Actor-producer Cate Blanchett, alongside the UN Refugee Agency and IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) today unveiled a new short film grant scheme named the Displacement Film Fund, which will benefit five filmmakers in its pilot edition.
Up to five individual production grants of €100,000 (approximately US$104,200) will champion and fund the work of displaced filmmakers, or filmmakers with a proven track record in creating authentic storytelling on the experiences of displaced people.
The selection committee for the Displacement Film Fund will be chaired by Cate Blanchett and also includes journalist and documentarian Waad Al Kateab (We Dare to Dream, For Sama), actor, producer and musician Cynthia Erivo (Wicked, Drift), director and screenwriter Agnieszka Holland (Green Border), IFFR Festival Director Vanja Kaludjercic, educator, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram, filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee), and Amin Nawabi, an LGBTQ+ asylum seeker who is Rasmussen’s inspiration for the story of Flee.
Filmmakers will be selected for the fund’s pilot edition following a two-step process. A longlist of filmmakers will first be determined by a nominations committee and then the selection committee will decide on the fund’s final recipients.
Selected filmmakers for the fund will be announced during Cannes Film Festival this year. The finished projects will have their world premieres at IFFR in 2026.
The fund is backed by a coalition of film industry experts, creators, business leaders and philanthropists and will be formally launched at IFFR’s upcoming 54th edition where Blanchett will appear on a panel on February 1 to discuss the scheme’s origins, aims and the urgency of its focus.
IFFR said that the Displacement Film Fund was first initiated at UNHCR’s Global Refugee Forum, where Cate Blanchett joined fellow UNHCR supporters Ke Huy Quan, Echo Quan, Ayman Tamer, Koji Yanai and Isaac Kwaku Fokuo to develop the idea for the fund at the event. Blanchett further sought out and recruited a wider group of film industry experts and creatives, all of whom have a personal connection and strong interest in the issue of forced displacement.
“Film can drop you into the texture and realities of someone’s life like no other art form,” said Blanchett. “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.
“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,” added Blanchett.
Clare Stewart, IFFR’s managing director, and Tamara Tatishvili, head of The Hubert Bals Fund, 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,” added Stewart and Tatishvili.