Moroccan-American filmmaker Rita Baghdadi's project is among the Sundance Institute 2024 Documentary Fund grantees.
The Sundance Institute has unveiled the 2024 recipients of the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund grants, providing significant support to nonfiction filmmakers worldwide. This year’s selection includes 28 projects, which will share a total of $1,450,000 in unrestricted grants, nearly $500,000 more than last year’s fund. The increase in funding is attributed to enhanced support for the programme.
The chosen projects span various stages of production: five in development, 15 in production, seven in post-production and one completed project currently in its impact campaign. Notably, Moroccan-American filmmaker Rita Baghdadi’s Stallions (Morocco) and Lala Aliyeva’s Strange Sea (Azerbaijan) are among those selected in the development category.
In the production category, Seyi Adebanjo’s Afromystic (USA, Nigeria, Brazil)and the joint effort by Roni Jo Draper and Marissa Lila titled Good Fire have been highlighted. Meanwhile, Najiba Noori and Ali Rasul Noori’s Hawa (France, The Netherlands, Afghanistan, Qatar) has been chosen in the post-production category.
The Documentary Fund aims to provide a stable source of support for innovative nonfiction works that address pressing cultural and social issues. The grants are made possible through the contributions of organisations including the Open Society Foundations, John Templeton Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Sony Music Entertainment, with a special contribution from Sony Music’s Global Justice Fund.
With new support from the John Templeton Foundation, the Documentary Fund’s granting pool has increased by $500,000 annually. This funding will help support daring and innovative storytelling projects that align with the Foundation’s mission of inspiring awe and wonder through interdisciplinary research and conversation.
For the first time, the grant also includes recipients chosen through the Sundance Institute | Sony Music Vision Initiative. This initiative, funded by Sony Music’s Global Social Justice Fund, focuses on supporting documentary film projects by BIPOC filmmakers with significant music components or innovative approaches to audio and sound.
Paola Mottura, Documentary Film Fund Director and Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programmes, said: “It has always been critical to Sundance’s mission to uplift talented and underrepresented voices seeking to create thoughtful and thought-provoking work that elevates and advances cultural dialogue, and we are thrilled to celebrate the variety of perspectives and approaches this year’s grantees bring to the table with their projects. During this challenging time for our industry, we are grateful to be able to deepen our support for the global documentary community. This work is urgent and it is an honour to be a part of these talented artists’ journeys and help them get closer to connecting with their audiences. We’re appreciative of our partners in making this support possible and we look forward to experiencing these risk-taking works.”
This year, the Documentary Fund emphasises supporting artists from historically marginalised communities, with more than half of the grant proposals coming from outside the US and representing 25 countries. Additionally, 92% of the funded projects are directed by artists from marginalised communities, and 60% are by first-time feature directors.
The selected projects showcase a wide range of themes, including resilience through family and community, exploration of new frontiers in ritual and belief, the impact of grassroots activism and personal expression in the face of oppressive regimes.
Among the mid-career filmmakers supported this year are Christian Popp, producer of Becoming Cary Grant (2017); Ljubomir Stefanov, director of Honeyland (2019); Nicholas Ma, producer of Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018); Rita Baghdadi, director of Sirens (2022); PJ Raval, filmmaker of Call Her Ganda (2018); and Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, producer of the Golden Bear-winning short film T (2020).
