Today, the Berkeley Film Foundation (BFF) announces that it has awarded a total of more than $350,000 in its 2025 grant cycle to 29 independent filmmakers, including 5 student filmmakers, who live, work, or attend school in the East Bay cities of Richmond, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, or Oakland. 

Since its founding in 2009, BFF has awarded almost $3.3 million to 338 film projects that continuously push creative boundaries and inspire change. The amount awarded has steadily increased over the last couple of years. 

Of the grants, three are named in honor of BFF founders. The Saul Zaentz Award for $25,000, goes to veteran documentarian Deanne Borshay Liem for Relative Strangers, which continues the director’s focus on issues of transnational adoption through following four Korean adoptees who return to South Korea. A second award, the Saul Zaentz Creative Vision Award for $25,000, bestowed by the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation, is awarded to “Untitled Alexandra Billings Project,” directed by Nico Opper, an inventive biographical-and-musical documentary on the pioneering trans actress Alexandra Billings. The $20,000 Al Bendich Award is granted to “Untitled Education Film” (directed by Zachary Stauffer and Joanna Rudnick), which addresses the current struggle for the future of American education across school boards and state legislatures.  

For the fifth year, BFF partnered with the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation for the Jonathan Logan Elevate Award for $25,000, which supports one emerging filmmaker each year for five years “to advance social justice by empowering world-changing work in documentary, investigative journalism, and arts and culture.” This year’s Elevate Award is granted to Belly of the World (directed by April September), which “follows Black birthing people across the U.S. confronting systemic racism and reproductive injustice.”

The list of all films receiving 2025 grants is as follows: 

An Independent Spark - The Zona Roberts Story (Nina Rappaport Rowan, Producer, Donna Mitroff, Producer, James Buchanan, Director, Dr. Victor Pineda, Co-Producer)

Barren Grounds: The Final Expedition (Matthew Boyd, Director and Producer)

Belly of the World (April September, Director, Lucia Palmarini, Producer, Dana Eshi, Producer)

Between The Sun and the Sidewalk (Helen De Michiel, Director and Producer)

El Oaxaqueño [working title] (David Zlutnick, Director and Producer, Armando Aparicio, Producer, Angela Reginato, Producer)

Fighting Forward (Rivkah Beth Medow, Director, Jen Rainin, Director, Juli Vizza, Editor)

Handmade Death: An Intimate Rendezvous With Mortality (Jan Stürmann, Director, Gina Leibrecht, Editor)

I Do: Finding Love Behind Bars (Rahsaan Thomas, Director, Writer, Producer, Brian Gonsoulin, Producer, Editor)

In the Red: Changing Lives to Save Lives (Mimi Chakarova, Director, Aisha Knowles, Producer, Julias Canada, Producer)

Instrumental: The Elayne Jones Project (Grace Wang, Director, Producer, Jameka Autry, Producer, Julie Wyman, Co-Director/ Co-Producer)

Living Harriet Tubman (Matty Lynn Barnes, Producer, Brandon Tauszik, Co-Director, Theo Schear, Co-Director)

Make A Circle (Jen Bradwell, Co-Director, Todd Boekelheide, Co-Director, Rebekah Fergusson, Producer)

Power & Light (Kelly Duane de la Vega, Director, Jessica Anthony, Producer, Joey Horan, Associate Producer)

Rebel Without a Pause (Maya Cueva, Director)

Relative Strangers (Deann Borshay Liem, Director and Producer)

Rematriate the Land (Christopher "Toby" McLeod, Director)

Revolución Sin Muertos / Revolution Without Death (Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Producer, Director, Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Producer)

The Chaplain & the Doctor (Jessica Zitter, Director and Producer)

The Coral Rescuers (Jason Spingarn-Koff, Director, Joanna Rudnick, Producer, Bonni Cohen, Executive Producer)

The End of Isolation (Sarah Shourd, Co-Director, Bobby Field, Co-Director, Suotonye Emile DeWeaver, Producer)

The Tallest Dwarf (Julie Forrest Wyman, Director and Producer)

The United States of Urvashi (Nancy Kates, Director and Producer)

Untitled Alexandra Billings Project (Nico Opper, Director and Producer, Jude Hope Harris, Producer)

Untitled Education Documentary (Zachary Stauffer, Co-Director, Producer, Joanna Rudnick Co-Director, Producer, Jameka Autry, Producer)

Student Projects:

The Glacier Wedding (Thomas Sawano, Co-Director, Amin Muhammad, Co-Director - UC Berkeley)

The Unclaimed (Xingyu Wu, Director, Editor, Kelly Liu, Associate Director, Cinematographer - UC Berkeley)

Strangers on Our Land (Zane Karram, Producer, Co-Director, Kelsey Oliver, Producer, Co-Director – UC Berkeley)

City of Smoke (Producer and Director: Nadia Akbar, Co-Director, Co-Producer, Alicia Chiang, Co-Director, Co-Producer - UC Berkeley)

Allensworth Rising: A Fight For Water (Isabella Marzban, Co-Director, Neenma Ebeledike, Co-Director – UC Berkeley)