Cate Blanchett, throughout a panel occasion on the Cannes Film Festival on Monday, unveiled the 5 recipients and their tasks of the second cycle of the Displacement Film Fund (DFF) brief movie grant scheme, together with Bao Nguyen, Mohammed “Mo” Amer and Palestine 36 director Annemarie Jacir.
Rithy Panh and Akuol de Mabior spherical out the second-round checklist of recipients. Blanchett, star, producer and world Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Company, launched the scheme with International Movie Competition Rotterdam’s (IFFR) Hubert Bals Fund.
The DFF, additionally backed by a coalition of movie business consultants, creators, enterprise leaders and philanthropists, was established in 2025 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.”
Every of the chosen filmmakers will obtain a manufacturing grant of €100,000 ($116,350), with their accomplished tasks getting their world premieres at IFFR 2027, working Jan. 28-Feb. 7.
For the 2025 first version of the DFF, Mohammad Rasoulof, Maryna Er Gorbach, Mo Harawe, Hasan Kattan, and Shahrbanoo Sadat had been the recipients of the manufacturing grants. Their movies Sense of Water, Rotation, Whispers of a Burning Scent, Allies in Exile, and Tremendous Afghan Health club had their world premieres at IFFR 2026.
Throughout the Cannes occasion, the place Japan is the Marché du Movie’s 2026 Nation of Honor, the DFF additionally unveiled that its inaugural assortment of movies will display at Tokyo Worldwide Movie Competition in October. Moreover, a theatrical screening has been confirmed at New York’s Movie Discussion board within the fall, which can qualify the 5 movies for Academy Award consideration.
Stated Blanchett, DFF co-founder and chief: “The short form is a fantastic medium for these narratives, and the way audiences are connecting with the first five films is extraordinary. I’m heartened by the success of our first cohort and thrilled to be revealing the next group of artists to be supported.”
Added Clare Stewart, managing director of IFFR, and Tamara Tatishvili, head of the Hubert Bals Fund: “It is a privilege to return to Cannes with the Displacement Film Fund, following the remarkable journey we’ve embarked on with the first cohort and the success of their premiere screenings at IFFR 2026. The recipients of our second cycle once again reflect an extraordinary breadth of filmmaking talent – with each navigating their own personal experiences of displacement, and we are proud to help bring their vital stories into the spotlight. At a time of ongoing global uncertainty, our commitment to maintaining this fund only deepens, alongside our belief in championing film as a powerful force for encouraging empathy and positive change.”
Try extra particulars on the 5 grant recipients of the second cycle of the DFF and their tasks:
Mohammed “Mo” Amer
The award-winning Palestinian-American comic/author/director is the star of Netflix’s MO, a semi-autobiographical collection.
Mission: Return to Sender (working title) (Palestine/U.S.)
“After receiving his refugee travel document, a Palestinian stand-up comedian embarks on the world tour of his dreams, but each new country presents increasingly absurd immigration hurdles that test his emotional and mental resolve.”
Annemarie Jacir
The Palestinian director, author and producer has seen all 4 of her function movies being chosen as Palestine’s Oscar submissions.
Mission: Deconstruction (working title) (Palestine)
“Set in Haifa – a city built on layers of presence and absence, memory and reinvention – the short film Deconstruction follows a man navigating the in-between as the past is uncovered, rearranged, sold, and made new.”
Akuol de Mabior
The South Sudanese filmmaker grew up in Kenya and was born in Cuba. No Easy Manner Residence (2022), her feature-directorial debut, was the primary South Sudanese movie to display on the Berlin Worldwide Movie Competition.
Mission: Traces of a Damaged Line (working title) (South Africa/South Sudan)
“War breaks a lineage, forcing a mother to preserve what she can no longer pass down.”
Bao Nguyen
The Vietnamese-American filmmaker and founding associate of East Movies, is understood for his directorial work, together with The Stringer, Be Water, The Best Night time in Pop and BTS: The Return.
Mission: The best way to Experience a Bike (working title) (U.S./Vietnam)
“A Vietnamese refugee father who never learned to ride a bike tries to teach his young son, and when he fails, begins learning in secret, confronting a lifelong shame he has carried since boyhood.”
Rithy Panh
The acclaimed Cambodian director, author, and producer has explored reminiscence, trauma and the legacy of the Khmer Rouge regime in his movies, together with The Rice Folks, The Lacking Image, Graves And not using a Title, and All the pieces Will Be OK. The Lacking Image gained the Un Sure Regard prize at Cannes and obtained an Academy Award nomination.
Mission: Time… Converse (working title) (France/Germany)
“An exiled filmmaker returns to the broken fragments of his memory – shattered figurines, archives, and silences – to reconstruct through cinema a form of life in which the disappeared continue to speak.”
