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| Films selected for the 2026 funding round Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute |
Sandbox Fund it has been announced today. The fund was created in 2017 and distributes grants to teams with films in any stage from development to post-production, creating opportunities to explore the intrinsic link between science and culture through innovative nonfiction storytelling.
Zodiac Killer Project director Charlie Shackleton is among the recipients of development funding (along with his producers Catherine Bray and Anthony Ing) for his documentary As Mine Exactly, which sees a mother and son revisit the medical emergency that reshaped their lives and the remarkable fragments that remain of that time.
North Macedonian and UK co-production What You Remember is also among the development funding recipients. Directed by Pauline Blanchet (Ecoles Emprisonnées) and produced by Blanchet and Ljubomir Stefanov (Honeyland), its synopsis asks: "How do we remember the past when our history has been faked? A political vision to rebuild a capital on the foundations of an unfinished city erased a collective memory, casting a dark shadow over Skopje’s future identity."
UK and Iceland co-production Archipelago, directed by Jessica Bishopp (Puffling) and produced by Gannesh Rajah, will receive production funding. It considers elusive seabirds on a remote part of Iceland. Rounding out the UK co-productions receiving production funding is The Mammoths That Escaped The Kingdom Of Erlik Khan. It sees established documentarian Tamara Kotevska (Honeyland, Tale Of Silyan), it features a reindeer herder at a crossroads.
Among the post-production recipients is River Of Grass, which explores the ongoing challenges in Florida's Everglades. Read what director Sasha Wortzel told us about that project.
The Institute noted that themes which emerged within this year's cohort, included memory’s power in shaping identity; how other species, scientists, storytellers, and traditional Indigenous knowledge holders navigate environmental transformation; and how technological acceleration is forcing reckonings with biological and ecological limits, redefining time and the human condition.
The full slate of projects springs from 11 countries, with 75% directed by artists from communities that have been traditionally marginalized (e.g., artists who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women and/or gender nonconforming, and people with disabilities). This year’s submissions included 56% international submissions, with high interest from regions of the world with limited support for independent media. Half of the projects are from first or second-time feature documentary directors and five projects mark the debut feature for the director.
Among the more familiar names are Matthew Crotty, who has previously produced factual TV series, including Artbound and Lost LA, and Robert Greene (Kate Plays Christine).
Paola Mottura, director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Fund, said: “We are thrilled to continue building on this program’s impactful legacy as we embark on our eighth year of championing essential nonfiction work revealing the profound connection between science and the human experience.
“Thanks to the collaboration with our fantastic partners at Sandbox Films, last year the Sundance Institute
Sandbox Fund doubled its funding, nearing one million dollars in grants injecting vital support into the global documentary community. The newest cohort of grantees presents an incredibly ambitious tapestry of artistic approaches. Their narratives highlight the vital role of scientific practice in forging a brighter future for humanity and the planet.”
Jessica Harrop, Executive Director of Sandbox Films, added: “The filmmakers that we are able to support through this fund are all doing extraordinary work at the intersection of art and science. It is thrilling to experience their creativity and their unique takes on science storytelling. We are grateful for the Sundance Institute partnership, as it has introduced us to projects from all over the world, and proven to us that there is an appetite to tell these stories in the independent film community.”
Recent projects supported by the fund include, A Life Illuminated, Daughters Of The Forest and The Lake, which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Award.
The full list of grantees, listed by production stage, are:
Development
• A Tale of Sea Dogs and Other Creatures (Kazakhstan); Director & Producer: Katerina Suvorova; Producers: Aruan Anartay, Assel Yerzhanova - A young Kazakh scientist fighting to save the Caspian seal from extinction must embrace the ancient mythic world of the sea to succeed, a choice that comes at an unbearable physical cost.
• As Mine Exactly (UK); Director & Producer: Charlie Shackleton; Producers: Catherine Bray, Anthony Ing - A mother and son revisit the medical emergency that reshaped their lives and the remarkable fragments that remain of that time.
• The Elephant in the Room (US); Director: Marley McDonald; Producer: John Cardellino - An all-archival adventure documentary that explores the creation of the American Museum of Natural History. Told through the interconnected stories of its extraordinary artifacts, the museum reveals a deep human desire to freeze time, amass treasures, and understand our place in the world.
• The Pulse of the Volcanoes (Guatemala); Director & Producer: Anaïs Taracena - Guatemala is restless land crossed by 37 volcanoes that have been eternal witnesses to tragedies, wars, and rebellions. Are these mountains of fire the voice of a wounded land, or the guardians of a history still seeking justice?
• What You Remember (North Macedonia, UK); Director & Producer: Pauline Blanchet; Producer: Ljubomir Stefanov - How do we remember the past when our history has been faked? A political vision to rebuild a capital on the foundations of an unfinished city erased a collective memory, casting a dark shadow over Skopje’s future identity.
Production
• Chorwet (The Rhino Friend) working title (Kenya); Director & Producer: Dylan Habil; Producer: Lucinda Van de Rheede - Zacharia Mutai balances fatherhood with his bond to the last two northern white rhinos, revealing a tender, deeply human view of care, loss, and endurance on the front lines of a crucial mission that might be the species’ final stand.
• Father Figures (US); Director & Producer: Emma D Miller; Producers: Colby Day, Florrie Priest - When a retired theatre director begins creating internet videos featuring intimate conversations with his growing collection of ventriloquist dummies, his daughter attempts to repair their relationship by exploring the psychological depths and possibilities of his strange new hobby.
• Lorehole (US); Director: Matthew Crotty; Producers: Francesca Roth, Claire Vaye Watkins - A film exploring the lifeways along the largely underground Amargosa River, which surfaces at the Borehole, a hot spring created by an environmental disaster and now the center of a rural community and a place of healing on the internal fringes of the American West. Narrated by Claire Vaye Watkins.
• Metropolis (US, India); Directors: Anupama Srinivasan, Anirban Dutta; Producers: Anirban Dutta, Ryan Krivoshey - In New York City, a multiethnic team of scientists and researchers chase, study and combat mosquitoes to protect the city’s population from the deadly viruses these tiny insects carry.
• Sweet Mystery Of Life (US); Director: Robert Greene; Producers: Susan Bedusa, Bennett Elliott, Douglas Tirola - In a dreamlike Fifties town square built inside a warehouse, we will investigate our memory care crisis, the healing potential of filmmaking, and the fragility of reality itself by collaborating with three participants and their families to film scenes centered around their most important memories.
• The Archipelago (UK, Iceland); Director & Producer: Jessica Bishopp; Producer: Gannesh Rajah - On a remote Icelandic archipelago, a team of marine ornithologists study elusive seabirds in global decline. On the same archipelago, two young women and the lost seabirds they rescue come of age.
• The Mammoths That Escaped The Kingdom Of Erlik Khan (Denmark, Macedonia, UK, Portugal); Director & Producer: Tamara Kotevska; Producers: Sigrid Dyekjær, Anna Hashmi, Enrico Saraiva, Harry Vaughn, Jean Dakar - In the northernmost part of the Yakut Tundra, Vladik, a young Dolgan reindeer herder, is at a crossroads when he has to make a decision to either follow in his father’s ancestral footsteps or join the modern mammoth tusk hunters.
• The Men In Gray (US); Director & Producer: Ra’anan Alexandrowicz; Producers: Yoni Brook, Susan Norget, James Doolittle, Emma Mørup - A 1970s children’s fantasy novel in which the time-thieving Men In Gray infiltrate an imaginary city is the point of departure for a documentary that explores our relationship with time in an era where it is accelerated, fragmented, and commodified as never before.
Post-production
• Finding Your Laughter (US); Directors & Producers: Arlieta Hall, Brittany Alsot - Chicago comedian Arlieta Hall turns to her greatest tools, stand-up comedy and improvisation, to navigate the heartbreak and humanity of caring for her father, who is living with Alzheimer’s disease.
• River Of Grass (US); Director & Producer: Sasha Wortzel; Producer: Danielle Varga - An ode to the Florida Everglades, told through the prescient writings of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and those who today call the region home.
• The Tallest Dwarf (US); Director: Julie Wyman; Producers: Lindsey Dryden, Shaleece Haas, Jonna McKone - When a filmmaker with a rare form of dwarfism seeks out people with bodies like hers, she enters a community in flux. She joins forces with little people artists to trace a troubled history of being put on display. Together they forge a vision of disabled beauty and power.
