We’re excited to announce the recipients for several programs that are part of our extensive Artist Development granting initiatives, providing support for film artists working in narrative and documentary, including the storied SFFILM Rainin Grant, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund (DFF), the inaugural SFFILM Cedar Road Iyagi Grant, the SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant, and the SFFILM/San Francisco Conservatory of Music Sound and Cinema Fellowship, for a total of $543K in grants distributed by the nonprofit film organization.
SFFILM’s year-round artist development programs also include the Sloan Science in Cinema Initiative, in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which provides direct artist grants to filmmakers developing screenplays with science and technology themes. The SFFILM Sloan grantees and fellows will be named in an upcoming announcement. Rounding out the robust slate of offerings, the SFFILM FilmHouse Residency provides Bay Area-based filmmakers with artistic guidance, office space, a vibrant creative community, and mentorship from established film industry professionals. The 2026 FilmHouse Residents will be announced in January.
“SFFILM sits uniquely at a vital intersection of the film ecosystem. While most people know about our long-running San Francisco International Film Festival, it’s our artist development program that is doing the critical behind-the-scenes work to provide emerging filmmakers with resources like the funding, mentorship, and visibility they need to get their films made,” said SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai, “And at a time when funding is evaporating and the film industry is undergoing a massive shift, SFFILM is committed to meeting filmmakers’ needs to help them get their stories out in the world, and ultimately, to connect them with the audiences they made them for.”
SFFILM Director of Artist Development Masashi Niwano also explained, “In 2025, SFFILM saw nearly double the amount of applications across all of our granting programs. This year’s cohort of grantees represents filmmaking and stories from across the globe, and yet all are singular perspectives from talented filmmakers. The need for comprehensive, community-based professional support for filmmakers will always be here, and SFFILM is proud to be an enduring part of the filmmaking ecosystem.”
SFFILM RAININ GRANT
The SFFILM Rainin Grant program is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the U.S. The grants support 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, and benefit the Bay Area filmmaking community in a professional and economic capacity. Awards for screenwriting, development, or post-production are made to 15–20 projects once a year in the fall. In addition to a cash grant of up to $25,000, recipients receive access to the FilmHouse (located in SoMa in San Francisco) and benefit from SFFILM’s comprehensive and dynamic artist development programs.
Since 2009, the SFFILM Rainin Filmmaking Grants program has funded more than 300 film projects, including Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake, Sean Wang’s Dìdi (弟弟), Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama, Fernando Frias’s I’m No Longer Here, Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth, Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men, Jeremiah Zagar’s We the Animals, Chloé Zhao’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild. Supported films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, South by Southwest, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival and many more.
The 17 projects listed alphabetically by title are:
Abracadabra TV Repair
Screenwriter/Director: Sahand Nikoukar
Development
In 1995 San Francisco, Iranian immigrant Omid finds work as a driver for a TV Repair shop, but during a routine delivery the van gets stolen with a big-screen television inside. Omid and his eight-year-old son must now find the stolen big-screen and deliver it in time for the Super Bowl—to keep his job and stay in the country. Their frantic search becomes a journey through the underbelly of 1990s San Francisco and a heartfelt portrait of the immigrant pursuit of belonging, dignity, and the American Dream.
Ancestor
Screenwriter/Director: Meera Angelica Joshi
Screenwriting
When a medium predicts the mysterious illness of Rani’s father and connects it to an Ancestor in purgatory, Rani and her family must decide whether to heed the warnings of the pundit or trust in Western medicine. This clash of Rani’s two worlds as an Indian-Australian adolescent challenges the concept of her identity and what she knows about life and death.
The Ballad of Tita and the Machines
Screenwriter/Director: Miguel Angel Caballero, Writer: Luis Antonio Aldana, Producers: Miguel Angel Caballero, Luis Antonio Aldana, Helena Sardinha, Rafael Thomaseto
Screenwriting
In a near-future in California, on the brink of full A.I. automation, a 65-year-old Mexican strawberry picker risks everything to lead a labor uprising against the A.I. humanoids built to replace her.
Bangbang Teahouse
Screenwriter/Director: Courtney Loo, Producer: David Karp
Development
Mimi and Hayley, a Chinese American music duo, stop at absolutely nothing to convince their label to release their long-awaited album over a raucous, self-destructive 48 hours in New York City—all while waging a seemingly losing battle to hold on to each other.
Boat People
Screenwriter/Director: Al’Ikens Plancher, Producers: Robert A. Maylor
Screenwriting
Inspired by true events, a Haitian refugee fights to survive the inhumane conditions at Guantánamo Bay.
Debaters
Screenwriter/Director: Alex Heller, Producer: Eugene Sun Park
Development
Over the course of a high school debate season, the ambitious team captain and her fumbling coach discover that growing up—at every age—means reckoning with the parents that raised you.
dream boy
Screenwriter/Director: Set Hernandez
Screenwriting
After a weekend of getting high together sparks their unlikely friendship, a closeted, undocumented teenager is caught off-guard when he catches feels for his high school’s basketball superstar. But even with the hallucinatory world he conjures up about their romance, it’s clear from the get-go: his dream boy will never like him back.
La Finca
Screenwriter/Director: Sofia Camargo
Screenwriting
On a rural estate in the Colombian Andes, a mother and her teenage daughter become entangled in their housekeeper’s secret pregnancy. As a fragile bond forms between the three, class differences and unspoken rules quietly begin to pull them apart.
How to Stop the Sky from Wanting
Screenwriter/Director: Santos Arrué
Screenwriting
After 30 years in the U.S., 57 year old Geronimo, is deported to his country of origin: Guatemala. Separated from his family and forced to live in exile, he joins a migrant theater group in hopes of finding his way back home.
None Die of Heartbreak
Screenwriter/Director: Shuli Huang
Screenwriting
Two young men in a long-distance relationship struggle to stay oblivious to their failed romance.
pecan.
Screenwriter/Director: Nolam Plaas
Screenwriting
Junie and his father, Kenny, attempt to live up to expectations of being men, but end up destroying the relationships they cherish the most, in the process. Even their own.
Rainbow Girls
Screenwriter/Director: Nana Duffuor, Producer: Yaél Bermudez
Screenwriting
As San Francisco’s tech boom gentrifies their city, a group of friends decide to take matters into their own hands, launching a string of robberies targeting the city’s most exclusive luxury brands.
Ruby Road
Screenwriter/Director: Talia Lugacy, Producer: Noah Lang, Julian West
Post-Production
Facing a terminal illness and no way to pay for care, a former school-bus driver sets off in her yellow mini-bus through Appalachia and the Northeast—on a final, haunting journey to reconcile with her past, her fractured family, and the forgotten America that shaped them all.
Saca Tu Lengua (Stick Out Your Tongue)
Screenwriter/Director: Melina Valdez
Screenwriting
After her stepfather’s funeral, a teenage girl is caught between loyalty and identity when her mother suspects their beloved in-laws of stealing his extensive gun collection.
Three Islands
Co-Screenwriter/Director: Juan Luis Matos, Co-Screenwriter/Producer: Monica Sorelle, Co-Screenwriter: Robert Colom-Vargas
Screenwriting
The lives of three men are upended as fate and circumstance bring them together to navigate the realities of carceral societies, their emotional blindspots, and uncertain futures following an immigrant father’s release from prison into his son’s apartment.
Verano
Screenwriter/Director: Leo Aguirre, Producer: Jeff Kardesch
Development
An unruly teenager’s summer plans are upended when his parents decide to foster an adolescent from Central America who is seeking asylum in the United States. As the two teens realize they must share more than just a bedroom, they are forced to confront their differences amid their harsh realities.
The Voyagers
Screenwriter/Director: Walé Oyejide
Post-Production
As the souls of drowned migrants possess a small town, an immigrant woman who speaks with the dead searches for the companion she lost at sea.
SFFILM DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND
The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund (DFF) supports engaging documentaries in post-production which exhibit compelling stories, intriguing characters, and an original, innovative visual approach. Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has advanced new work by filmmakers worldwide granting nearly $1 million to 55 projects and growing.
The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has a prestigious track record for advancing compelling films that go on to critical acclaim. Previous DFF recipients include Brittany Shyne’s SEEDS, winner of the Sundance 2025 U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary; Sarvnik Kaur’s Against the Tide, winner of the Sundance 2023 Vérité Filmmaking Prize; Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborne’s Going Varsity in Mariachi, winner of the Sundance 2023 Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award; Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s multiple Sundance winner Writing With Fire and Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension both nominated for the 2022 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland, which won a record number of juried awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Academy Awards for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Language Film.
The six projects listed alphabetically by title are:
*holds you tight*
Director: Jane M. Wagner, Producers: Carrie Weprin, Joe Weil
Post-Production
A lonely night watchman develops a relationship with an A.I. chatbot, transforming his worldview and challenging his perception of identity and reality.
Figaro Up Figaro Down
Director/Producer: Javid Soriano, Producer: Rob Richert
Post-Production
Figaro Up, Figaro Down follows Tim Blevins, a world-class Opera singer now struggling to escape street life as an addict in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. The history of his meteoric rise as a Black man in this predominantly white art form and eventual fall from grace, are framed around his mission to reunite with his estranged adult children. The highs and lows of his redemptive journey are infused with Tim’s deeply personal renderings of classic arias.
The First Plantation
Director: Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Producers: Romola Lucas, Darcy McKinnon
Post-Production
An investigative documentary on reparations becomes unexpectedly personal when a filmmaker returns home to Barbados to tell the story of Drax Hall, the oldest continuously-operated sugar plantation in the Americas, recently inherited by a wealthy British politician descended from the slave master who founded it.
Outliving Shakespeare
Directors: Inna Sahakyan, Ruben Ghazaryan, Producer: Vardan Hovhannisyan, Co-Producer: Joram Willink
Post-Production
In a Soviet-era retirement home, a group of elders cling to life by staging Shakespeare—yet loneliness lingers beyond the theater’s doors, until the dramas begin to blur with reality.
Shifted Landscapes
Director: Jamie Meltzer, Producer: Annie Marr
Post-Production
Shifted Landscapes is a feature documentary examining the pervasive effects of the climate crisis on the environmental, cultural, and psychological landscapes of California. Weaving together a series of observational vignettes, the film visually articulates a larger system of climate change within the state.
Time Hunter
Directors: Daniel Chein, Mushiva, Producer: David Felix Sutcliffe, Co-Producers: Thomas Kaske, Joel Haikali
Post-Production
Time Hunter is a sci-fi documentary at the nexus of A.I., colonialism, and decolonial technology. Weaving verité, hip-hop, investigative journalism, and African Futurism, the film follows Mushiva, a Namibian musician and creative technologist, and his alter ego, the Time Hunter, a cybernetic revolutionary. As they each infiltrate the colonial dystopic forces governing their respective realities, the film reimagines the technological possibilities for our past, present, and future.
SFFILM CEDAR ROAD IYAGI GRANT
SFFILM Cedar Road’s Iyagi Grant is dedicated to discovering and nurturing stories that capture the depth, nuance, and complexity of Asian and Asian American characters and experiences. In Korean, “iyagi” translates to “story”—a word that embodies the heart of this grant’s mission: to champion storytelling as a powerful bridge connecting people across cultures and perspectives.
The Cedar Road Iyagi Grant, supported by the film finance and production company Cedar Road (known for projects such as Dìdi (弟弟), The Last Year of Darkness, and The Accidental Getaway Driver), is dedicated to fostering bold and original stories that amplify Asian and Asian American perspectives. This grant focuses on developing narratives that go beyond stereotypes—prioritizing compelling themes, unexpected genres, and fresh artistic visions. By supporting these diverse voices, Cedar Road’s Iyagi Grant helps to enrich the cinematic landscape, ensuring that stories from these communities are not only told but also authentically represented.
The two projects listed alphabetically by title are:
Kominka
Screenwriter/Director: Kyoko Miyake
Screenwriting
An ambitious American woman takes a job in a remote Japanese village to help revive its aging community, but as she renovates a decaying traditional house, she uncovers the mystery of her missing predecessor—and begins to suspect she’s not alone.
Naked In Glendale
Screenwriter/Director: Haohao Yan, Producer: Jane Zheng, Julia Xu
Development
When a Chinese honor student falsely accuses a classmate to escape scandal at an American boarding program, her lie spirals out of control—forcing her and her young teacher to confront the shame, secrets, and systems that silence them both.
SFFILM RAININ FILMMAKERS WITH DISABILITIES GRANT
The SFFILM Rainin Filmmaker with Disabilities Grant supports filmmakers who identify as having a disability with films that specifically address stories within the disability community. Notable projects supported through this program include The Tallest Dwarf (2025 SXSW World Premiere, 2025 Festival), Vivien’s Wild Ride (2025 San Francisco International Film Festival World Premiere), The Tuba Thieves (2023 Sundance Premiere, 2025 Festival), and I Didn’t See You There (2022 Sundance Premiere, 2022 Festival).
The three projects listed alphabetically by title are:
A Girl Got Her Hand Blown Up in Dolores Park
Screenwriter/Director: Roisin Isner
Screenwriting
After a shocking bomb attack leaves her permanently disabled, a 17 year old amputee investigates a teenage underworld of friends, enemies, and suspects.
All In My Head
Director: Marti Hines, Producer: Sophia Williams
Post-Production
After her own MS diagnosis, filmmaker Marti Hines sets out on a global journey to spotlight the untold stories of five Black women living with the disease—including Paralympic champion Kadeena Cox. Centered on Kadeena’s fierce pursuit of greatness, this documentary unearths resilience, sisterhood, and the fight for visibility in a system that too often looks the other way.
Vestibule
Director: Riley Hooper, Producers: Caitlin Mae Burke, Bryn Silverman
Post-Production
Vestibule is the story of one woman’s fight for sexual health, pleasure, and bodily autonomy. Through imaginative dance sequences and intimate voiceover, Riley chronicles her decade-long journey with Vestibulodynia — a vulvovaginal disorder. What begins as a quest for pain-free sex becomes a multigenerational story of resilience, dignity, and self-discovery.
SFFILM/SAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC SOUND & CINEMA FELLOWSHIP
In partnership with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s (SFCM) Technology and Applied Composition Program (TAC), the SFFILM/SFCM Sound and Cinema Fellowship provides an exciting opportunity rarely afforded to independent filmmakers—to thoughtfully elevate and deepen the role of music and sound with the imagery in their finished films. SFFILM selects up to four Filmmaker Fellows to be paired with SFCM’s talented masters and undergraduate students to develop and complete an original soundtrack for their film. The audio work can include original music, sound design, foley, sound mixing, ADR recording, and more.
The Fellowship supports SFCM’s mission to advance new models of music education and prepare their students for a rewarding career in the industry. Students and Filmmaker Fellows will learn more about all aspects of sound to picture through collaboration, demos, spotting sessions, and workshops with celebrated filmmakers, composers, and other industry professionals. Filmmakers will have access to SFCM’s state-of-the-art recording studios and facilities. A special screening and presentation will be held at the 2026 SFFILM Festival to highlight the films, filmmakers, and audio teams.
The three projects listed alphabetically by title are:
The Darkest Night
Screenwriter/Director: Andrés Gallegos, Creative Producer: Constanza Hevia H
Post-Production
In 1996 Talca, Chile, a young boy named Diego finds his world turned upside down when he discovers a hidden cache of stolen money. When the money becomes the only way to save his beloved mentor after a terrible accident, Diego is thrust into a moral dilemma, navigating a dangerous path that leads him to hatch a plan against the very thief who seeks the money, a choice that ultimately forces him to confront his own innocence and the person he is becoming.
Juan Po and The Last Day of School
Screenwriter/Director/Producer: Vicky Ponce, Producer: Liz Anderson
Post-Production
Inspired by his idol and wanting to impress the teacher he is crushing on, 13-year-old Juan Po gets a DIY perm done by his father. Now he must survive an entire day at school with a mangled ‘fro.
Untitled Altura Health Short.
Director: Elivia Shaw, Producers: Brenda Ávila-Hanna, George Alfaro
Post-Production
Inside a pediatric clinic in Tulare, California, a group of Mexican doctors from a unique pilot program fill huge gaps in the American healthcare system and work to protect patients dealing with environmental hazards and aggressive immigration policies in the place that feeds the nation.
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