and stirring.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARDS FOR SHORT FILMS 
The Festival is proud to have a variety of shorts in competition across programs. The GGA Short Film jury consisted of Director of Canyon Cinema Antonella Bonfanti, filmmaker Mark Decena, and programmer Liliana Rodriguez.

Narrative Short Winner: Shadow Animals, Jerry Carlsson (Sweden) 
 • Receives $2,000 cash prize

In a statement, the jury applauded Shadow Animals for “its masterful control of tone and pacing. Shot from the perspective of a young girl at a dinner party, Jerry Carlsson’s short strikes a delicate balance of dread and intrigue, delightfully incorporating surreal, beautiful dance while exploring group mentality anxieties and the potential of one outsider.”

Special Jury Mention, Narrative Short: Jodilerks Dela Cruz, Employee of the Month, Carlo Francisco Manatad (Philippines)

The jury noted: “Carlo Francisco Manatad’s impressive and rebellious movie, from the opening credits until the very end, explodes with the energy of a Molotov.”

Documentary Short Winner: Crisanto Street, Paloma Martinez (USA) 
 • Receives $2,000 cash prize

The jury awarded this prize to Paloma Martinez’s film with a statement: “So often overlooked and avoided, the issue of the affordable home crisis gets a front row seat from an unexpected view. With a bold choice to arm an 8-year-old boy with a camera, Crisanto Street skillfully renders a touching and powerful portrait of a family trying to survive on the edges. Never sentimental, Martinez captures the family’s struggle with dignity and the ephemeral possibility of hope.”

New Visions Short Winner: .TV, G. Anthony Svatek (USA/Tuvalu/New Zealand/France) 
 • Receives $2,000 cash prize

The Best New Visions Short Prize was awarded to G. Anthony Svatek’s consideration of Tuvalu’s highly desired national domain suffix .TV for being “an illuminating and surprising account of the hidden economies of technology and the island nation’s eminent risk of extinction due to climate-change.”

Special Jury Mention, New Visions Short: Fair Grounds, Ameer Kazmi (USA/France/Germany) The jury recognized the film for its “tenacious yet elegant abstract critique and exploration of youthful masculinity.”

Animated Short Winner: Icebergs, Elrini Vianelli (USA/Greece) 
 • Receives $2,000 cash prize

The jury found Icebergs to be “like looking through the windows of a high-rise — Elrini Vianelli’s short weaves together the small, funny, mundane, and most important moments of its characters’ lives, presenting only snippets of what are full, complex people: the human condition in ten minutes.”

Bay Area Short First Prize Winner: Weekends, Trevor Jimenez (USA) 
 • Receives $2,000 cash prize

The jury acknowledged that “It is rare that a short film, let alone an animated short with no dialogue, has the depth and narrative arc of a feature. The back and forth travels of a young child between his divorced parents’ dwellings reminds us all of what constitutes family, and what makes a place, something we call home. Perhaps it is somewhere in between.”

Bay Area Short Second Prize Winner: 49 Mile Scenic Drive, Bradley Smith, Tyler McPherron (USA) 
 • Receives $1,500 cash prize

In a statement, the jury noted that “Through thoughtful and captivating use of archival footage and humor, this charming short film tells the history of San Francisco’s iconic 49 Mile Scenic Drive signs and the journey to restore them to their perfectly designed glory.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARD FOR YOUTH WORK 
The Youth Works jury was comprised of actor, writer, producer and ARTivist Fawzia Mirza and Bay Area students Olina Scott, Anthony Carter, and Juan Montgomery.

Youth Works Prize: Goodbye Sam, Theo Taplitz (USA) 
 • Receives $1,000 cash prize

The jury lauded “the playful quirkiness of Goodbye Sam for emotionally embracing the power of friendship, making us laugh and cry and wanting to see more of the oddball story of a boy and his pet bird.”

Special Jury Mention: Elle, Florence Winter Hill (UK) The jury granted this special mention to Florence Winter Hill’s short for “striking an emotional chord for all of us who had to face growing up and letting go of childhood dreams.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARD FOR FAMILY FILM 
The Family Film jury was comprised of writer Carvell Wallace, Betsy Bozdech from Common Sense Media, and Marcy Johnson, Jefferson Elementary School teacher.

Family Film Prize Winner: Crisanto Street, Paloma Martinez (USA) 
 · Receives $1,500 cash prize

The jury noted: “One of the rare films that truly shows us the world through a child’s eyes, this multilayered short doesn’t shy away from life’s struggles, but it demonstrates that joy and home can be found everywhere.”

Special Jury Mention: Bird Karma, William Salazar (USA) The jury praised Bird Karma for “taking on astonishing depth with playfulness, simplicity, humor, and beauty.”

The 2018 Golden Gate Awards were proudly sponsored by IMDbPro.

Hashtags: #SFFILM and #SFFILMFestival
Twitter: @SFFILM
Instagram: @sffilm
Facebook: facebook.com/SFFILM

Five SFFILM-Supported Films Headed to Sundance 2018

It’s a particularly exciting time of year for the SFFILM Makers team, as several of the films they’ve helped shepherd into existence are on their way to the Sundance Film Festival for their premieres. This year, five projects supported by SFFILM grants and development services will be going to Park City for their big snowy debuts, beginning their journey to reach audiences worldwide.

“These five SFFILM-supported films represent exciting new voices in independent film — from uninhibited bold artistry to nuanced unpacking of complicated systemic issues of our time — and we’re thrilled that they are premiering this week,” said Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM Director of Artist Development. “SFFILM has been championing Boots Riley’s move into filmmaking for some time, and it’s a dream to see such an ambitious, imaginative film come to fruition with a premiere at Sundance. It’s an especially exciting year for Bay Area filmmaking, with both Sorry to Bother You and Blindspotting made in Oakland just last summer. The impressive talent shown by the first-time filmmakers here and the diversity of voices telling these stories are particularly exciting for us as we head into what’s looking like a great year for film ahead.”

SFFILM–SUPPORTED PROJECTS AT SUNDANCE 2018

Blindspotting
US Dramatic Competition — Day One
Carlos Lopez Estrada, director; Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs, writers; Keith Calder, Jess Calder, Rafael Casal, and Daveed Diggs, producers

— 2017 SFFILM / Time Warner Foundation Grant —

Collin is trying to make it through his final days of probation for an infamous arrest he can’t wait to put behind him. Always by his side is his fast-talking childhood bestie, Miles, who has a knack for finding trouble. They grew up together in the notoriously rough Oakland, a.k.a. “The Town,” which has become the new trendy place to live in the rapidly gentrifying Bay Area. But when Collin’s chance for a fresh start is interrupted by a life-changing missed curfew, his friendship with Miles is forced out of its comfortable buddy-comedy existence, and the Bay boys are set on a spiraling collision course with each other. (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Hale County This Morning, This Evening
US Documentary Competition
RaMell Ross, director; Maya Krinsky, writer; Joslyn Barnes, RaMell Ross, Su Kim, producers

— 2017 Documentary Film Fund grant for post-production —

How does one express the reality of individuals whose public image, lives, and humanity originate in exploitation? Photographer and filmmaker RaMell Ross employs the integrity of nonfiction filmmaking and the currency of stereotypical imagery to fill in the gaps between individual black male icons. Hale County This Morning, This Evening is a lyrical innovation to the form of portraiture that boldly ruptures racist aesthetic frameworks that have historically constricted the expression of African American men on film. (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Monsters and Men
US Dramatic Competition
Reinaldo Marcus Green, director/writer; Elizabeth Lodge Stepp, Josh Penn, Eddie Vaisman, Julia Lebedev, and Luca Borghese, producers

— Fall 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for post-production —

One night, in front of a bodega in Brooklyn’s Bed–Stuy neighborhood, Manny Ortega witnesses a white police officer wrongfully gun down a neighborhood street hustler, and Manny films the incident on his phone. Now he’s faced with a dilemma: release the video and bring unwanted exposure to himself and his family, or keep the video private and be complicit in the injustice? (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Sorry to Bother You
US Dramatic Competition
Boots Riley, director/writer; Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, Charles King, George Rush, Jonathan Duffy, Kelly Williams, producers

— Spring 2015 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for screenwriting — 
— Spring 2016 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for packaging — 
— Spring 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for production — 
— Fall 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Post-production loan —

Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield), a 30-something black telemarketer with self-esteem issues, discovers a magical selling power living inside of him. Suddenly he’s rising up the ranks to the elite team of his company, which sells heinous products and services. The upswing in Cassius’s career raises serious red flags with his brilliant girlfriend, Detroit (Tessa Thompson), a sign-twirling gallery artist who is secretly a part of a Banksy-style collective called Left Eye. But the unimaginable hits the fan when Cassius meets the company’s cocaine-snorting, orgy-hosting, obnoxious, and relentlessly optimistic CEO, Steve Lift (Armie Hammer). (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

We The Animals
NEXT
Jeremiah Zagar, director; Daniel Kitrosser and Jeremiah Zagar, writers; Jeremy Yaches, Christina D. King, Andrew Goldman, and Paul Mezey, producers

— Spring 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant for post-production —

Us three, brothers, kings inseparable. Manny, Joel, and Jonah tear their way through childhood. Their Ma and Paps have a volatile love that makes and unmakes the family many times over, leaving the boys fending for themselves. As their parents rip at one another, Manny and Joel ultimately harden and grow into versions of their father. With the triumvirate fractured, Jonah — the youngest, the dreamer — becomes increasingly aware of his desperate need to escape. Driven to the edge, Jonah embraces an imagined world all his own. (Sundance Film Festival)

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Other SFFILM–supported films that have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in recent years include Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer; Peter Bratt’s Dolores; Peter Nicks’s The Force, which won the festival’s Directing Award for U.S. Documentary in 2017; Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, which went on to win both the festival’s Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category in 2013; Kat Candler’s Hellion; Jacob Kornbluth’s Inequality for All; Ira Sach’s Love is Strange; Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child; Jesse Moss’s The Overnighters; Geremy Jasper’s Patti Cake$; and Alex Smith and Andrew Smith’s Walking Out, among others.

Find out more about the grants, residencies, and fellowships offered by SFFILM Makers here.