The Granting Program

Granting Program | Acquisitions Program | Distribution Program | Education Program

2013 Granting Cycle
2012 Granting Cycle
2011 Granting Cycle
2010 Granting Cycle
2009 Granting Cycle
2008 Granting Cycle
2007 Granting Cycle
2006 Granting Cycle
2005 Granting Cycle
2004 Granting Cycle
2003 Granting Cycle

Grant recipients for the 2013 funding cycle:

ADIOS CARMEN, dir. Mohamed Amin Benamraoui (Morocco)
In a gossip-prone Moroccan village in the summer of 1975, an abandoned boy develops a life-changing bond with Carmen, the Spanish woman working at the local cinema.

BETWEEN YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW (THANHA RATHI RANGA), dir. Nilendra Deshapriya (Sri Lanka)
In a remote Albanian village, employees of a small café uncover secrets about each other, and their community's murderous political past, as one of their colleagues discovers the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of her family.

SAUDADE, dir. Juan Carlos Donoso Gómez (Ecuador)
As Miguel and his friends prepare to graduate high school during Ecuador's 1999 banking crisis, the country and his family come to respective crossroads, throwing his own future into turmoil.

THE STONE WITH NINE EYES (TIANZHU), dir. Sonthar Gyal (China (Tibet))
In a remote Albanian village, employees of a small café uncover secrets about each other, and their community's murderous political past, as one of their colleagues discovers the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of her family.

SUGARCANE SHADOWS (LONBRAZ KANN), dir. David Constantin (Mauritius)
Marco and his fellow workers must variously cope with dramatically new living conditions as the last of Mauritius's sugarcane fields make way for new elite development.

THE VALLEY (AL WADI), dir. Ghassan Salha (Lebanon)
A middle-aged man, escaping a car accident with a temporary case of amnesia, finds himself prisoner on a large and mysterious private estate in Lebanon's fraught Bekaa Valley.

2013 Honorable Mention grant recipients:

3000 NIGHTS (3000 YAOM), dir. Mai Masri (Jordan/Palestine)
A falsely imprisoned Palestinian schoolteacher gives birth to her son behind bars while battling for justice amid a deeply divided prison population and deteriorating conditions.

DREAMS OF DEER (LU MENG), dir. Edmund Yeo (Malaysia)
A century of Malaysian history unfolds in a detective's search for the deer believed to be the reincarnation of a man who died 50 years earlier.

HISTORY OF FEAR (HISTORIA DEL MIEDO), dir. Benjamin Naishta (Argentina)
The gardener of a gated suburban community resents a makeshift camp growing beyond the fence, as a summer blackout gives way to an atmosphere of apprehension.

LOS HONGOS, dir. Oscar Ruiz Navia (Colombia)
Two disaffected graffiti artists wander the city of Cali together, rendering their hopes and desires on the walls they pass and in the people they meet.

MARÍA, dir. José Luis Rugeles (Colombia)
A 13-year-old guerilla fighter in Colombia's decades-long armed conflict must choose a new path for herself—and her unborn child—while on a mission to hide her commander's infant baby.

Grant recipients for the 2012 funding cycle:

BAD HAIR (PELO MALO), dir. Mariana Rondón (Venezuela)
A showdown looms as nine-year-old Junior suspects his haggard, out-of-work single mother would love him more if he straightens the unruly hair he inherited from his absent father.

COLORED LIKE THE NIGHT (DEL COLOR DE LA NOCHE), dir. Agliberto Meléndez (Dominican Republic)
In the last days of his mayoral campaign, terminally ill José Francisco Peña Gómez, leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, records a dramatic public address of forgiveness to his racist opponents before returning home to die.

THE ENCLAVE (ENKLAVA), dir. Goran Radovanović (Serbia)
A Christian boy, determined to create a proper community burial for his late grandfather, crosses enemy lines and makes friends among the Muslim majority in deeply divided, war-torn Kosovo.

THE FACTORY GIRL (FATAT AL MASNAA), dir. Mohamed Kha (Egypt)
An independent-minded garment worker in Cairo risks being ostracized by her family and friends when she becomes obsessed with a rich young man who may bring shame upon her.

A FOLD IN MY BLANKET (CHEMI SABNIS NAKETSI), dir. Zaza Rusadze (Georgia)
Dmitrij daydreams about rock climbing and other adventures to escape the monotony of his office job, but when he invents an alibi for a friend accused of murder, his once-harmless fantasy world assumes a dangerous new meaning for his life.

KADJIKE, dir. Sana Na N'Hada (Guinea-Bissau)
The young protégé of a local medicine man attempts to save his community from drug traffickers who have laid siege to his tradition-bound village in the West African archipelago of Bissagos.

THE PARDON (IMBABAZI), dir. Joel Karekezi (Rwanda)
After being imprisoned for the killing of ethnic Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide, Mansi must face the emotional and psychological consequences of his most personal crime: the murder of his best friend’s family.

A STRANGER (OBRANA I ZAŠTITA, formerly THE BRIDGE), dir. Bobo Jelcic (Bosnia & Herzegovina/Croatia)
In the ethnically segregated city of Mostar, a Croatian-Catholic puts his reputation and family relations to test when he attends an old friend's funeral in the Bosnian-Muslim side of town.

WHERE IS MY HOME (JIA ZAI SHUI CAO FENG MAO DE DI FANG), dir. Li Ruijun (China)
Two estranged brothers from a rural Uyghur community reluctantly come together to search for their father, who unexpectedly left home after facing the reality of dwindling grasslands and a bleak economic future for his family.

WORLD (BOTA), dir. Iris Elezi (Albania)
In a remote Albanian village, employees of a small café uncover secrets about each other, and their community’s murderous political past, as one of their colleagues discovers the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of her family.

2012 Honorable Mention grant recipients:

BLESSED BENEFIT (INSHALLA I'STAFADET), dir. Mahmoud al Massa (Jordan)
A middle-aged construction worker unexpectedly lands in jail, where he discovers the live-a-day world of his fellow inmates is easier and more appealing than the reality outside prison walls.

CHICAMA, dir. Omar Forero Alva (Peru)
Cesar dreams of living in cosmopolitan Trujillo, but a lack of available teaching posts there takes him to a bucolic Andean village, where he unwittingly falls for his charming students and a captivating colleague.

CORN ISLAND, dir. George Ovashvili (Georgia)
As a storm threatens to destroy his crops, an elderly corn farmer living on the shore of an Abkhazian river island struggles to protect his granddaughter from the influence, and allure, of a runaway soldier.

FLAPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE (ĐẬP CÁNH GIỮA KHÔNG TRUNG), dir. Nguyễn Hoàng Điệp (Vietnam)
Huyèn, a poor student, must decide whether to go through with an abortion after her hustler boyfriend runs off with her savings--and she falls for a "john" who fetishizes her pregnant belly.

LIAR'S DICE, dir. Geetu Mohan Das (India)
A young mother from a remote Himalayan village hires an aggressive, petty gambler to find her husband, who's been out of touch for months after leaving for work in Delhi.

PORT FATHER (PUERTO PADRE), dir. Gustavo Fallas Vargas (Costa Rica)
As a teenage orphan from Chira Island searches for his godfather on the mainland, his innocent memory of childhood is gradually replaced by an unsettling reality upon learning the truth about his origins.

THE RETURN (EL REGRESO), dir. Patricia Ortega (Venezuela)
A young Wayuu girl narrowly escapes the massacre of her beach-dwelling community at Bahia Portete and then attempts to rebuild her life in urban Maracaibo, where she befriends a Castilian girl and learns to overcome differences in language and culture.

SHIPS (FERAHFEZA), dir. Elif Refig (Turkey)
Ali, a restless romantic, and Eda, a graffiti writer, embark on a quixotic search through Turkey’s industrial port-cities, hoping to escape the suffocating routine of their daily lives by finding the ship that Ali sees only in his dreams.

SO MUCH WATER (TANTA AGUA), dir. Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorg (Uruguay)
As a rainstorm puts a damper on a seaside family vacation, fourteen-year-old Lucía struggles to assert her independence and individuality--in spite of her father's well-intentioned but overbearing attempts to bond with her.

WILDLIFE (KALAYAAN), dir. Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr. (Philippines)
Julian, a young soldier stationed on the Spratly Islands during a coup d’etat in Manila, fights to maintain his grip on reality following a traumatic experience with a former comrade—and a fleeting encounter with a mermaid.

Grant recipients for the 2011 funding cycle:

ARAL, dir. Ella Vakkasova (Uzbekistan)
An inexperienced 16-year-old boy leaves the familiarity of the family farm to sell produce at the city bazaar, where he must learn how to look after himself and his goods, or risk disappointing his family.

BEATRIZ’S WAR (A GUERRA DA BEATRIZ), dir. Betsy Reis (East Timor)
Following Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor, a stranger presents himself in a local village, claiming to be a woman’s missing husband despite her uneasy belief that the man may not be her lost spouse.

DON'T EXPECT PRAISES, dir. Yang Jin (China)
Young friends Yang-Jin and Xiaobo roam China’s rural countryside in what begins as a summer vacation, but eventually turns into an adventure that brings out their dark and not-so-carefree alter-egos.

FAITH (FE), dir. Alejo Crisóstomo (Guatemala/Chile)
An evangelical pastor in a small, rural town tests the limits of faith by giving refuge to a violent ex-convict against objections by his church and community.

GUERILLA BOY, dir. F. Simiyu Barasa (Kenya)
An ingenious young boy surreptitiously intercepts government radio airwaves and broadcasts revolutionary songs throughout his village, inciting a frantic effort by officials to silence the mysterious, and perhaps militant, deejay.

ON THE PLANK (SUR LA PLANCHE), dir.Leïla Kilani (Morocco)
A pair of young shrimp peelers in a Tangiers factory are swept up in a petty crime scheme and an almost impossible dream of escaping their jobs and making a new life in the economically “free zone” on the other side of town.

TANGERINES (MTREBI), dir. Zaza Urushadze (Georgia)
In the heat of Georgia’s civil war, two injured soldiers, one Chechen and the other Georgian, put aside their prejudices and join forces to protect each other and their elderly caretaker from a group of violent soldiers.

THE BODA BODA THIEVES, dir. Donald Mugisha (Uganda)
Abel is robbed of his motorbike on his first day as a boda boda driver, sending him on a frantic search to find the stolen bike before the theft is discovered by his boss in this homage to Italian director Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 masterpiece, Bicycle Thieves.

THE ROOM (LA HABITACIÓN), dir. Jorge Pérez Solano, Iyati Wertta, Carlos Bolado, Patricia Arriaga, Alfonso Pineda Ulloa, Alejandro Valle, Iván Ávila Dueñas, Celso R. García (Mexico)
The past one hundred years of Mexican history—spanning revolutions, romance and cultural renaissance—are recounted through the lens of eight intertwining stories that occur within the confines of a single room in Mexico City.

VOICE OF MY FATHER (BABAMIN SESI), dir. Orhan Eskiköy and Zeynel Doğan (Turkey)
As Neyzel, an expectant father, prepares for the birth of his child, he gradually begins to excavate memories of his childhood through audio-taped “letters” that his father sent home while working overseas—but that his mother insists do not exist.

2011 Honorable Mention grant recipients:

ALI, THE GOAT, AND IBRAHIM (ALI ME'AZA), dir. Ibrahim El Batout (Egypt)
Two neighbors—a sound engineer plagued by strange noises and a man convinced that his deceased fiancé has been reincarnated as a goat—embark on an unusual trip to Egypt's coastline to cure themselves of their eccentric afflictions.

HERE AND NOW (INGIRUNTHU), dir. Sumathy Sivamohan (Sri Lanka)
On a vibrant Sri Lankan tea plantation, a deaf-mute, a poverty-stricken mother and a researcher from Colombo are drawn into the social conflicts that eventually lead to the violent Bindunuwewa riot of 2000.

I DREAM IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE (SUEÑO EN OTRO IDIOMA), dir. Ernesto Contreras (Mexico)
An ambitious linguist attempts to reunite the last two living speakers of a dying, indigenous language, but must first resolve a bitter feud between the two, and uncover the truth behind the fifty-year-old secret they share.

LA RUTA DE LA LUNA, dir. Juan Sebastián Jácome (Panama)
An albino hoping to compete in a bowling tournament in Panama sets out on a roadtrip through Costa Rica with his once-estranged father, only to be sidetracked by a free-spirited hitchhiker who unexpectedly changes the fate of both men and their relationship.

THE MIRROR NEVER LIES, dir. Kamila Andini (Indonesia)
A young girl copes with her father's disappearance by using a mirror to look for his reflection in the sea as her mother struggles to reconcile conflicted feelings about her missing husband, and a researcher visiting their small fishing village.

MOTHER’S MILK (LECHE MATERNA), dir. Sebastián Silva (Chile)
After a young and wildly imaginative girl becomes inexplicably pregnant—despite remaining a virgin—her befuddled family, friends and neighbors decide to announce the event as an "act of God,” and treat the pregnancy as a divine miracle.

NO AUTUMN, NO SPRING (SIN OTOÑO, SIN PRIMAVERA), dir. Iván Mora Manzano (Ecuador)
In a series of intertwined stories, a group of teens and twenty-somethings—including a young man in love with his drug-dealer, and a terminally-ill girl—struggle with love, depression and coming-of-age amidst Ecuador's "lithium generation."

SAINTS (EVLIYA), dir. Seyfi Teoman (Turkey)
At the height of a mysterious epidemic in Turkey, a quarantined clinic managed by the jaded Dr. Faruk is threatened with closure when the facility is suspected of being a stronghold for anti-state propagandist activity.

TOK TOKKIE, dir. Jenna Bass (South Africa)
A dark and imaginative portrait of Cape Town's underworld, as seen through the eyes of a ghost who teams up with a tortured demon to bring peace and closure to postmortem lives, stumbling across a city-wide conspiracy in the process.

WHEN I SAW YOU, dir. Annemarie Jacir (Palestine/Jorda)
An intelligent but socially awkward boy, hoping to return home to Palestine, runs away from his refugee camp in Jordan and develops an unlikely friendship with a paramilitary group along the way.

Grant recipients for the 2010 funding cycle:

THE DEAD SEA (SENGADAL), dir. Leena Manimekalai (India)
A journalist's quest to profile Tamil refugees fleeing Sri Lanka's civil war reveals a mass-killing, a personal revelation and the painful reality of documenting a forgotten conflict.

I'M EXPECTING YOU (TE ESPERO EN CASA), dir. Daniel Gagliano (Argentina)
A couple faces dangerous consequences after choosing to circumvent a traditional adoption and instead enlist the aid of an illegal child-smuggling ring in nothern Argentina.

IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY (AKHER AYAM EL-MADINA), dir. Tamer El Said (Egypt)
In the fading grandeur of old Cairo, a depressed filmmaker decides to capture the "last days" of his beloved city on film in the hopes of creating his first meaningful work of art.

MISS LOVELY, dir. Ashim Ahluwalia (India)
Two brothers working in Mumbai's seedy C-movie industry come to odds when one decides to make a romantic feature about a mysterious, young ingenue he meets on a train.

MOTHER'S SOUL (TAM HON ME), dir. Nhue Giang Pham (Vietnam)
A nine-year-old girl suffering from the loneliness of her own mother's neglect unwittingly becomes a mother to her orphaned best friend—until an accident changes their lives forever.

NINAH'S DOWRY, dir. Victor Viyuoh (Cameroon)
A headstrong woman leaves her village and resists her husband's attempt to reclaim his rights of dowry after she becomes pregnant with another man's baby.

RED PRINCESSES (PRINCESAS ROJAS), dir. Laura Astorga Carrera (Costa Rica)
During the height of the Sandinista movement, a young Costa Rican girl pretends to be the leader of a secret revolution, unaware that her game has tragic similarity to the real-life activities of her parents.

SHADOWS AND FACES (GÖLGELER VE SURETLER), dir. Dervis Zaim (Turkey)
In a bucolic village, the disappearance of an elderly puppeteer sets in motion a series of events that lead to a violent conflict between otherwise peaceful neighbors.

SKOONHEID, dir. Oliver Hermanus (South Africa)
A middle-aged man struggles to suppress his latent sexual desires only to realize that, among many other problems, he has an unhealthy and destructive obsession with his friend's teenage son.

TRAMP (TRAMPAS), dir. Eduardo Villanueva Jimenez (Mexico)
A drug-addicted wanderer forms an unusual friendship with a beggar, leading the pair on an elliptical journey through Mexico that includes, of all things, a life-changing trip to the circus.

Grant recipients for the 2009 funding cycle:

40 DAYS OF SILENCE (40 KUN CHILLA), dir. Saodat Ismailova (Uzbekistan)
Passion, shame, love and motherhood leave an indelible imprint upon the lives of four generations of women living together in a traditional Uzbek village.

THE CAPTAIN OF NAKARA, dir. Wanjiru Kinyanjui (Kenya)
A small–time thief falls in love and tries to build an honorable life, but is seduced back into a life of crime, jeopardizing his plans to marry.

CHAOS, DISORDER (HARAG W'MARAG), dir. Nadine Khan (Egypt)
In a desert slum, amidst the chaos and comedy of daily life, two suitors settle their fight for a beautiful girl through a soccer match.

DOOMAN RIVER, dir. Zhang Lu (China)
A young Chinese boy's allegiances are tested after he befriends a North Korean who has crossed the Dooman River into China.

IMANI, dir. Caroline Kamya (Uganda)
The lives of a former child soldier, a young maid, and a breakdancer overlap in this Ugandan triptych about perseverance, sacrifice and "imani" — faith.

THE INCA, THE SILLY GIRL, AND THE SON OF A THIEF (EL INCA, LA BOBA Y EL HIJO DEL LADRÓN) dir. Ronnie Temoche (Peru)
Three disparate characters, seeking acceptance and community, travel to Peru's capital city in a journey fraught with absurdity, hardship and humor.

KARAOKE, dir. Chris Chong Chan Fui (Malaysia)
A young man returns home to run his family's karaoke bar, only to discover a devastating truth about the life he left behind.

LUCÍA, dir. Niles Jamil Atallah (Chile)
In the weeks following the death of General Augusto Pinochet, a woman and her aging father struggle through the monotony of a life burdened by the oppressive dictator's legacy.

THE SONG OF THE WIND (LA TONADA DEL VIENTO), dir. Yvette Paz Soldan (Bolivia)
After losing his father in a La Paz market, a young boy befriends a local orphan and embarks on a long journey home to the Aymara high country.

THE CREMATOR (FEN SHI REN, formerly STRAW MAN/DAO CAO REN), dir. Peng Tao (China)
A crematorium worker trading in the lonely and macabre market of “ghost wives” is forced to face his own need for companionship when diagnosed with a terminal illness.

TARATA, dir. Fabrizio Aguilar Boschetti (Peru)
In 1990's Peru, a family grows increasingly distant from one another during an intense anti-government campaign waged by Shining Path guerrillas.

WAITING THE VOTE (EN ATTENDANT LE VOTE), dir. Missa Hebie (Burkina Faso)
In the fictitious African nation of Golfe, a griot recounts the story of a brutal dictator's rise to power through fixed elections and the supernatural force of a sacred meteorite.

YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER dir. Tan Chui Mui (Malaysia)
A past-his-prime rock musician returns home to a small seaside village, eager to reconnect with family and start life afresh as a fisherman.

Grant recipients for the 2008 funding cycle:

Grant recipients for the 2007 funding cycle:

100% ALIVE, dir. Ahmed Rashwan (Egypt)
Just before the start of the Second Gulf War, a recently divorced photographer meets a seductive young woman and contemplates a second chance at love.

BIBI, dir. Hassan Yektapanah (Iran)
An elderly Iraqi refugee living in Iran desperately seeks an ID card that neither country will issue, to avoid being buried in an unmarked grave when she dies.

BUL DÉCONNÉ!, dir. Massaër Dieng, (Sénégal)
As a young man comes-of-age, his vision for the future conflicts with the gritty economic realities of his country.

CRAB TRAP, dir. Oscar Ruiz Navia (Colombia)
A man arrives at an isolated, coastal village and is caught in a struggle between a local Afro-Colombian community and a white landowner's vision for modernization.

EUROPE BY ROAD, dir. Ubaka Joseph Ugochukwu, (Nigeria/Senegal)
On his way to Europe, a young Nigerian becomes stranded in Senegal, surrounded by temptation and illegal activity that threaten both his ambitions and livelihood.

EVERY DAY IS A HOLIDAY, dir. Dima El–Horr, (Lebanon)
Three women, each with very different motivations, head toward Marmal Prison and intertwining fates.

GOODBYE KATHMANDU, dir. Nabin Subba, (Nepal)
The parallel lives of three young individuals of different ethnic backgrounds are profiled amidst the tumultuous political and social atmosphere of contemporary Kathmandu.

HUACHO, dir. Alejandro Fernandez Almendras (Chile)
Acceptance, adaptation and denial characterize the struggle to adjust to changing economic realities of rural Chile.

LITTLE HEART, dir. Nguyen Thanh Van (Viet Nam)
The lure of high paying jobs in an embroidery factory becomes a compelling reason for young girls to leave their villages for Saigon.

PESANTREN, dir. Nurman Hakim (Indonesia)
Friendships that test the limits of faith and devotion are depicted in post 9/11 realities of central Java.

RAMCHAND: THE UNTOUCHABLE PAKISTANI, dir. Mehreen Jabbar (Pakistan)
A Hindu family is held hostage by the political tension between India and Pakistan.

VERONICA'S PASSION, dir. Cristian Pellegrini (Argentina)
A transsexual with aspirations of studying at the local university faces prejudice against her nonconforming identity, and her goal to become a psychologist.

VIRGIN GOAT, dir. Murali Nair (India)
In this intelligent satire, a farmer's simple desire to have his goat mated is thwarted by family trauma, local bureaucracy and a marauding mob.

Grant recipients for the 2006 funding cycle:

ACNE, dir. Federico Veiroj (Uruguay)
Rafael Bergman (13) lost his virginity, but has never kissed a girl. Overcoming his teenage awkwardness is an obvious first step.

AGNUS DEI, dir. Lucia Cedron (Argentina)
A young woman’s grandfather is kidnapped. While working with her mother to negotiate his release, the girl discovers details about her mother’s exile to France, and the disappearance of her father many years ago.

ALIVE, dir. Artan Minarolli (Albania)
Koli comes home to his village in the Northern Albanian mountains for his father’s funeral. While there, he finds a boy in the village is trying to kill him because of something Koli’s grandfather did sixty years ago.

BAD DAY TO GO FISHING, dir. Alvaro Brechner (Uruguay)
A quirky story about an aging wrestler, his manager, and a young shopkeeper who collide in a wrestling match in front of their entire, small Uruguayan town.

BEFORE WE FALL IN LOVE, dir. James Lee (Malaysia)
An uneasy alliance develops between a woman’s husband and her lover, after she disappears. The two men discover a third man who may help them find her.

THE BIG TIME, dir. Olley Maruma (Zimbabwe)
A lighthearted story about a young woman who finds fame overnight as a model. The glamorous but cruel world of the fashion industry provides a backdrop for this warm comedy and social commentary.

THE DAY WHEN THE WINTER BEGAN, dir. Nedzad Begovic (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
In a small town on the Adriatic Sea, the alcoholic Stipe unexpectedly becomes the main caregiver of a baby girl. As he adjusts to the new reality, he quits drinking and reconnects to his own history.

JERMAL, dir. Ravi L. Bharwani (Indonesia)
12-year-old Jaya is sent to live with his father on a jermal, or fishing platform, after his mother dies. The film tells the story of how the two, slowly and painfully, develop a father-son relationship.

LEO’S ROOM, dir. Enrique Buchichio (Uruguay)
About to turn 29, Leo grapples with a host of issues, from his sexual identity, to finishing his college degree, to wanting to please his widowed mother.

THE OLD WOMAN AT THE BACK, dir. Pablo José Meza (Argentina)
The lives of a solitary 81- year-old woman and a penniless medical student intertwine after they get stuck together in the elevator of their building.

THE POSSIBLE LIVES, dir. Sandra Gugliotta (Argentina)
When Carla’s husband, Luciano, doesn’t return from a business trip to the south of Argentina, she goes looking for him. What she finds leads her to make some difficult decisions.

PURE COOLNESS, dir. Ernest Abdyjaparov (Kyrgyzstan)
In the mountainous villages of Kyrgyzstan the ancient custom of bride stealing is still commonplace. Pure Coolness uses this theme to weave a tale of family loyalty, deception, betrayal and love.

THE STORM, dir. Kazim Öz (Turkey)
Cemal moves to Istanbul from his small town to attend university. After several months, he joins a revolutionary group and the search for his identity begins.

THREE DAYS TO FOREVER, dir. Riri Riza (Indonesia)
Two teenage cousins wake up after a big night out to find they have missed their flight to attend a family wedding. They have three days to get there, and in those three days their lives will change forever.

TO GO, dir. Huseyin Karabey (Turkey)
A long-distance video-based romance is complicated by immigrant policies, national boundaries, and the outbreak of war in Iraq.

UPSIDE DOWN, dir. Igor Ivanov (Macedonia)
Jan Ludvick is a runaway circus performer with a severe case of Meniere’s disease, a chronic ailment that causes him to see the world spinning. Despite this condition, he discovers that he has rare powers of balance and equilibrium.

THE WATERCOLORIST, dir. Daniel Rodriquez (Peru)
T has a dream: to leave his commercial life and become an artist. Moving into an apartment building occupied by a disjointed group of busybodies, he finds himself unable to paint, and yielding his life to others.

Grant recipients for the 2005 funding cycle:

99‰ MURDERED, dir. Esteban Schroeder (Chile/Uruguay)
A political thriller involving a female Uruguayan prosecutor investigating the kidnapping of a Chilean chemist sought by the international courts as a witness against General Pinochet's government.

ASLEEP IN THE SUN, dir. Alejandro Chomski (Argentina)
A Buenos Aires clock smith recently admitted his wife to a sanatorium. But it is his sanity that is questioned with the appearance and implications of a strangely human–like dog.

DARK, dir. ZHANG Ming (China)
In 1989, Wu Ming travels from Beijing to a mountain village searching for his former girlfriend only to discover her murdered corpse. Fifteen years later, he returns to the village determined to find the cause of her death.

THE GAZE, dir. Sepideh Farsi (Iran)
The sudden death of Esfand’s father beckons him back to Tehran after 20 years away. Navigating through an estranged homeland is made more difficult as he begins losing his sight.

TO GET TO HEAVEN FIRST YOU HAVE TO DIE, dir. Djamshed Usmonov (Tajikistan)
Kamal is a 20–year–old newly wed struggling with impotence. His village doctor prescribes a visit to the big city to learn about sex with a mature woman, which leads to a misunderstanding, a failed burglary and an eventual awakening.

I AM FROM TITOV VELES, dir. Teona Mitevska (Macedonia)
With the fall of communism, disarray and anarchy occur in the Macedonian village of Titov Veles. In a society built on traditional models, three beautiful sisters must learn to fend for themselve.

LOVE SICK, dir. Tudor Giugiu (Romania)
The lives of two Bucharest students are forever changed when friendship blossoms into romance, teaching both what it truly means to be love sick.

MURDERER AMONG US, dir. Daniel Benavides (Chile)
The murder of a beautiful high school student turns a small Chilean town upside down, revealing its many dark secrets.

NASREEN, dir. Sabine El Gemayel (Lebanon)
As a 12–year-old girl arranged to marry a 63–year–old man, Nasreen dreams of reading and writing in a village where education is only for boys.   Her marriage day is quickly approaching and she longs for an alternative to the patriarchal oppression.

PANDORA’S BOX, dir. Yesim Ustaoglu (Turkey)
Three brothers whose lives are shadowed by painful childhood memories are lead on a search for their mother.

RAIN, dir. Paula Hernandez (Argentina)
The story of two lost souls who meet on a rainy night in the middle of a traffic jam in Buenos Aires.

THE SACRED LAKE, dir. Zeka Laplaine (Congo/Senegal)
Concerned about his younger brother’s declining health, Tano, a journalist residing in Dakar, returns home to uncover more than ancient spirits presiding at the bottom of the village’s sacred lake.

THREE LITTLE DREAMS, dir. Chapour Haghighat (Iran)
Three young boys work in a bakery, share three variations of the same dream forecasting a local murder.

WAITING, dir. Rashid Masharawi (Palestine)
Traveling between refugee camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, a trio recruits actors for the new National Palestinian Theater. Their work is frustrated by borders and the refugees themselves, who only want to record messages for their families in Gaza, not audition for the theater.

Grant recipients for the 2004 funding cycle:

BORDER CAFE, dir. Kambozia Partovi (Iran)

THE DOG POUND, dir. Manuel Niero Zas (Uruguay)
The story of a young man building his house in a small beach town.

GEMINI, dir. Albertina Carri (Argentina)
A brother and sister, having an affair, are threatened with exposure.

NIGHT TRAIN, dir. Diao Yinan (China)
A prison executioner visits a matchmaking agency, mistaking the vengeful husband of an executed convict as a potential match.

PARENTHESIS, dir. Francisca Schweitzer and Pablo Solís (Chile)
An insomniac, taking a one-week break from his relationship, meets a strange 16–year–old girl who shows him a different world.

PIN BOY, dir. Ana Poliak (Argentina)
A country boy tries to find his place in Buenos Aires while working in a bowling alley.

TWO YOUNG GIRLS, dir.Kutlug Ataman (Turkey)

UNIFORM, dir. Diao Yinan (China)
New guises alter the lives of a man and his girlfriend.

Grant recipients for the 2003 funding cycle:

WHISKY, dir. Juan Pablo Rebella & Pablo Stoll (Uruguay)
Two brothers are reunited one year after their mother's death following many years of estrangement.

WHAT'S A HUMAN ANYWAY, dir. Reha Erdem (Turkey)
An anarchic look at the effects of amnesia.

CINEMA, ASPIRIN AND VULTURES, dir. Marcelo Gomes (Brazil)
The story of two men who journey into the Brazilian hinterlands to introduce aspirin to the area's people, and along the way discuss everything from war to women.

THE BUFFALO BOY (MUA LEN TRAU), dir. Nguyen-Vô Nghiem-Minh (Vietnam)
The epic herding of endangered buffalos during Vietnam’s massive flooding season sets the stage for a young man’s passage into adulthood.

HOLLOW CITY (NA CIDADE VAZIA), dir. Maria Joao G. (Angola)
A young refugee from the war-torn countryside of contemporary Angola finds life on the capital city’s streets tougher still.

ON EACH SIDE, dir. Hugo Daniel Grosso (Argentina)
A bittersweet comedy about an isolated town in northern Argentina and its inhabitants as a new massive bridge opens that will connect them to the rest of the country for the first time.

ANOTHER MAN’S GARDEN, dir. Joao Luis Sol Carvalho (Mozambique)
This is the powerful and uplifting story of a young woman struggling to become a doctor in contemporary Mozambique.

For more information regarding our Granting program, visit the Frequently Asked Question section for Granting.