Cate Blanchett, who is a Goodwill Ambassador for refugee agency UNHCR, and Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund have launched a refugee-focused short film grant program called the Displacement Film Fund.
The fund, which will give up to five production grants of €100,000 ($104,200) each in its pilot phase, aims to champion and fund the work of displaced filmmakers, or filmmakers with a track record of creating “authentic storytelling on the experiences of displaced people.”
The selection committee for the fund will be chaired by Blanchett and includes actor and musician Cynthia Erivo, Oscar-nominated for “Wicked” and “Harriet”; Oscar-nominated “For Sama” director Waad Al-Kateab; “Green Border” director Agnieszka Holland, an Oscar nominee with “Europa Europa”; IFFR festival director Vanja Kaludjercic; educator, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram; Oscar-nominated “Flee” filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen; and Amin Nawabi, which is an alias for the LGBTQ+ asylum seeker who was Poher Rasmussen’s inspiration for the story of “Flee.”
Blanchett said: “Film can drop you into the texture and realities of someone’s life like no other art form. Working with UNHCR I have engaged in both the large-scale impact and the vast statistics of forced displacement as an issue faced by millions of people — but I have also been fortunate to meet affected people directly and engage with their stories and experiences.”
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She continued, “It is this aim of creating personal, intimate touchpoints that the Displacement Film Fund is driven by. When people are forced to leave their homes, they lose access to the most basic support, but as artists they also lose access to the means to make work at a time when it is more vital than ever. I’m grateful to the Hubert Bals Fund and the coalition of supremely talented individuals we’ve gathered around this collective effort to step into that gap.”
The fund, which is backed by a group of film industry experts, creators, business leaders and philanthropists, will be formally launched Feb. 1 at IFFR when Blanchett appears on a panel with Koji Yanai, a Uniqlo executive and one of the producers of Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days”; Al-Kateab; Poher Rasmussen; and HBF’s head Tamara Tatishvili, moderated by Uzma Hasan. The panel will discuss the program’s origins and aims.
The purpose of the fund aligns with HBF’s policy of supporting underrepresented voices, especially with filmmakers from countries where local filming and infrastructure is lacking or restrictive. The ambition is that the pilot project develops into a longer-term program.
The fund was initiated at UNHCR’s Global Refugee Forum, the world’s largest gathering dedicated to addressing challenges faced by refugees and their host communities.
Blanchett joined fellow UNHCR supporters Ke Huy Quan, Echo Quan, Ayman Tamer, Yanai and Isaac Kwaku Fokuo to develop the idea at the event. In order to “deepen the insights, expertise and reach of the fund,” Blanchett recruited a wider group of film industry experts and creatives, all of whom have a personal connection and/or strong interest in the issue of forced displacement.
Filmmakers will be selected for the pilot fund following a two-step process. A longlist of filmmakers will be determined by the nominations committee and then the selection committee will decide on final recipients with selected filmmakers announced during this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The finished projects will have their world premieres at IFFR next year.
Yanai, a board director of Uniqlo parent company the Fast Retailing Group, said: “Chance can often be the mother of opportunity, and I’m grateful that my chance encounter with Cate, Quan and other refugee advocates at the Global Refugee Forum created an embryonic idea that is now coming to fruition thanks to the creativity, commitment and collaboration of such a diverse group of partners.
“Both in my role at Uniqlo and as a film producer I believe passionately that film can change attitudes and have positive social impact. Uniqlo’s corporate statement is ‘changing clothes, changing conventional wisdom, change the world,’ and I am confident this new fund has the potential to change and grow opportunities for displaced filmmakers, and in doing so drive awareness and empathy for refugees.”
Al-Kateab said: “As someone who has lived through the challenges of displacement and experienced the transformative power of storytelling, I am deeply honored to be part of this initiative. This project represents not only an opportunity to amplify underrepresented voices but also a vital step towards empowering filmmakers to share their stories of resilience, identity and hope. I believe this process can create profound connections between communities and inspire meaningful change, and I’m proud to contribute to ensuring fairness and transparency in selecting these incredible talents.”
Clare Stewart, managing director at IFFR, and Tatishvili said: “We are deeply proud that the framework HBF has created over the last three decades to support filmmakers across the globe making groundbreaking work in often hugely challenging environments is trusted as the ideal management partner to enable this vital fund. The dedication of the founding members of the Displacement Film Fund is inspiring, and we wholeheartedly support the vision to harness the power of film to articulate an experience faced by such a large portion of the world’s population. We stand with them in the efforts to give displaced filmmakers vital support and to raise awareness for stories of displacement.”