The 2024 SFFILM Rainin grant recipients have formally been unveiled.
IndieWire can announce that 17 function movies have been awarded $425,000 in money grants, benefitting 22 filmmakers. Two initiatives have particularly buzzy producers: Joie Estrella Horwitz’s “Dreamland” is produced by current “The Fireplace Inside” screenwriter and “Mufasa” director Barry Jenkins, whereas Lucy Liu is producing “Rosemead.”
The SFFILM Rainin grant is the biggest granting physique for the event and manufacturing of impartial narrative function movies within the U.S. The flagship partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Basis particularly helps movies that tackle social justice points — the distribution of wealth, alternatives, and privileges — in a optimistic and significant manner via plot, character, theme, or setting.
Awards are made to a number of initiatives annually, for screenwriting, growth, and post-production. Recipients obtain an unrestricted money grant of as much as $25,000 for screenwriting, growth, or post-production, and a two-month residency at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s artist residency house.
This yr’s class is comprised of 17 function movie initiatives receiving a complete of $425,000 in money grants. As well as, the SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant, is being awarded to a few initiatives with $25,000 in whole granting.
SFFILM additionally launched the SFFILM Krishnan Shah Household Basis Grant to help two initiatives with a complete of $45,000 in direct artist grants. Recipients of those grants will additional obtain SFFILM’s artist growth help and entry to FilmHouse.
“The movie that an viewers will get to see on display is the completed product, however there are numerous months and years of labor that need to occur earlier than that second. That is what our granting packages are all about, giving filmmakers the time and tailor-made sources they should get their movies to that purpose,” SFFILM’s Govt Director Anne Lai stated. “Our lengthy partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Basis has allowed SFFILM to commit consideration and experience to impartial filmmakers as they notice their visions. We’re thrilled to welcome the Krishnan Shah Household Basis as new funders on this house who acknowledge the immense worth in investing in new voices.”
The SFFILM Rainin Grant was established in 2009, and has since supported pioneering options corresponding to Sean Wang’s “DÌDI (弟弟),” Raven Jackson’s “All Dust Roads Style of Salt,” Savanah Leaf’s “Earth Mama,” Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Trouble You,” and Ryan Coogler’s “Fruitvale Station.”
The SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant was created in 2020, and has supported Alison O’Daniel’s “The Tuba Thieves” and Reid Davenport’s “I Didn’t See You There.”
“This yr’s cohort of supported filmmakers throughout all three of those granting packages represents a breadth of storytelling that exemplifies creativity, perspective, and craft,” Masashi Niwano, SFFILM’s Director of Artist Improvement, stated. “We’re impressed and passionate for these rising filmmakers and thrilled to work with them.”
The SFFILM Rainin Grant program is open to filmmakers from anyplace on this planet who can decide to spending time creating the movie in San Francisco. Functions for subsequent yr will open in early 2025.
Take a look at the total checklist of winners beneath.
2024 SFFILM RAININ GRANT RECIPIENTS
“Dreamland”
Screenwriting
Joie Estrella Horwitz, Screenwriter/Director; Barry Jenkins, Producer; Adele Romanski, Producer; Mark Ceryak, Producer; Catalina Rojter, Producer
A love story blooms in the course of the evening shift in a slaughterhouse, the place phantoms of the longer term sit with ghosts of the previous.
“Fonzel and Gloria”
Improvement
Christopher Cole, Screenwriter/Director; Devin Tusa, Producer; George Rush, Producer; Caroline Kaplan, Producer
When an ageing one-hit marvel is recognized with a terminal sickness, she enlists her rapper grandson on a crime-filled bumbling romp from LA to Oakland.
“From a Crooked Rib”
Screenwriting
Idil Ibrahim, Screenwriter/Director/Producer
When her grandfather guarantees her hand to Giumaleh, the oldest man within the village, eighteen yearold Ebla decides that alters the course of her life.
“Half Orange”
Screenwriting
Alejandra Vasquez, Screenwriter/Director
Lucia navigates life as a teen born to now-divorced teenaged dad and mom, shuttled between her mom’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 individuals, solely two of these individuals occur to be her dad and mom.
“Honeyjoon”
Submit-Manufacturing
Lilian T. Mehrel, Screenwriter/Director/Producer; Andreia Nunes, Producer; Alex C. Lo, Producer
Kurdish-Persian Lela and her American daughter June make a journey to the romantic Azores after their main loss—with reverse concepts about this journey, grief, and June’s bikini. Between honeymooners, Girl Life Freedom, and their sizzling philosophical tour information João, they discover one another… coming again to life.
“Karolina and Udochi Dance within the Woods at Nightfall!”
Improvement
Osinachi Ibe, Screenwriter/Director/Producer; Thomas Ethan Harris, Producer; Megan Carlson, Producer
Throughout their first summer time aside, two childhood finest buddies uncover they’ve fallen in love with one another and embark on a religious journey that adjustments them perpetually.
“Love Visa”
Screenwriting
PJ Raval, Co-writer/Director; Eileen Cabiling, Co-writer; Derek Nguyen, Producer
When Filipino hottie Jon Jon arrives in Texas to marry his Black closeted on-line lover Harvey, their relationship is put to the check by familial obligations and the social stigmas of a transactional marriage, all whereas trying to suit into the American dream.
“The Matriarch”
Screenwriting
Zandashé Brown, Screenwriter/Director
A younger lady, haunted by her mom’s lengthy battle with psychosis, struggles to reconnect after her surprising restoration. When the loss of life of an estranged household matriarch brings them again to their ancestral house in rural Louisiana, she types a mysterious connection together with her late grandmother—one which threatens to unravel her personal grip on actuality.
“Mouna Tharangam (A Silent Wave)”
Improvement
Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda, Director; Janani Vijayanathan, Producer
In Submit-Roe Texas, Amal, an Indian-American lady, grapples with an surprising being pregnant when her path crosses with a newlywed Indian immigrant, Charulata. Their love sparks a journey of sexual awakening, cultural conflict, and profound selections because the specter of abortion looms massive.
“Mucho Energy”
Screenwriting
Fernando Frias de la Parra, Screenwriter/Director/Producer; Gerry Kim, Screenwriter/Producer
In Nineteen Nineties Chicago, Korean immigrant Luke Jung opens a retailer within the Mexican enclave of Little Village, believing arduous work will result in success. Nonetheless, his aspirations are challenged by cultural clashes and systemic forces throughout a time when company voracity dominates an more and more globalized world. Hypnotized by the American Dream, Luke struggles to acknowledge the futility of a system that strikes quick and waits for nobody.
“No One Turned Away For Lack Of Funds: A Queer-Inclusive Memoir”
Screenwriting
LaTajh Weaver, Screenwriter/Director; Sean Gillane, Producer
An escape room grasp builds an inescapable puzzle room for vacationers, whereas attempting to understand their very own sense of belonging inside Oakland’s surreal, radicalized Queer scene.
“Pangea Ultima”
Improvement
Estevan Padilla, Screenwriter/Director
Decided to heal their fractured household, a misguided brother and sister take drastic motion, kidnapping their estranged dad and mom in a bid for compelled reconciliation.
“Requiem for a Glacier”
Screenwriting
Stephanie Falkeis, Screenwriter/Director
When a younger glaciologist is tasked with assessing the glacier close to her ancestral village within the distant Alps, she is quickly caught within the crossfire of competing pursuits and her scientific impartiality is put to the check. Whereas the city council expects her inexperienced mild to construct a ski resort they consider will save them from financial destroy, her estranged eco-activist mom is keen to defend the glacier from destruction in any respect prices. A feminist anti-western set in a dying panorama.
“Rosemead”
Submit-Manufacturing
Eric Lin, Director; Mynette Louie, Producer; Andrew Corkin, Producer; Lucy Liu, Producer
An immigrant mom in California’s San Gabriel Valley takes determined measures to assist her unstable teenage son as she uncovers his obsession with mass shootings. Impressed by true occasions.
“Strangers”
Screenwriting
Karishma Dev Dube, Screenwriter/Director/Producer
Pari and Tara are full strangers, till an opportunity encounter on a New York Metropolis subway platform instigates inexplicable and profound connections between them. Set between New Delhi and New York, the movie explores how these two ladies quietly unravel in tandem: with lovers, at house, and in public.
“SummerWinterSummer”
Improvement
Thy Tran, Screenwriter/Director/Producer
Grappling with a heartbreak, a homosexual, Vietnamese American inventive drifts via the cycle of disappointment, rejection, and quiet despair, spiraling into self-destruction till he confronts the burden of familial scars and rediscovers his true self.
“Sweeping Graves”
Screenwriting
Kevin D. Wong, Screenwriter/Director; Vanessa Gentry, Screenwriter/Producer
Chinese language American realtor Brandon buys a constructing in San Francisco Chinatown and evicts the tenants, desirous to make the most important sale of his profession. However as he begins to renovate, the constructing’s hidden historical past returns to hang-out him, and he’s drawn right into a harmful recreation of cat and mouse with the previous tenants that can value him greater than he bargained for.
The jury panelists who reviewed the finalist’s submissions are Danielle Massie, Producer and Head of Improvement & Manufacturing, Park Footage; Joenique Rose, Venture Contain Supervisor, Movie Unbiased; Inês Pedrosa e Melo, Filmmaker; Moy Eng, Board Member, Kenneth Rainin Basis; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Improvement, SFFILM; Rosa Morales, Artist Improvement Supervisor of Narrative Packages, SFFILM; and Erika Arnold, Artist Improvement Affiliate Supervisor, SFFILM.
SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant
“Midwaste” (Documentary Function)
In Manufacturing
Liz Roberts, Director; Bree Laursen, Director
Two buddies from the Midwest reunite after 25 years through the use of a VHS archive to attach the lengthy thread of their previous selves to who they’re now. “Midwaste” is a vivid and private exploration of drug use, healthcare inequity, and the carceral system.
“Mise En Place” (Documentary Brief)
In Manufacturing
Alice Wong, Director
A number of months within the lifetime of Alice Wong, an Asian American disabled activist and author in San Francisco, as she desires about meals and feeds her family members though she can not eat or drink by mouth.
“Untitled Pennhurst Documentary” (Documentary Function)
In Manufacturing
Nathan R. Stenberg, Director; Mike Attie, Director; Katarina Poljak, Director
After a lawsuit shutters an establishment for disabled individuals as a result of years of horrific abuse, a brand new group of disabled actors reclaim the house to create a haunted home impressed by their very own historical past. This character-driven movie follows one season within the lifetime of the Pennhurst neighborhood, as a bunch of disabled actors put together for the opening of Pennhurst Asylum—from auditions to development to efficiency—whereas additionally preserving the reminiscence of the embattled house.
The jury panelists who reviewed the finalist’s submissions are Olivia Handrahan, Improvement Coordinator, Inevitable Basis; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Improvement, SFFILM; Joshua Moore, Artist Improvement Supervisor of Documentary Packages, SFFILM; Rosa Morales, Artist Improvement Supervisor of Narrative Packages, SFFILM; and Erika Arnold, Artist Improvement Affiliate Supervisor, SFFILM.
SFFILM Krishnan Shah Household Basis Grant
“If We Don’t Burn, How Do We Gentle Up the Evening”
Submit-Manufacturing
Kim Torres, Screenwriter/Director; Luisa Mora Fernández, Screenwriter; Alejandra Vargas Carballo, Producer
In a realm the place mystique weaves via the odd, thirteen-year-old Laura ventures right into a secluded city, haunted by tales of a beast that preys on ladies. When she meets the radiant Daniela, their friendship quietly—however certainly—takes her on a journey that unravels the true nature of the beast.
“Trying to find Mateo”
Improvement
Nico Opper, Screenwriter/Director
“Trying to find Mateo” is a psychological drama a few queer couple from Oakland who take their ten-year-old adopted son, Mateo, on trip to Roatán, Honduras — the island the place his delivery household is from— to assist him study his roots. Early within the journey, Mateo disappears with out a hint.
Assessment members for the Krishnan Shah Household Basis Grant embody Anne Lai, the Govt Director of SFFILM; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Improvement, SFFILM; Rosa Morales, Artist Improvement Supervisor of Narrative Packages, SFFILM; grant funder Lata Krishnan; and Laura Wagner, movie producer and co-founder, Bay Bridge Productions.