SFFILM Announces $543K in Grants for Filmmakers
L to R: SFFILM Rainin Grant Recipients: Sahand Nikoukar, Meera Angelica Joshi, Miguel Angel Caballero, Courtney Loo, Al’Ikens Plancher Alex Heller , Set Hernandez, Sofia Camargo, Santos Arrué, Shuli Huang, Nolam Plaas, Nana Duffuor , Talia Lugacy, Melina Valdez, Juan Luis Matos, Monica Sorelle, Robert Colom-Vargas, Leo Aguirre, Walé Oyejide; SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Recipients: Jane M. Wagner , Javid Soriano, Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Inna Sahakyan, Ruben Ghazaryan, Jamie Meltzer , Daniel Chein, Mushiva; SFFILM Cedar Road Iyagi Grant Recipients: Kyoko Miyake, Haohao Yan; SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers with Disabilities Grant Recipients: Roisin Isner , Marti Hines, Riley Hooper; SFFILM/San Francisco Conservatory of Music Sound and Cinema Fellows: Andrés Gallegos, Vicky Ponce, Elivia Shaw. Photos are courtesy of filmmakers.
Today, SFFILM announced the recipients for several programs that are part of its 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.”
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.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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