16 Science-Focused Nonfiction Projects Selected for Funding
The non-profit Sundance Institute and Sandbox Films announced today the names of the 16 projects and 47 filmmakers receiving support through the Sundance Institute | Sandbox Fund. The fund 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. The fund was created in 2017 and has grown significantly since then, redefining the genre of science documentaries through financial and creative support for a global nonfiction artist community.
Themes that have emerged within this year’s granting cohort include: 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.
Supported projects have roots in 11 countries: Denmark, Guatemala, Iceland, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, North Macedonia, Portugal, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States, with 75% of projects 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.
“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,” said Paola Mottura, Director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Fund. “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.”
“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” said Jessica Harrop, Executive Director of Sandbox Films.
Recent projects supported with funding from the Sundance Institute | Sandbox Fund include: A Life Illuminated (premiered at TIFF 2025); The Lake (which premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change); Daughters of the Forest (premiering at CPH:Dox and SXSW 2026); Conscious (premiering at CPH:Dox 2026); Oscar-nominated Fire of Love (which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award: U.S. Documentary); All Light, Everywhere (which won the 2021 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Nonfiction Experimentation); Fathom (which premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired by Apple); and Users (which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival).
The latest Sundance Institute | Sandbox Fund grantees, presented 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 (U.K.)
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 (U.S.A.)
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, U.K.)
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 (U.S.A.)
Director & Producer: Emma D. Miller
Producers: Colby Day, Florrie Priest
When a retired theater 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 (U.S.A.)
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 (U.S.A., 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 (U.S.A.)
Director: Robert Greene
Producers: Susan Bedusa, Bennett Elliott, Douglas Tirola
In a dreamlike 1950s 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 (U.K., 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, U.K., 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 (U.S.A.)
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 (U.S.A.)
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 (U.S.A)
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 (U.S.A.)
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.
Sundance Institute
As a champion and curator of independent stories, the nonprofit Sundance Institute provides and preserves the space for artists across storytelling media to create and thrive. Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, the Institute’s signature labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. Sundance Collab, a digital community platform, brings a global cohort of working artists together to learn from Sundance Institute advisors and connect with each other in a creative space, developing and sharing works in progress. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences and artists to ignite new ideas, discover original voices, and build a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Through the Sundance Institute artist programs, we have supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Big Sick, Bottle Rocket, Boys Don’t Cry, Boys State, Call Me by Your Name, Clemency, CODA, Dìdi (弟弟), Drunktown’s Finest, The Farewell, Fire of Love, Flee, Fruitvale Station, Half Nelson, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hereditary, The Infiltrators, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Little Woods, Love & Basketball, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Mudbound, Nanny, One Child Nation, Pariah, Raising Victor Vargas, RBG, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, Sin Nombre, Sorry to Bother You, Strong Island, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Swiss Army Man, A Thousand and One, Top of the Lake, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, and Zola. Through year-round artist programs, the Institute also nurtured the early careers of such artists as Paul Thomas Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Nia DaCosta, Ryan Coogler, The Daniels, Robert Eggers, Rick Famuyiwa, David Gordon Green, Sterlin Harjo, Marielle Heller, Miranda July, Nikyatu Jusu, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Boots Riley, A.V. Rockwell, Ira Sachs, Walter Salles, Quentin Tarantino, Erica Tremblay, Taika Waititi, Lulu Wang, and Chloé Zhao. Support Sundance Institute in our commitment to uplifting bold artists and powerful storytelling globally by making a donation at sundance.org/donate. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X ,and Bluesky.
Sandbox Films
Sandbox Films is an award-winning documentary studio that illuminates the art and beauty of scientific inquiry. Sandbox Films provides creative and financial support for artist-driven documentary projects that explore the world (and beyond) with curiosity, creativity and humanity. As a mission-focused, artist-first nonprofit, Sandbox Films is redefining the documentary genre.
Founded in 2020, Sandbox Films’ slate of critically acclaimed films includes Oscar-nominated Fire Of Love; Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize winners All Light, Everywhere and Nocturnes; Werner Herzog’s Fireball, Penny Lane’s Confessions Of A Good Samaritan and Emmy-winning Fathom; André Is An Idiot, winner of the 2025 US Documentary Audience Award and Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award at Sundance Film Festival and most recently The Lake, winner of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change. Sandbox Films’ documentaries have found extensive audiences via top streaming and distribution partners including Apple TV+, Hulu, National Geographic Documentary Films, NEON and Netflix, and in movie theaters internationally. Based in New York City, Sandbox collaborates with visionary filmmakers, scientists and production partners globally to celebrate a culture of questioning that invites nuance and imagination.
For more information visit: www.sandboxfilms.org
