Netflix on Tuesday unveiled five filmmaking teams who will receive funding and professional support to make short documentaries on the theme of “Connection” in the second year of the global streamer’s U.K. Documentary Talent Fund.
The winners were selected from thousands of applications, with a shortlist of 12 teams invited to Netflix’s U.K. headquarters to pitch their projects in front of a panel of industry experts.
The five projects and filmmaking teams selected are:
Anna Snowball & Abolfazl Talooni – Iranian Yellow Pages.
Iranians in London, trapped between two cultures, search for connection by placing weird and wonderful adverts in the Iranian Yellow Pages.
Anna Rodgers & Zlata Filipovic – Two Mothers.
An unusual bond compels an Irish mother of twins to travel to war-torn Ukraine in order to rescue the woman who carried her babies.
Caroline Williamson & Troi Lee – Turn up the Bass.
This is the remarkable story of Troi Lee (aka “DJ Chinaman”), a deaf DJ and pioneer of the U.K.’s deaf rave scene, as he puts on his 20-year anniversary show.
Logan Rea & Krishna Istha – First Trimester.
The film follows a transgender performance artist as he interviews hundreds of potential sperm donors live on stage in a quest to find the perfect connection, one that will enable him and his partner to start their family.
Olivia Smart – Black People Can’t Swim.
Drowning isn’t an option as three people tackle their biggest fear.
“Each team will now be empowered to produce a short documentary between 8-12 minutes long with a budget of £30,000 ($x,000) that will be released on Netflix’s YouTube channel in the new year,” the company said. “As part of the process they will now undergo boot camp training from specialists at Netflix who will coach and host workshops covering all aspects of production including legal, creative, HR, production and finance.”
The Netflix Documentary Talent Fund was created to “break down barriers of access for emerging filmmakers,” providing a foundation of knowledge and hands-on training to filmmakers from across the U.K. and Ireland.
“The recipients of the inaugural year of the fund saw great success with their films,” Netflix said. “Love Languages, a film by Jason Osborne and Precious Mahaga, was longlisted for best British short film by BAFTA this year. … Year 1 recipient Tobi Kyeremateng, who made her directorial debut with her film ÓWÀMBÈ, went on to win the 2023 BAFTA TV Award for short-form program for her next project How to Be a Person. Fellow fund alumni Beya Kabelu and Shiva Raichandani were also nominated in the same category, for their follow-up work. The 10 films from Year 1 have now seen over 40 festival screenings, including (at) Urbanworld Film Festival, Iris Prize, London Short Film Festival and Aesthetica.”
Said Kate Townsend, Netflix’s London-based vp, original feature documentaries: “Last year’s fund was a huge success with filmmakers really making the most of the opportunity and springboarding to other projects and even BAFTA nominations. We are thrilled today to announce our second-year cohort who we are sure will also go on to supercharge their careers.”
The five films selected for support offer different takes on the theme of connection. “From an amazing story about two mothers with a unique bond in Ireland, to uniting communities as part of the deaf rave scene in Hackney, we are very much looking forward to kicking off production on these documentaries and seeing what these filmmakers can achieve,” said Townsend. “The sky’s the limit!”
Townsend led the judging panel to select this year’s recipients. It also included Julia Nottingham, founder and CEO of Dorothy Street Pictures; Orlando Von Einsiedel, the founder of Grain Media and Oscar- and BIFA-winning director of Virunga, The White Helmets and Evelyn; Tamana Ayazi, director of In Her Hands); Jenny Popplewell, director of American Murder: The Family Next Door; Alex Brunati, Blue Cuckoo co-founder and line producer; Tanisha Artman, CEO of SBTV; Jonny Taylor, director original documentary film commissioning at Netflix in London; as well as Netflix U.K. marketing executives Aaron Lynch and Bri Akakpo.
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