SFFILM announced the recipients of the 2024 SFFILM Rainin Grant, the leading program of the organization’s expanding narrative film grant programs anchored by its flagship partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Recipients receive an unrestricted cash grant of up to $25,000 for screenwriting, development or post-production, and a two-month residency at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s premier artist residency space. This year’s class is comprised of 17 feature film projects receiving a total of $425,000 in cash grants. In addition, the SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant, now in its fourth cycle, is being awarded to three projects with $25,000 in total granting. Recipients of these grants will also receive SFFILM’s artist development support and access to FilmHouse.
“The film that an audience gets to see on screen is the finished product, but there are countless months and years of work that have to happen before that moment. This is what our granting programs are all about, giving filmmakers the time and tailored resources they need to get their films to that goal,” SFFILM’s Executive Director Anne Lai said. “Our long partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation has allowed SFFILM to devote attention and expertise to independent filmmakers as they realize their visions.”
2024 SFFILM Rainin Grantees
- The Matriarch — Zandashé Brown, Director/Screenwriter (Screenwriting)
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. - Fonzel and Gloria — Christopher Cole, Director/Screenwriter; Devin Tusa, Producer; George Rush, Producer; Caroline Kaplan, Producer (Development)
When an aging one-hit wonder is diagnosed with a terminal illness, she enlists her rapper grandson on a crime-filled bumbling romp from Los Angeles to Oakland. - Strangers — Karishma Dev Dube, Director/Producer/Screenwriter (Screenwriting)
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. - Requiem for a Glacier — Stephanie Falkeis, Director/Screenwriter (Screenwriting)
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 — Joie Estrella Horwitz, Director/Screenwriter (Screenwriting)
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! — Osinachi Ibe, Director/Producer/Screenwriter; Thomas Ethan Harris, Producer; Megan Carlson, Producer(Development)
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 — Idil Ibrahim, Director/Producer/Screenwriter (Screenwriting)
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 — Fernando Frias de la Parra, Director/Screenwriter/Producer; Gerry Kim, Producer/Screenwriter (Screenwriting)
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 — Eric Lin, Director; Mynette Louie, Producer; Andrew Corkin, Producer; Lucy Liu, Producer (Post-Production)
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 — Lilian T. Mehrel, Director/Screenwriter (Post-Production)
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. - Pangea Ultima — Estevan Padilla, Director/Screenwriter (Development)
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 — PJ Raval, Director/Co-writer; Eileen Cabiling, Co-writer; Derek Nguyen, Producer(Screenwriting)
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. - SummerWinterSummer — Thy Tran, Director/Producer/Screenwriter (Development)
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 — Alejandra Vasquez, Director/Screenwriter (Screenwriting)
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) — Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda, Director; Janani Vijayanathan, Producer (Development)
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 — LaTajh Weaver, Director/Screenwriter; Sean Gillane, Producer (Screenwriting)
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 — Kevin D. Wong, Director/Screenwriter; Vanessa Gentry, Producer/Screenwriter (Screenwriting)
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.
The jury panelists who reviewed the finalist’s submissions are Danielle Massie, Producer and Head of Development & Production, Park Pictures; Joenique Rose, Project Involve Manager, Film Independent; Inês Pedrosa e Melo, Filmmaker; Moy Eng, Board Member, Kenneth Rainin Foundation; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development, SFFILM; Rosa Morales, Artist Development Manager of Narrative Programs, SFFILM; and Erika Arnold, Artist Development Associate Manager, SFFILM.
2024 SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers With Disabilities Grantees
- Midwaste (Documentary Feature) — Liz Roberts, Director; Bree Laursen, Director (Production)
Two friends from the Midwest reunite after 25 years by using a VHS archive to connect the long thread of their past selves to who they are now. Midwaste is a vivid and personal exploration of drug use, healthcare inequity, and the carceral system. - Mise En Place (Documentary Short) — Alice Wong, Director (Production)
Several months in the life of Alice Wong, an Asian American disabled activist and writer in San Francisco, as she dreams about food and feeds her loved ones even though she cannot eat or drink by mouth. - Untitled Pennhurst Documentary (Documentary Feature) — Nathan R. Stenberg, Director; Mike Attie, Director; Katarina Poljak, Director (Production)
After a lawsuit shutters an institution for disabled people due to years of horrific abuse, a new group of disabled actors reclaim the space to create a haunted house inspired by their own history. This character-driven film follows one season in the life of the Pennhurst community, as a group of disabled actors prepare for the opening of Pennhurst Asylum—from auditions to construction to performance—while also preserving the memory of the embattled space.
The jury panelists who reviewed the finalist’s submissions are Olivia Handrahan, Development Coordinator, Inevitable Foundation; Masashi Niwano, Director of Artist Development, SFFILM; Joshua Moore, Artist Development Manager of Documentary Programs, SFFILM; Rosa Morales, Artist Development Manager of Narrative Programs, SFFILM; and Erika Arnold, Artist Development Associate Manager, SFFILM.
About The SFFILM Rainin Grant
The SFFILM Rainin Grant program is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the US. The program 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 up to $25,000 for screenwriting and development, post-production as well as a two-month residency at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s premier artist residency space. Since 2009, the SFFILM Rainin Grant has supported pioneering films and the visionaries behind them, including Sean Wang’s DÌDI (弟弟), Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You and Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station.
SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant is offered to filmmakers whose films specifically address stories from the disability community, ensuring this historically excluded community has better access to artistic and financial support. Since 2020, it has supported films such as Alison O’Daniel’s The Tuba Thieves and Reid Davenport’s I Didn’t See You There. In addition to cash grants of up to $5,000 for short films and $10,000 for feature films, recipients secure a one-year residency at FilmHouse and benefit from SFFILM’s comprehensive and dynamic artist development programs.
The SFFILM Rainin Grant 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.
