The Building Bridges Completion Fund reaffirms a commitment to showcasing
and creating opportunities for U.S. Muslim narratives
NEW YORK, NY – (March 5, 2025) – The Doris Duke Foundation today announced the activation of its Building Bridges Completion Fund. Launched in 2024 through a partnership between the Sundance Institute and the Doris Duke Foundation, this three-year initiative supports filmmakers premiering their projects at the Sundance Film Festival. It offers grants of up to $25,000 to U.S.-based directors, writers, and producers whose feature films, short films, or episodic projects amplify the universality and distinctiveness of U.S. Muslim narratives.
The Building Bridges Completion Fund offers crucial project finishing funds to support post-production, marketing, public relations, or attendance costs associated with premiering at the Sundance Film Festival each January for the next two years. Funding may also cover attendance costs for filmmakers premiering at the festival.
“New voices drive culture forward. The artists this program supports are the vanguard of the new perspectives our society desperately needs,” said Sam Gill, President and CEO of the Doris Duke Foundation.
The Building Bridges Fellowship and Completion Fund is a part of Sundance Institute’s Artist Accelerator Program, which works with artists and industry to create a more transparent, equitable, and sustainable independent film and television ecosystem.
The 2025 fellows and their selected projects are:
● Alireza Khatami, Writer, Director, Editor, Producer, The Things You Kill: Alireza Khatami, is an award-winning U.S.-Irani filmmaker known for his poignant stories blending fantasy and realism. His latest work, Things That You Kill, premiered in competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and received the Directing Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category. Earlier films, including Oblivion Verses and Terrestrial Verses, have premiered at Venice and Cannes.
● Amber Fares, Director/Producer, Coexistence My Ass! : The award-winning documentary filmmaker premiered her latest work in competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and received the Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression in the World Cinema Documentary category. A Jerome Foundation grantee, she came to the attention of the world with her directing debut Speed Sisters and We are Ayenda. She also directed Reckoning with Laughter, and was the co-director of Netflix’s Convergence: Courage Under Crisis.
● Humza Syed, Co-Producer, Debaters: The short film produced by Syed features Academy Award winner Kenneth Lonergan and Emmy-nominated actor J. Smith-Cameron. Humza is a producer with Full Spectrum Features (FSF), where he has produced films that have screened at festivals such as Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca, and Berlinale. He specializes in financing, budget strategy, tax credits, etc. He also supports Full Spectrum Features in international co-production and impact distribution.
● LaTajh Simmons-Weaver, Co-Producer, Co-Director, Co-Editor, Hold Me Close: The short film directed and produced by Oakland, California-based Simmons, explores life through the lens of two queer Black womxn. Their work is dedicated to telling the overlooked stories of Black and Queer intersectionality and exploring ways these communities learn to cope with everyday injustices. They are also a 2025 Rainin Foundation grantee for their screenplay, No One Turned Away For Lack Of Funds: A Queer-Inclusive Memoir.
“It is an honor to offer the needed support so that the films are premiere-ready and can scale new heights,” said Zeyba Rahman, Director of the Doris Duke Building Bridges program. “As the stories reverberate across communities they will create greater understanding. Through this support, we pave the way for a distinct space within the film and television ecology that is rich with universally resonant and meaningful stories.”
“At Sundance Institute we believe in the power of authentic storytelling to transform culture and foster understanding. Through the Building Bridges Completion Fund, we are thrilled to support these talented filmmakers in bringing their films to audiences at the Sundance Film Festival and beyond. This partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation not only provides vital resources at a critical stage in the creative process but also strengthens our commitment to a more inclusive and representative independent film landscape.” said Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs, Director of the Artist Accelerator and Women at Sundance Programs
For more information about the Building Brides Completion Fund visit: https://www.dorisduke.org/news–insights/articles/six-artists-announced-as-inaugural-cohort-of-building-bridges-fellowship/
About Doris Duke Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Foundation is to build a more creative, equitable, and sustainable future by investing in artists and the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research, child well-being, and greater mutual understanding among diverse communities. Visit www.dorisduke.org to learn more.
About 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 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, Drunktown’s Finest, The Farewell, Fire of Love, Flee, The Forty-Year-Old Version, Fruitvale Station, Half Nelson, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hereditary, Honeyland, 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, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, RBG, 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, Walking and Talking, 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, Wes Anderson, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Lisa Cholodenko, Ryan Coogler, Nia DaCosta, The Daniels, David Gordon Green, Miranda July, James Mangold, John Cameron Mitchell, Kimberly Peirce, Boots Riley, Ira Sachs, Quentin Tarantino, 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, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube.
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