Chicken & Egg Pictures has confirmed the 2019 recipients of the Chicken & Egg Award (formerly the Breakthrough Filmmaker Award) and the selected titles for the (Egg)celerator Lab (formerly the Accelerator Lab). Five seasoned women documentarians will be presented with the former, which includes $50,000 and a mentorship program, while 10 women-made docs have been chosen for the latter. The Lab’s filmmakers will receive $35,000 and mentorship.
“Our programs support talented women filmmakers at critical junctures of their careers,” said Jenni Wolfson, Executive Director of Chicken & Egg. “All too often an important film falls through the cracks because the filmmaker did not have the support needed to succeed in this tough industry.” She explained, “What makes Chicken & Egg programs so helpful to women in the industry is our strategic combination of financial support, creative mentorship, career development, and, most importantly, being introduced to a community of fellow industry professionals who make up a support system that will last beyond their program participation.”
The Chicken & Egg awardees are Peabody-winner Julia Bacha (“Naila and the Uprising”), Indie Spirit nominee Alexandria Bombach (“On Her Shoulders”), Emmy-nominated helmer of “Wo Ai Ni Mommy” Stephanie Wang-Breal, and Emmy winners Lana Wilson (“After Tiller”) and Malika Zouhali-Worrall (“Call Me Kuchu”). Eighty percent of the recipients are women of color.
Women of color represent 90 percent of the (Egg)celerator Lab’s filmmakers. The projects include Betzabé García’s “#Mickey,” about a young trans woman finding support and community online; Milisuthando Bongela’s post-apartheid coming-of-age story, “Milisuthando”; and “Sara: A Fearless Dream,” from Sara Khaki and Mohammad Reza Eyni, centering on the first woman to take a council seat in her native Iranian village.
Launched in 2005, Chicken & Egg Pictures is dedicated to elevating women nonfiction filmmakers. The organization has supported hundreds of filmmakers and offered millions of dollars in grants.
Bios for the Chicken & Egg awardees and loglines/credits for the (Egg)celerator Lab projects are below, courtesy of Chicken & Egg Pictures.
2019 CHICKEN & EGG AWARD
Julia Bacha is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, Guggenheim fellow, and Creative Director at Just Vision. Her directing credits include Budrus (2009), My Neighbourhood (2012), and Naila and the Uprising (2017). Her work has played at the Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals, as well as Palestinian refugee camps and the United States Congress. Julia is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, and a TED speaker.
Alexandria Bombach is an award-winning director, cinematographer, and editor from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her feature-length documentary, On Her Shoulders (2018), won Best Directing in the US Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, is nominated for two Spirit Awards, and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Her first feature-length documentary, Frame by Frame (2015) premiered at SXSW and went on to win over 25 festival awards. Alexandria is the founder of the Santa Fe Editing & Writing Residency and a 2019 Sundance Institute Momentum Fellow.
Stephanie Wang-Breal A first-generation Chinese American from Youngstown, Ohio, Stephanie Wang-Breal uses film as a tool to subvert the narrative. She’s directed five feature length films: the award-winning Wo Ai Ni Mommy (2010), Tough Love (2014), and Blowin’ Up (2018); and directed commercials and short form content with talents and brands such as Tan Dun, Planned Parenthood, Minwax, ESPN, Tiffany & Co., Goldman Sachs, Verifone, and Apple. Stephanie’s independent work has been supported and recognized by the Sundance Institute, the Ford Foundation, and featured in the Tribeca Film Festival.
Lana Wilson is an Emmy® Award-winning and two-time Spirit Award-nominated director. Her most recent film, The Departure (2017), premiered at Tribeca, had a critically acclaimed theatrical release, and was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. Her previous film, After Tiller (2013), premiered at Sundance and went on to win an Emmy® Award for Best Documentary. It was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, four Cinema Eye Honors, and the Ridenhour Prize.
Malika Zouhali-Worrall is an Emmy® Award-winning director and editor. Her directing credits include Call Me Kuchu, which premiered at the 2012 Berlinale and went on to win more than 20 festival awards, and Thank You For Playing (2015), which received an Emmy® for Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary. Malika’s work has been supported by Sundance, Tribeca, Firelight Media, and the United Nations. She is a San Francisco Film/Catapult Documentary Fellow and a Chaz and Roger Ebert Directing Fellow.
2019 (EGG)CELERATOR LAB
Milisuthando (Working Title) Director: Milisuthando Bongela (SOUTH AFRICA) In this coming-of-age story, Milisuthando—a black South African unaware of apartheid until it ended—explores how blacks and whites first lived together after 342 years of racial segregation.
An Act of Worship Director: Nausheen Dadabhoy (US/PAKISTAN) An Act of Worship follows a new generation of Muslim-American women activists who have been galvanized into action while anti-Muslim sentiments are on the rise.
#Mickey Director: Betzabé García (MEXICO) Born in Sinaloa, Mickey found in internet a platform where she can explore her transgender identity and deal with her homophobic environment.
Paths of Fire and Water Director: Viviana Gómez Echeverry (COLOMBIA) Camilo is a young black man adopted by an indigenous family, who is now looking for his biological mother to understand who he really is.
We Are Inside Director: Farah Kassem (LEBANON) Returning to Mustapha’s house in radicalised Tripoli, Farah decides to join her father’s all-male poetry club—a living memorial of past times.
Sara: A Fearless Dream Directors: Sara Khaki, Mohammad Reza Eyni (IRAN/US) Sara takes the first council seat as the first female in her native male-dominated Iranian village. Sara: A Fearless Dream captures her as she takes a dangerous road to success.
Untitled PRC Project Director: Jessica Kingdon (US) Untitled PRC Project is a kaleidoscopic journey through China’s industrial supply chain, revealing paradoxes born from prosperity of the world’s emergent superpower.
Mama Bears Director: Daresha Kyi (US) Mama Bears explores the many ways in which the lives of conservative, Christian mothers are utterly transformed when they decide to accept their LGBTQ children.
Silent Beauty Director: Jasmin López (MEXICO/US) Silent Beauty is an autobiographical exploration of one woman’s family history with child sexual abuse and a culture of silence.
Pray Away Director: Kristine Stolakis (US) Pray Away tells the story of the history and continuation of the “pray the gay away” or ex-gay movement.
