2026 Sundance Institute announces 2026 Documentary Fund Grantees

PARK CITY, Utah — The Sundance Institute announced the recipients of its 2026 Documentary Fund grants. The fund supports nonfiction storytellers from across the globe in the creation of feature-length documentaries that drive cultural and social impact.

This year, 19 projects were selected to receive more than $1 million in unrestricted funding. Four of the projects are in development, 12 are in production and three are in post-production. Grants are made possible by the Open Society Foundations, the John Templeton Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Free People.

The Documentary Film Program, or DFP, will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year. Founded in 2002, the program is a global resource for independent nonfiction storytelling, with a focus on eliminating barriers to entry and increasing opportunities for connection, collaboration and cultural exchange in the field.

Through several programs, DFP supports nonfiction filmmakers at all stages of their projects and careers with financial, creative and strategic resources. The program comprises three main pillars: the Documentary Fund, which provides unrestricted and nonrecoupable project grants and serves as the main entry point into the program; lab and artist support, including the Documentary Producers Lab and Documentary Edit and Story Lab; and partnerships with artist-support organizations and research institutions in the United States and around the world.

Those partnerships are intended to strengthen the global independent nonfiction ecosystem, encourage audience development and help filmmakers navigate challenges related to freedom of expression and technological change.

In the past two years, Sundance documentary funds have supported University of Utah professor Emelie Mahdavian’s film about the ice shelf at Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica and “The Lake”, a film about the potential disappearance of the Great Salt Lake.

“This season holds profound significance for us in the Documentary Film Program as we prepare to celebrate our 25th anniversary next year. As we reflect on how far we have come over the past two and a half decades, we feel immense gratitude to the valued partners who have sustained our program throughout its history, with a special mention to our founding partner Open Society Foundations,” said Paola Mottura, director of the Documentary Film Fund, and Kristin Feeley, director of Documentary Film & Artist Programs.

“This year’s group of grantees is a beautiful reflection of the inventive and varied nonfiction work that continues to push the form forward. We continue to be inspired by their work and feel fortunate to advocate for their projects and help bring them to the screen. We congratulate the teams behind these 19 projects and look forward to seeing where their journeys will lead.”

Nearly 65% of grant proposals came from outside the U.S. during this funding cycle, an increase from last year. The 19 projects receiving grants have roots in 14 countries, including Canada, Denmark, France, India, Iran, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Romania, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, the United States and South Korea.

While exploring a wide range of topics and themes, the 2026 Documentary Fund grantees are united by questions about how history is constructed, knowledge is preserved and boundaries are drawn.

A central theme across several projects is the infrastructure of memory, including questions about who controls the public record and which narratives are considered worthy of remembering. In reclaiming suppressed histories, the films examine archives as spaces where truth and power are negotiated.

Other projects investigate constructed social and physical borders, systemic exclusion and the intersection of modern-day colonialism and environmental collapse. Several filmmakers explore generational dynamics and the struggle of carrying ancestral legacies while forging individual identities. A number of projects also use science to challenge traditional definitions of where humanity ends and the natural world begins.

As always, Documentary Fund grantees represent a broad spectrum of experience and filmmaking achievement. Thirty-seven percent of grantees this cycle are first-time feature directors.

Among the returning Sundance filmmakers is Alcatraz is an Idea director Julian Brave NoiseCat, who co-directed the 2024 Sundance Film Festival premiere Sugarcane with Emily Kassie. The film won the Directing Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition and later received an Academy Award nomination for best documentary feature.

Other grantees include Anatomy of Indifference director Ilinca Calugareanu, whose previous films include Chuck Norris vs. Communism and A Cops and Robbers Story; Emmy- and BAFTA-nominated director Kathryn Ferguson, whose debut feature Nothing Compares premiered at Sundance in 2022; and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Drew Xanthopoulos, director of My Friend the Bear and the Emmy-winning documentary Fathom.

David Alvarado is receiving a grant for All Shall Be Saved after directing American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez, which won the 2025 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film and premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

The team behind The People’s Network includes two-time Emmy- and Peabody-winning filmmaker Alyse Shorland and producers Sara Archambault and Darcy McKinnon, both alumni of Sundance Institute’s Producers Lab and Catalyst program.

The 2026 Documentary Fund Grantees are:

DEVELOPMENT

Alcatraz is an Idea (U.S.A.) Director: Julian Brave NoiseCat

Producers: Peter Bratt, Benjamin Bratt, Alpita Patel, Daniel Kilroy, Tom Mackintosh

Shape of Silence (Canada)

Director & Producer: Varun Trikha

Shooting Stars (Iran, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway)

Director: Parsa Ansari

Producer: Milad Khosravi

Co-producers: Thibaut Amri, Maria Rostad, Steven Rubinstein Malamud, Anita Norfolk

Wahnish Keeps Me Free (U.S.A.)

Director: Jamil McGinnis

Development Producer: Resita Heavenly Cox

PRODUCTION

All Fixed Up (U.S.A., France, South Korea)

Director: Hao Zhou

Producers: Tyler Hill, Jenny Wu, Dominique Barneaud, Heejung Oh

All Shall Be Saved (U.S.A.)

Directors: Jason Sussberg, David Alvarado

Producer: Kate McLean

Anatomy of Indifference (U.K., Romania)

Director & Producer: Ilinca Calugareanu

Producers: Anamaria Antoci, Lucila Moctezuma

Artificial Horizon (U.S.A.)

Director: Elizabeth M. Webb

Producers: DaManuel Richardson, Maggie Corona-Goldstein, Solomon Turner

God of the In-Between (India, U.S.A.)

Director: Archana Phadke

Producers: Aman Mann, Shaunak Sen

Matrescence (U.K.)

Director: Kathryn Ferguson

Producers: Rosie Crerar, Eleanor Emptage

None of This Matters (U.S.A.)

Director: Shaina Feinberg

Producers: Judith Mizrachy, Elisabeth Durkin

Penny & Koko (U.S.A.)

Director & Producer: Tasha Van Zandt

Producers: Sebastian Zeck, Anna Barnes, Chai Vasarhelyi

Salt of the south (Tunisia, France, Denmark, Qatar)

Director: Rami Jarboui

Producers: Ramzi Laâmouri, Julien Coquet, Marie Schmidt Olesen

Speaking For Earth (U.S.A.)

Director & Producer: Cody Ball

Producers: Carter Oakley, Cleo Abram, Owen Kibby

The People’s Network (U.S.A.)

Director: Alyse Shorland

Producers: Sara Archambault, Darcy McKinnon

YOSI (U.S.A., Mexico)

Director: Jimmy Goldblum

Producers: Vero Kompalic, Justin Gonçalves, Esteban Zuluaga, Darren Aronofsky

POST-PRODUCTION

My Friend the Bear (U.S.A.)

Director: Drew Xanthopoulos

Producer: Bennett Elliott

Nine (U.S.A.)

Directors & Producers: Rachael DeCruz, Jeremy S. Levine

Producer: Rajal Pitroda

Unfiltered (w/t) (U.S.A.)

Director: Chelsi Bullard

Producer: Julia Pontecorvo