Chicken & Egg Pictures has consistently updated our application questions to be in alignment with the Core Application with the latest version created in 2022. The majority of our questions about the project information, key creative personnel, financial information/budget, and work samples are directly in line with the Core Application. Supplemental questions are few and have been added where we have noticed a repeated need to capture information that we need to inform our selection process. We acknowledge the effort it takes for filmmakers to complete any application and our team reviews our application processes each year to ensure the information we are requesting is necessary to our evaluations and decision making.

We were involved in the discussions around the most recent update of the Core Application specifically about how to standardize response lengths to allow both for word count limits as well as character count limits (for those organizations like ours whose application platform only works using character counts). As an outcome of these discussions, the Core Application v. 2022 has a word-to-character count equivalency listed on page 1 of the Application Proposal Checklist. Our applications follow this guideline of 100 words = 650 characters. We have this information available via our application platform, but understand that there is space to clarify it further on our program webpages as well as our application checklist documents. We have included this on our webpage and application checklist for the (Egg)celerator Lab, which is open for applications through May 22, 2024, to reflect this as well.

We are sharing this information now because an inquiry was raised about our application process via social media and it’s our practice to be responsive to filmmaker inquiries, but also because it is likely a question that has come up for many more filmmakers beyond this particular instance. 

Post written by the Program Team

The 2023 Sundance slate is made up of 28% first-time filmmakers. Chicken & Egg Pictures is committed to supporting filmmakers through the lifecycle of their films; we’re proud that five of the documentary films premiering at Sundance are grantees of our flagship program (Egg)celerator Lab, designed for first or second-time filmmakers. 

See you in Utah!

Against the Tide

dir. & prod. Sarvnik Kaur

prods. Koval Bhatia

2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Against the Tide is having its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. 

Available in person and online
Premiering on Friday, January 20 
Get your tickets

It’s Only Life After All

dir. & prod. Alexandria Bombach

prods. Kathlyn Horan, Jess Devaney, Anya Rous

It’s Only Life After All was supported through Alexandria Bombach’s 2019 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its world premiere in the Premiere section. 

Available in person
Premiering on Thursday, January 19
Get your tickets

Is There Anybody Out There?

dir. Ella Glendining

prod. Janine Marmot

2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Is There Anybody Out There? is having its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. 

Available in person and online
Premiering on Sunday, January 22 
Get your tickets

Joonam

dir. Sierra Urich

prod. Keith Wilson

2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Joonam is having its world premiere in the U.S. Documentary Competition. 

Available in person and online
Premiering on Saturday, January 21
Get your tickets here

Milisuthando

dir. Milisuthando Bongela

prod. Marion Isaacs

2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Milisuthando is having its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.

Available in person and online
Premiering on Saturday, January 21
Get your tickets

Plan C

dir. & prod. Tracy Droz Tragos

Plan C is supported through the Critical Issues Fund and it is having its world premiere in the Premiere section.

Available in person
Premiering on Monday, January 23 
Get your tickets

The Eternal Memory

dir. & prod. Maite Alberdi

prods. Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue

The Eternal Memory was supported through Maite Alberdi’s 2020 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. 

Available in person and online
Premiering on Saturday, January 21
Get your tickets

The Tuba Thieves

dir. Alison O’Daniel

2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee The Tuba Thieves is having its world premiere in the Next section. 

Available in person and online
Premiering on Sunday, January 22
Get your tickets

From the AlumNest

• Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
  dirs. & prods. Michele Stephenson, Joe Brewster
  U.S. Documentary Competition 
  
  
• Kim’s Video
  dirs. & prods. David Redmon, Ashley Sabin
  prods. Deborah Smith, Dale Smith, Francesco Galavotti, Rebecca Tabasky
  Next section (Opening night) 
  
  
• King Coal
  dir. & prod. Elaine McMillion Sheldon
  prods. Shane Boris, Diane Becker, Peggy Drexler
  Next section
  
  
• Murder in Big Horn
  dirs. Razelle Benally, Matthew Galkin
  prods. Razelle Benally, Matthew Galkin, Ivan Macdonald, Ivy Macdonald
  
  
• Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
  dir. Lana Wilson
  prods. Christine O’Malley, Jack Turner
  Premiere section
  
  
• Victim/Suspect
  dir. & prod. Nancy Schwartzman
  prods. Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Alice Henty, Rachel de Leon, Amanda Pike

Update:

Meet our Team at Sundance Film Festival

Our new Program Director Kiyoko McCrae will be in attendance along with Jenni Wolfson, CEO, and Rebecca Celli, Associate Director of Development.

Please take a look at the films below:

All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars

dir. Jennifer Rainsford

prods. Mirjam Gelhorn, David Herdies, Michael Krotkiewski

The 2011 Japan tsunami triggers this staggering essay about loss that connects human and environmental trauma using astonishing juxtapositions. Humans breathe out and the oceans breathe in, so that we are constantly breathing together and becoming our planet. If we admit that our human experiences of pain and the Earth’s are just different versions of the same destruction, will recovery come, be it in ripples or waves?*

All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Cinematic Vision Competition.

Get your tickets + more info with this link.  

*Text courtesy of Cineuropa.

Polaris

dir. Ainara Vera

prod. Clara Vuillermoz

After overcoming her painful childhood in France, 36-year-old Hayat has managed to become an expert skipper in the Arctic. Her biggest passion is to navigate in between icebergs and spot whales. While she experiences this pureness, her 28-year-old sister Leila tries to integrate into society after coming out of jail in France. Their life went by independently until a year ago when Leila fell pregnant. Polaris explores the inner battle that we all have to undertake to find a balance between the light and the darkness and how the beauty of nature can help us. 

Polaris is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Harrel Competition. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

From the AlumNest

• Descendant  
  dir. & prod. Margaret Brown
  prods. Kyle Martin, Essie Chambers
  This film is part of the Best of Fest section. 
  
  
• Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power
  dirs. Geeta Gandbhir, Sam Pollard
  prods. Jessica Devaney, Anya Rous, Dema Paxton Fofang
  This film is part of the Best of Fest section.

Meet Our Team at CIFF

Program Manager Sabine Fayoux Cantillo and Program Coordinator Iva Dimitrova will attend the festival. They will be taking meetings and watching lots of films!

Check out the full line-up with this link.

Life + Life

dir & prod. Contessa Gayles

prods. Richie Reseda, David Felix Sutcliffe

An incarcerated musician struggles for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary-musical odyssey composed behind bars.

Life + Life is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Storming

dir. Katrina Sorrentino

prod. Tiffany Fisher-Love

A family hangs in limbo, caring for their comatose son. Hope and denial blur as seasons circle in this meditation on love and letting go. 

Storming was a participant of the 2019 Nest Knight Fellowship.

From the AlumNest

• #NunsToo
  dir. Lorena Luciano, prod. Filippo Piscopo 
  
  
• Give it a Shot
  dir. & prod. Vaishali Sinha, prod. Hemang Chheda
  
  
• In Plain Sight
  prod. Farihah Zaman, dir. PJ Raval 
  
  
• Life After
  prods. Jessica Devaney, Colleen Cassingham, dir. Reid Davenport
  
  
• Meanwhile
  dir. & prod. Catherine Gund, prod. Erika Dilday
  
  
• Prisoner X
  dirs. Hilla Medalia, Amos Roberts, prod.Hilla Medalia & Gal Greenspan
  
  
• Thoughts & Prayers
  dir. & prod. Jessica Dimmock, Zackary Canepari  
  
  
• To Use a Mountain
  Executive produced by 2022 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Brett Story, Maida Lynn, dir. Casey Carter, prod. Colleen Cassingham

The Gotham Week Conference

• The Politics of Filmmaking in the US
  Wednesday, September 21 at 2:30 pm ET
  With Project: Hatched 2022 finalist The Janes’ directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes.
  Cost: $25

Meet Our Team

Our Executive Director Jenni Wolfson and Program Coordinator Iva Dimitrova will be taking meetings at The Gotham Week.

Check out the full list of projects participating with this link.

Chicken & Egg Pictures is egg-cited and proud to share some big news: our dearest Executive Director Jenni Wolfson, 2018 (Egg)celerator Lab recipients Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh (Writing With Fire), 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab recipient Jessica Kingdon (Ascension), 2021 Chicken & Egg Award recipients Cristina Ibarra and Jialing Zhang, and 2022 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Brett Story have been invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

We also want to congratulate Bob Moore (producer of Project: Hatched 2021 grantee Dope Is Death) and Nathan Truesdell (producer of 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab recipient Ascension) for their invitations!  

The Class of 2022 is 44% women, 37% percent underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 50% hail from outside of the United States.

Congratulations to the Class of 2022!

Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust

dir. & prod. Ann Kaneko

prod. Jin Yoo-Kim

POV premiere: Monday, July 18, 2022 

Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust was a Project: Hatched 2021 grantee.

An Act of Worship

dir. Nausheen Dadabhoy

prods. Heba Elorbany, Kristi Jacobson, Sofian Khan

POV premiere: Monday, October 17, 2022 

An Act of Worship participated in the 2018 Diversity Fellows Initiative and was a 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

prods. Mila Aung-Thwin, Bob Moore, Ulla Lehmann

POV premiere: Monday, November 21, 2022

Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and won a Special Jury Award for Excellence in Vérité Filmmaking at Sundance 2022.

From the AlumNest

• The Mole Agent
  dir. & prod. Maite Alberdi
  prod. Marcela Santibanez
  Available through July
• President
  dir. Camilla Nielsson
  prods. Signe Byrge Sørensen, Joslyn Barnes
  POV premiere: Monday, August 8, 2022
  
  
• Delikado
  Writer and Executive Producer 2018 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Laura Nix, dir. Karl Malakunas, prods. Michael Collins, Marty Syjuco, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala
  POV premiere: Monday, September 26, 2022

An egg-stra special shout out to our Co-Founder & Senior Creative Consultant Judith Helfand, whose film Love & Stuff, produced by our Co-Founder & Board President Julie Parker Benello and AlumNest filmmaker Hilla Medalia, will have its POV premiere on Monday, September 5, 2022.

Check out the full line-up with this link.

Projects from eight Nest-supported filmmakers will be participating at the MeetMarket, Sheffield DocFest’s pitching forum. The market will take place in-person for the first time since 2019 from Monday, June 27 through Tuesday, June 28 and will move online in the days following the festival.

Alis

dirs. & prods. Clare Weiskopf, Nicolas van Hemelryck

prods. Alexandra Galvis, Radu Stancu

Alis is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist, and the winner of the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. 

Get your tickets with this link.

BEBA

dir. & prod. Rebeca Huntt

prod. Sofia Geld

BEBA is a Project: Hatched 2022 grantee. 

Get your tickets with this link.

Electric Malady

dir. Marie Lidén

prod. Aimara Reques, Lorna Jane Ferguson

Electric Malady is a 2018 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Get your tickets with this link.

Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

prods. Bob Moore, Ulla Lehmann, Mila Aung-Thwin

Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and Special Jury Award winner at Sundance 2022. 

Get your tickets with this link.

From the AlumNest

• The Joys and Sorrows of Young Yuguo
  dir. Ilinca Calugareanu, prod. Mara Adina
  World Premiere in the International Short Competition 
  
  
• The Great Abandonment
  dirs. & prods. Shirley Abraham, Amit Madheshiya

MeetMarket

Eat Bitter

dirs. Ningyi Sun, Pascale Appora-Gnekindy

prod. Mathieu Faure

Eat Bitter is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist.

Hummingbirds

dirs. Silvia Castaños, Estefanía Contreras

prods. Jillian Schlesinger, Leslie Benavides, Miguel Drake-McLaughlin

Hummingbirds is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist.

Life + Life

dir. & prod. Contessa Gayles

Life + Life is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Matryoshka

dir. & prod. Maricarmen Merino

prods. Paulina Villegas, Karla Bukantz

Matryoshka is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee. 

The Wife Of

dir. & prod. Volia Chajkouskaya

prods.  Ivo Felt, Christian Popp, Marius Markevicius

The Wife Of is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

AlumNest projects at the MeetMarket

• #NunsToo Documentary
  dir. Lorena Luciano, prod. Filippo Piscopo
  
  
• DALTON’S DREAM
  dirs. Kim Longinotto, Franky Murray Brown, prod. Lorine Plagnol
  
  
• The Gender Project (working title)
  dir. & prod. Kimberly Reed, prods. Louise Rosen, Robin Honan

Meet Our Team at Sheffield DocFest

Our Executive Director Jenni Wolfson and Program Coordinator Iva Dimitrova will be representing Chicken & Egg Pictures at the MeetMarket.

Check out the full line-up with this link and the complete list of MeetMarket projects with this link.

World Premiere

An Act of Worship

dir. Nausheen Dadabhoy

prods. Sofian Khan, Kristi Jacobson, Heba Elorbany

An Act of Worship is an exploration of the last 30 years of Muslim life in America, weaving together observational footage of three activist women who came of age after 9/11 with news archival footage, community-sourced home videos, and audio interviews along with evocative recollections of individuals impacted by Islamophobic policy. From the perspective of Muslim Americans, he film revisits pivotal moments in US history that have shaped their lives, such as the first Gulf War, 9/11, the Boston Marathon Bombing, and Trump’s travel ban, creating a prismatic counter-narrative and opening a window into their world through collective memory. This is what it means to be a Muslim in America. 

An Act of Worship participated in the 2018 Diversity Fellows Initiative (past program) and is a 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Get your tickets with this link. 

World Premiere

Hidden Letters

dir. & prod. Violet Feng

prods. Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas, Jean Tsien, Su Kim

Our story began hundreds of years ago in a secluded village in China where women’s lives were completely controlled by men. They created a secret written language called Nushu that men didn’t understand. They wrote poems and songs to give each other strength and dignity, and vowed to be lifetime sisters in this prose. At the brink of extinction, Nushu is now being commodified in the context of capitalism. Hidden Letters is a film about two young women trying to reclaim the power of Nushu, despite the new threats in a world of revived patriarchy.

Hidden Letters a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Get your tickets with this link.  

And see Violet Feng speak at TRIBECA TALKS: Speaking in Codes: Storytelling that Codifies Gender Equitable Systems in China and the U.S.  

Women filmmakers and artists around the world face a parallel challenge in navigating industries that are codified by male decision-makers and storytelling customs. This panel will explore how women and marginalized genders work to support one another to re-codify a more equitable system through investment in storytelling.* Panelists include director Violet Feng, Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan. Panel hosted by InMaat, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and Independent Lens. 

Get your tickets with this link.

BEBA

dir. & prod. Rebeca Huntt

prod. Sofia Geld

A stunning self-portrait, tough, raw, stubborn, and powerful. Beba stares down the curses of her ancestry, probing the psychic wounds she has inherited, while simultaneously embracing the vastness of her multitudes, occupying many spaces, and demanding to be seen in all of them. 

BEBA is a Project: Hatched 2022 grantee. 

Get your tickets with this link.

From the AlumNest

• Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From a Plantation Prison
  prod. Catherine Gund
  dir. Cinque Northern
  
  
• Body Parts (World Premiere)
  dir. Kristy Guevara-Flanagan
  prod. Helen Hood Scheer 
  
  
• Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (World Premiere)
  dirs. Geeta Gandbhir, Sam Pollard
  prods. Jessica Devaney, Anya Rous, Dema Paxton Fofang
  
  
• To The End
  dir. Rachel Lears
  prod. Sabrina Schmidt Gordon
  
  
• Unfinished Business (World Premiere)
  dir. & prod. Alison Klayman
  prods. Julie Goldman, Carolyn Hepburn, Christopher Clements, Nicholas Ma, Mishka Brown
   
• The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (World Premiere)
  dirs. Yoruba Richen, Johanna Hamilton
  prod. Christalyn Hampton

Check out the full line-up with this link.
*Text courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival

Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

prods. Bob Moore, Ulla Lehmann, Mila Aung-Thwin

A tale of the complicated relationship between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar, told over five years through the eyes of two midwives from either side of the divide. 

Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

The Janes

dirs.  Tia Lessin, Emma Pildes

prods. Emma Pildes, Daniel Arcana, Jessica Levin

The Janes is the story of an underground network of women in Chicago in the ‘60s and early ‘70s who provided safe, affordable, illegal abortions. 

The Janes is a Project: Hatched 2022 grantee. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

From the AlumNest

• Delikado 
  Writer and Executive Producer 2018 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Laura Nix, dir. Karl Malakunas, prods. Marty Syjuco, Michael Collins, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala

Check out the full line-up with this link. 

World Premiere

Silent Beauty

dir. & prod. Jasmin Lopez

A personal documentary that follows Director Jasmin López as she works to heal from child sexual abuse she endured at the hands of her grandfather, Gilberto, a Baptist minister, almost thirty years ago. In the process of sharing her own trauma with her large family, she learns that generations of children in her family were victims of the same abuse. Told from the director’s perspective, Silent Beauty is a film about confronting and accepting difficult truths while finding beauty in the process. 

Silent Beauty is a 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is having its World Premiere in the Persister section. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

Alis

dirs.& prods.  Clare Weiskopf, Nicolas van Hemelryck

prods. Radu Stancu, Alexandra Galvis

In a Colombian shelter for teenage girls, filmmakers ask a group of young women to close their eyes and imagine the life story of a fictional classmate named Alis. As reality prevails and fiction fades, the innocent game becomes a descent into hell, where their luminous faces guide the audience to the depths of the dark world they once inhabited, only to emerge with new skin. How to imagine a different life, break the cycle of violence, and embrace a brighter future? 

Alis is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist and is part of Made In Chile: A spotlight on docs from Chile

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars

(previously titled Stories From Debris)

dir. Jennifer Rainsford

prods. Mirjam Gelhorn, David Herdies, Michael Krotkiewski

The 2011 Japan tsunami triggers this staggering essay about loss that connects human and environmental trauma using astonishing juxtapositions. Humans breathe out and the oceans breathe in, so that we are constantly breathing together and becoming our planet. If we admit that our human experiences of pain and the Earth’s are just different versions of the same destruction, will recovery come, be it in ripples or waves?* 

All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the World Showcase section.

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

Boycott

dir & prod. Julia Bacha

prod. Suhad Babaa, Daniel J. Chalfen

When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona and a speech therapist in Texas are told to choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech in 33 states in America.

Boycott was supported through Julia Bacha’s 2019 Chicken & Egg Award, and is a Hot Docs Special Presentation.  

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

Eskape

dir. Neary Adeline Hay

prods. Jasmin Basic

The survival story of a mother and her daughter, the filmmaker, through the desperate flight from a crumbling Cambodia after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime. Faced with the silence brought by trauma and time, the longing to understand her mother today resonates in an abysmal echo, while reviving the memories as a political refugee in Europe.

Eskape is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is having its North American premiere in the Hidden Stories section. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

prods. Bob Moore, Ulla Lehmann, Mila Aung-Thwin

A tale of the complicated relationship between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar, told over five years through the eyes of two midwives from either side of the divide. 

Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is having its Canadian premiere as a HotDocs Special Presentation. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

Mija

dir. & prod. Isabel Castro

prod. Tabs Breese, Yesenia Tlahuel

With Doris’ voice as our guide, Mija uses VHS archive, verité footage, and camcorder vlogging to tell the story of two young women’s coming-of-age journeys as they look for success and belonging. The film is an immensely emotional and intimate portrait honoring the resilience of immigrants and their children. 

Mija is a 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Artscapes section. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

Once Upon a Time in Uganda

dir. Cathryne Czubek, co-dir. Hugo Perez

prods. Gigi Dement, Cathryne Czubek, Matt Porwoll, Hugo Perez, Kyaligamba Ark Martin

Against all odds, former bricklayer and teacher Isaac Nabwana has turned his small home in the slums of Uganda’s capital city into the Wakaliwood action movie studio. After 10 years and 40+ films, Wakaliwood has become an overnight international media sensation, inspiring others around the world to follow in his footsteps. When New York film nerd Alan Hofmanis shows up on his doorstep one day, everything is bound to change. 

Once Upon a Time in Uganda is a 2017 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Nightvision section. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.

From the AlumNest

• A Peculiar Silence
  prod. Catherine Gund, dir. Cinque Northern 
  

• Angels of Sinjar
  dir. & prod. Hanna Polak, prod. Simone Baumann

• Don’t Come Searching
  prods. Michelle Serieux, Sherien Barsoum, dir. & prod. Andrew Moir
  
  
• The Martha Mitchell Effect
  prods. Beth Levison, Judith Mizrachy, dirs. Anne Alvergue, Debra McClutchy
  
  
• The Mole Agent
  dir. Maite Alberdi, prod. Marcela Santibanez
  
  
• TikTok, Boom. 
  dir. & prod. Shalini Kantayya, prods. Ross Dinerstein, Danni Mynard
  
  
• To The End
  dir. Rachel Lears, prod. Sabrina Schmidt Gordon

Check out the full line-up with this link.  

*Language courtesy of Hot Docs.