Kathryn Ferguson’s Matrescence, Romanian director Ilinca Calugareanu’s Anatomy Of Indifference, and Hao Zhou’s All Fixed Up and are among 19 projects to receive support from Sundance Institute’s 2026 Documentary Fund grants.
Belfast-born Ferguson’s feature, one of 12 from the roster that is in production, explores the transformative journey of motherhood and earlier this year won CPH:DOX’s Sandbox Films Science Pitch Prize. Anatomy Of Indifference looks at what happens after a crime is reported and participated in Sarajevo Film Festival and Slano’s Uniqa See Future Foundation’s Female Filmmakers Support Programme, while 2025 IDFA Forum winner All Fixed Up focuses on the lengths a rural Chinese family will go to in order to “straighten out” their queer descendant.
Darren Aronofsky is among the producers on Jimmy Goldblum’s YOSI (USA-Mex), about the queer poet and playwright Yosimar Reyes as he contemplates life on both sides of the border following the death of the grandmother who raised him.
In total Sundance Institute is granting more than $1m in unrestricted funding to four projects in development, the 12 in production, and three in post-production. Nearly 65% of the grant proposals came from outside the US for the cycle as the Documentary Fund heads into its 25th year in 2027.
Paola Mottura, director, Documentary Film Fund, and Kristin Feeley, director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs, said: “This year’s group of grantees is a beautiful reflection of the inventive and varied nonfiction work that continues to push the form forward.
2026 Documentary Fund Grantees
Development
Alcatraz Is An Idea (USA)
Dir. Julian Brave NoiseCat
Pdrs. Peter Bratt, Benjamin Bratt, Alpita Patel, Daniel Kilroy, Tom Mackintosh
Shape Of Silence (Ca)
Dir/pdr. Varun Trikha
Shooting Stars (Iran-Fr-Den-Neth-Nor)
Dir. Parsa Ansari
Pdr. Milad Khosravi
Wahnish Keeps Me Free (USA)
Dir. Jamil McGinnis
Production
All Fixed Up (USA-Fr-S Kor)
Dir. Hao Zhou
All Shall Be Saved (USA)
Dirs. Jason Sussberg, David Alvarado
Pdr. Kate McLean
Anatomy Of Indifference (UK-Rom)
Dir/pdr. Ilinca Calugareanu
Pdrs. Anamaria Antoci, Lucila Moctezuma
Artificial Horizon (USA)
Dir. Elizabeth M. Webb
Pdrs. DaManuel Richardson, Maggie Corona-Goldstein, Solomon Turner
God Of The In-Between (India-USA)
Dir. Archana Phadke
Pdrs. Aman Mann, Shaunak Sen
Matrescence (UK)
Dir. Kathryn Ferguson
Pdrs. Rosie Crerar, Eleanor Emptage
None Of This Matters (USA)
Dir. Shaina Feinberg
Pdrs. Judith Mizrachy, Elisabeth Durkin
Penny & Koko (USA)
Dir/pdr. Tasha Van Zandt
Pdrs. Sebastian Zeck, Anna Barnes, Chai Vasarhelyi
Salt Of The south (Tun-Fr-Den-Qat)
Dir. Rami Jarboui
Pdrs. Ramzi Laâmouri, Julien Coquet, Marie Schmidt Olesen
Speaking For Earth (USA)
Dir/pdr. Cody Ball
Pdrs. Carter Oakley, Cleo Abram, Owen Kibby
The People’s Network (USA)
Dir. Alyse Shorland
Pdrs. Sara Archambault, Darcy McKinnon
YOSI (USA-Mex)
Dir. Jimmy Goldblum
Pdrs. Vero Kompalic, Justin Gonçalves, Esteban Zuluaga, Darren Aronofsky
Post-Production
My Friend The Bear (USA)
Dir. Drew Xanthopoulos
Pdr. Bennett Elliott
Nine (USA)
Dirs/pdrs. Rachael DeCruz, Jeremy S. Levine
Prd. Rajal Pitroda
Unfiltered (USA, working title)
Dir. Chelsi Bullard
Pdr. Julia Pontecorvo.
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