People’s Media Fund Announces $405,000 in Grants to Local Filmmakers
PHILADELPHIA, May 28, 2026—People’s Media Fund (PMF) announces $405,000 in grants to support 17 Greater Philadelphia emerging and veteran professional independent film directors. The grants will support the development of their films and the expansion of their skills.
“This year’s awarded film projects reflect a diversity of themes and genres, representing a growing interest in stories that push boundaries and play with style and form,” said PMF Program Officer Nuala Cabral. “We look forward to witnessing these films unfold and are excited to also nurture the film directors in this cohort as part of our effort to build capacity and strengthen networks in the local filmmaker community.”
Congrats SIFTer Bettina Escauriza – who received the grant for her film “Achegety Yvy / Earth Alphabet,” an experimental film where an artist weaves ancestral knowledge and words from the Guaraní language to create a landscape of ideas to explore her relationship to her homeland and culture despite the distance created by childhood immigration.
Congrats SIFTer Jasmine Lynea who received the grant for her film “Della Can Fly!” An eccentric old man needs to prove that his long-lost sister flew away to preserve family history. With the support of his grieving great-niece, they rectify the family myth, proving it to be true.
Congrats Former-SIFTer DaSaint “4Her,”follows a young Haitian woman who, fixated on her parents’ fractured past, must confront the weight she’s carried for years before it destroys the most important relationship she’s nurturing, the relationship to herself.
Congrats Friend of SIFT Rea Tajiri““Non-Alien,” In 1945, unemployed Nikkei photographer Vince Tajiri wanders the streets of Chicago, searching for community through the viewfinder of his camera. At the beach, he stumbles into a bardo outside time; he encounters Paul Robeson, Hisaye Yamamoto, and Sun Ra, fellow artists dreaming passage into alternative futures, as well as his three children, apparitions from worlds yet-to-be
SEE COMPLETE LIST OF PHILLY GRANTEES
Through invited proposals, the Local Filmmaker Open Call, and the Community Voices Open Call, People’s Media Fund supports building and strengthening networks of people who are creating and sharing information, ideas, and stories for justice and change.
