Cate Blanchett and the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund have announced the five recipients of the Displacement Film Fund, a new short film grant scheme first unveiled during the 2025 edition of the festival earlier this year.
Spearheaded by actor and producer Blanchett, who is also a Global Goodwill Ambassador for UN refugee agency UNHCR, together with IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund, the initiative aims to champion and fund the work of displaced filmmakers, or filmmakers with a proven track record in creating authentic storytelling about the experiences of displaced people.
In this pilot version of the Fund – which is backed by a coalition of leading film industry experts, creators, business leaders and philanthropists – each of the nominated filmmakers will be bestowed with a production grant of €100,000. The completed projects will have their World Premieres at IFFR 2026.
The five recipient filmmakers and their projects are Silk Road by Maryna Er Gorbach (Ukraine), Whispers of a Burning Scent by Mo Harawe (Somalia, Austria), Allies in Exile by Hasan Kattan (Syria), an untitled project by Mohamad Rasoulof (Iran), and Female Fitness of Kabul by Shahrbanoo Sadat (Afghanistan).
“Displacement may disrupt careers, but for artists it doesn’t diminish the drive to tell urgent, human stories. In a time of growing division, film offers a powerful counterforce to remind us of our shared humanity. I can’t wait to see what these exceptional filmmakers bring to life – whether addressing displacement directly, or exploring the universal threads that unite us,” said Blanchett.
Er Gorbach, who won the directing award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival for her film Klondike.
Silk Road is billed as Ukraine–Europe road movie about a young Ukrainian woman whose family has been torn apart by war: while her children live in Europe, she and her husband remain in Kyiv, working in a children’s hospital as the war goes on.
Harawe was in Cannes last year with The Village Next to Paradise, which was selected for the Un Certain Regard section.
Whispers of a Burning Scentis set against on the day of a pivotal court hearing, as a quiet man faces the unraveling of his marriage and the judgment of his stepchildren, while searching for solace in what once gave his life meaning.
Kattan is bestknown as theco-director of Last Men in Aleppo, which was shortlisted for the Academy Awards and secured the prestigious Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
His short, Allies in Exile, revolves around two Syrian filmmakers, bound by a 14-year friendship forged in war, who document their shared exile in the UK asylum system – until one is granted refuge and the other returns to a changed Syria, reflecting the impossible choices refugees face today.
Rasoulof hit the headlines ahead of the Cannes Film Festival last year after he was fled Iran for Germany, after being sentenced by the Islamic Republic to flogging ad eight years in prison, following the selection of his film The Seed of the Sacred Fig in the main competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
His untitled short, is set in the wake of the death of an exiled writer, as his family tries to fulfil his wish to be buried according to his will, which leads to unexpected complications.
Sadat, who fled her home city of Kabul in 2021 after the Taliban took control, first broke through her debut film Wolf and Sheep won the top award in the 2016 Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes.
Female Fitness of Kabul is set inside a crumbling Kabul gym, which opens to women for only a few hours each day, Afghan housewives in scarves and long dresses reclaim not just their bodies, but also their spirits, their bonds, and their sense of self.
Blanchett will join Er Gorbach and Harawe, and Rajendra Roy, Chief Curator of Film at the The Museum of Modern Art (NY), in a panel event at the Cannes Film Festival, hosted by IFFR Managing Director to Clare Stewart to address the evolution and purpose of the fund, the recipient filmmakers and their projects, and wider industry actions in support of displaced filmmakers.
Rajendra Roy is also Co-Chair of the International Film Award Executive Committee, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which recently announced that Academy Award® eligibility for the Best International Feature Film Award has been expanded to include filmmakers with refugee or asylum status.
“The Displacement Film Fund responds to the urgency of a growing global crisis, and is underpinned by a belief that film continues to be a force for positive change,” said Clare Stewart, and Tamara Tatishvili, Head of the Hubert Bals Fund. “The HBF is committed to supporting funding that creates an impact, and the Displacement Film Fund aligns perfectly with the HBF’s mission and legacy. We are honoured to be entrusted with the management of this fund, and to work with these exceptional filmmakers to support the realisation of their projects.”
Commenting on the Cannes Film Festival’s hosting of the panel event, Delegate General Thierry Frémaux said: “The Cannes Film Festival is proud and honoured to host the Displacement Film Fund panel, giving voice to artists whose journeys have been marked by exile and displacement. By embracing their perspectives, the Festival reaffirms — more than ever — its role as a refuge: a home for those who see cinema as a free and universal act, one that transmits, resists, and bears witness to the world around us.”
For the Displacement Film Fund’s selection process, a longlist of filmmakers was determined by the Nominations Committee, which included founding members Cate Blanchett, Isaac Kwaku Fokuo, Echo Quan, Ke Huy Quan, Ayman Tamer, and Koji Yanai, together with Droom en Daad’s Wim Pijbes, IFFR’s Clare Stewart and HBF’s Tamara Tatishvili.
The Selection Committee, who then determined the final recipients, was chaired by Cate Blanchett and included journalist and documentarian Waad Al Kateab (We Dare to Dream, For Sama), actor, producer and musician Cynthia Erivo (Wicked, Drift), director and screenwriter Agnieszka Holland (Green Border), IFFR Festival Director Vanja Kaludjercic, educator, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram, filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen (Flee), and Amin Nawabi [alias], an LGBTQ+ asylum seeker who is Jonas’ inspiration for the story of Flee.
The Founding Partners of the Displacement Film Fund’s pilot scheme are Master Mind, Uniqlo, Droom en Daad, the Tamer Family Foundation and Amahoro Coalition whose generous contributions enabled the scheme. The HBF is the Management Partner and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is supporting the project as Strategic Partner.
