Mountainfilm: Commitment Grant Recipients Announced!

21 Oct Mountainfilm: Commitment Grant Recipients Announced!

Based in Telluride, Mountainfilm is committed to supporting documentary filmmakers in telling stories that support its mission to use the power of film, art and ideas to inspire audiences to create a better world. The Commitment Grant and Emerging Filmmaker Fellowship  initiatives are two ways to do just that.

Recently Mountainfilm awarded a total of $60,000 to 28 projects.

Go here for more about Mountainfilm.

Mountainfilm is excited to announce the 2022 Commitment Grant recipients. From hundreds of applicants, 28 projects were chosen that embody Mountainfilm’s mission to inspire audiences to create a better world.

“It was an unparalleled year thanks to the generosity of Torri & Mark Savoff who doubled our grant budget and thus enabled us to support an unprecedented 28 recipients,” says Senior Programmer and Festival Manager Lucy Lerner. “Being able to offer this level of support to our filmmakers is so rewarding.”

“Our grants committee selected a really impressive slate of films this year,” says Festival Director Suzan Beraza. “It’s a testament to the tenacity of these filmmakers who are overcoming numerous obstacles to tell stories that inspire, uplift and celebrate indomitable spirit. They are laying the groundwork for excellent festival programming in the coming years.”

The Commitment Grant initiative is part of Mountainfilm’s pledge to support projects that explore a range of socially, politically and culturally relevant topics that are rooted in the festival’s mission to inspire audiences to create a better world.

Many past grant recipients have not only premiered their films at Mountainfilm but have also won numerous festival awards. Previous projects supported by the Commitment Grant include Skye Fitzgerald’s Oscar-nominated Hunger Ward and Lifeboat; Adam Nawrot and Sonia Szczesna’s Godspeed, Los Polacos!; John Waller’s Mending the Line; Jon Kasbe’s When Lambs Become Lions; and Mo Scarpelli’s Anbessa, to name just a few.

The 2022 Commitment Grant winners are (drumroll please):

40 Years of Silence, Maythem Ridha
Apayauq, Zeppelin Zeerip
Between Earth and Sky, Andrew Nadkarni
Beyond Begbie, Zoya Lynch
Bristol Bay Salmon, David Herasimtschuk
Commerce City, Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana & Alan Domínguez
Desert Angel, Vincent DeLuca
Five Seconds to Fly, Nick Canfield
Frontier Town, Tom & Theo Tennant
Holder of the Sky, Tsavani Spoonhunter
I Was Born This Way, Sam Pollard & Daniel Junge
Impossible Town, Meg Griffiths & Scott Faris
Jojo, Chelsea Jolly
Love in the Time of Migration (El amor en los tiempos de la migración), Erin Semine Kökdil & Chelsea Abbas
Milana With Grace, Max Lowe
Patrol, Brad Allgood & Camilo de Castro
Pig Show, Jenny Schweitzer Bell
Row of Life, Soraya Simi
Snowland, Jill Orschel
Standing Above the Clouds, Jalena Keane-Lee
The Newcomers, Gabriella Canal
The Orchestra Chuck Built, Christopher Stoudt
The Untitled Baltimore Documentary Project, Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough
Town Square, Josh Izenberg
Ultimate Citizens, Francine Strickwerda
Untitled Human Composting Documentary, JJ Gerber
Untitled KQT Project, Patrick G. Lee
Untitled Philippines Project, PJ Raval