SFFILM Awards Grants to 7 New Independent Films

SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, is a major funder of narrative, independent films, and its biannual grant has a proven track record of helping talented, emerging filmmakers make their breakthroughs. Boots Riley’s sci-fi social satire Sorry to Bother You, Joe Talbot’s sentimental The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Ryan Coogler’s tragic Fruitvale Station all received major boosts from SFFILM and Rainin.

The latest list of SFFILM grant recipients also functions as a list of filmmakers to watch. Read more about the selected films from SFFILM below.

Catch the Fair One
Josef Kubota Wladyka, writer/director; Kimberly Parker and Mollye Asher, producers – $45,000 for post-production
“In Catch the Fair One, a boxer plans her own abduction in order to find her missing sister.”

Estrada para Livramento (Road to Livramento)
Giuliana Monteiro, writer/director/producer; Beatriz Monteiro, co-writer – $25,000 for screenwriting
“Two estranged brothers are forced together when their family home is destroyed by corporate greed. The stringent rules for financial compensation require them to embark on a long journey through the south of Brazil in search of their younger brother.”

If We Left
Moon Molson, writer/director; Andrew Burrows-Trotman, writer; Miles Maker, producer – $25,000 for screenwriting
“A cook and a janitor stayed without pay to care for abandoned senior residents when their assisted living home was shut down in Castro Valley, CA. Their selfless act of friendship and heroism became the feel-good story of 2013 and led to the Residential Care for the Elderly Reform Act.”

Karaoke King
Federica Gianni, writer/director; Lara Costa-Calzado and Tatiana Bears, producers – $25,000 for screenwriting
“In the aftermath of an earthquake that destroys their village, a gay teenager and his ultraconservative brother are sent to live in the margins of Rome. Alone and in a big city, the brothers are forced to confront the different men they are becoming as they search to find love and work, and breathe new life in the crumbling infrastructures around them.”

Madame Négritude
Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, writer/director; Christine Sanders, producer – $25,000 for screenwriting
“Madame Négritude is a technicolor adventure through the brilliant and mercurial mind of Martiniquan writer and political heroine Suzanne Césaire.”

On the Mat
Daniel Antebi, writer/director; Alexandra Byer, Madeleine Askwith, and Michael Gottwald, producers – $25,000 for development
“Ilan, 16 and queer, must untangle himself from a secret relationship with his martial arts coach.”

Rolling Stone
Christopher Cole, writer/director – $25,000 for screenwriting
“Doug is a disaffected music journalist who has ambitions of being an influential writer. Butcher is an egocentric superstar rapper. They look exactly alike. After Doug interviews Butcher, he haphazardly agrees to play his double in a music video. When one gig as Butcher turns into too many, Doug struggles to find his own voice while reckoning his relationship with the public, substances, and a budding romance with his new editor Ana.”