2026 BTTL ACTION GRANT - FINALISTS
THE FOLLOWING feature PROJECTS ARE SEEKING FINANCE to COMPLETE PRODUCTION IN the next year, YOU MAY EITHER INVEST OR MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION VIA BTTL AS A 501(C)3 ORGANIZATION
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BUDGET AND SCRIPT AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
SHANNON SUN-HIGGINSON| Producer (she/her)
Shannon Sun-Higginson is an Emmy-nominated documentary producer and director whose work spans feature films, episodic television, and investigative nonfiction. Her films and series have premiered at SXSW and Sundance and have aired on HBO Max, Hulu, PBS, Discovery, Travel Channel, and CNN. She began her career in nonfiction television, contributing to No Reservations and Parts Unknown, before directing her first feature, GTFO, which was funded on Kickstarter and premiered at SXSW. GTFO has been recognized for its nuanced exploration of gender and gaming culture.
She later executive produced The Witmans, a long-term investigative feature, and produced the critically acclaimed series Philly DA. In 2021 she was selected for the Sundance Producers Intensive. Shannon is the co-founder of Shoes Off Media, an Asian women–led production company, and continues to create work that centers power, voice, and social justice.
★ 2026 ACTION GRANT WINNER
I BROUGHT YOU INTO THIS WORLD
DOCUMENTARY, Health, Racial Justice | USA
‘I Brought You Into This World’ follows three Black birthing people: two women and one gender nonconforming parent, navigating pregnancy, love, and survival in post-Roe America. Centering joy, agency, and the fight for bodily autonomy over statistics, it’s a portrait of resilience.
PRODUCER:
Shannon Sun-Higginson
DIRECTOR:
Brittany Ferrell
BRITTANY FERRELL | Director (she/her)
Brittany Ferrell is a Black queer mother, registered nurse, trained birth worker, public health scholar, and activist. She began organizing after the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a journey documented in the 2017 Sundance film Whose Streets?, where she appears as a main protagonist. Her commitment to the health, wellness, and dignity of Black people grounds her current work in maternal–infant health and
reproductive justice. Since beginning her filmmaking journey in 2019, Brittany has completed multiple labs and
fellowships that have strengthened her storytelling practice, including FilmShop, Firelight Media’s Groundwork Regional Lab, the Sundance x WIF Intensive, Firelight’s Martha’s Vineyard Filmmaker Residency, and the Brown Girls Doc Mafia Black Directors Fellowship, where she was mentored by Yance Ford.
Her experience as both a nurse and a subject in Whose Streets? revealed filmmaking as a form of communication and a vehicle for nuanced truth-telling. Inspired by her years in labor and delivery and her advocacy in the St. Louis community, Brittany stepped away from her nursing career in 2019 to direct her first documentary, I Brought You Into This World.
JADE RISSER | Producer (she/her)
Jade Risser is a Los Angeles and London based producer with over a decade of experience spanning independent cinema, new media, music industry and commercial production. Recognition for her narrative short work including,Try For You, premiered at the 48 Hour Film Project, was selected for screening at the Directors Guild of America and was named a Vimeo Staff Pick. Lullaby premiered at LA Shorts Fest, while Lonely Mary premiered at the Santa Monica Film Festival and received the Outstanding Achievement Award at Indie Shorts Fest for Romantic Comedy. Now focused on independent film, Jade brings a unique blend of creative intuition and production expertise to her work. She is committed to producing ambitious stories like Camino that blend cinematic artistry with commercial strategy and resonate with audiences worldwide.
SOFIA KUNZ| Producer (she/her)
Sofia Kunz is an Argentine filmmaker. Inspired by her diverse upbringing in Argentina & California. Her shorts, “Kaleidoscope” premiered at Cannes Court Métrage while “Undecided” premiered at Ischia Film Festival and Catalina Film Festival. She is passion about Latinx representation in film and the overlooked conversations that are oftentimes the sweetest, most human moments in life.
CAMINO
Queer Western, Romance | SPAIN
On a fading Spanish ranch, a mosaic artist and a non-binary cowboy fall into an all-consuming and law breaking queer romance.
PRODUCERS:
Jade Risser, Sofia Kunz & Theodora Dunlap
WRITER / DIRECTOR:
Annabella Fazio Mineghino
ANNABELLA FAZIO | Writer, Director (she/her)
Annabella Fazio is an emerging writer and director. As an avid traveler who has lived on multiple continents, Annabella is focused on elevating the modern experience of women and AFAB people all over the world and dreams of starting a documentary production company. She has co-written and starred in “Kaleidoscope” premiering at Cannes Court Metrage 2021. Other films she’s worked on have premiered at Oscar Qualifying festivals such as Hollyshorts and Catalina Film Festival.
ALESSANDRA PASQUINO | Producer (she/her)
Alessandra is a Los Angeles–based Emmy Award–winning producer and director and cofounder of GroundStorm Media, an independent production company dedicated to human-interest storytelling and the democratization of art and culture through film and digital projects. Her work bridges ethnographic filmmaking, music documentaries, and experimental shorts, blending artistic experimentation with social engagement.
In 2025, Alessandra received a Los Angeles Emmy Award for The Cheech, a PBS Artbound documentary on Cheech Marin’s groundbreaking Chicano art collection. She also produced the feature documentary on singer-songwriter Janis Ian, which premiered at DOC NYC (2024), had a theatrical run, and aired on PBS’s American Masters. Distributed by Greenwich Entertainment, it now streams on Apple TV, Hulu, and Amazon. Additional producing credits include Bad Reputation (Sundance, on Joan Jett) and international segments for the IMAX documentary Superpower Dogs. Her earlier work includes Bitter Honey, an ethnographic feature on polygamy in Bali, and a series of short films on trauma and mental illness in Java developed with a UCLA anthropologist. She also served as media producer on Gregory Colbert’s Nomadic Museum of Ashes and Snow, which toured globally to over ten million visitors.
Alessandra began her documentary career in post-production with Oliver Stone on his HBO trilogy about Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat (Comandante, Looking for Fidel, Persona Non Grata), shaping her belief in the political and cultural power of nonfiction storytelling. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from London, where her work was featured in the New Contemporaries Show at the ICA. Her independent directing includes Thirst (International Ethnographic Film Festival; Best Cinematography, Nevada City) and The Apron and The Robe, a rapid experimental study of minority integration in Los Angeles.
EXODUS STORIES
Documentary, Immigration | USA
Three Central American immigrants fleeing violence join the migrant caravans to the United States. Facing relentless obstacles and a broken asylum system, their journeys expose the human cost of migration—and the resilience, faith, and fight for second chances against all odds.
PRODUCER: Alessandra Pasquino
DIRECTOR: Ilse Fernandez
ILSE FERNANDEZ | Director (she/her)
Ilse Fernandez is a Colombian-born U.S. immigrant, documentary filmmaker, and docuseries showrunner with over 25 years of experience. Her work focuses on urgent social issues including immigration, addiction, and women’s rights, as well as arts, culture, and music. She has produced and directed over 200 hours of docuseries and long-form documentaries for ABC, NBC, Vice, MTV, Netflix, Discovery, A&E, National Geographic, and The History Channel. Ilse began addressing pressing social issues as a director and story producer on five seasons of A&E’s “Intervention”, including the 2009 Emmy Award–winning season. Her “Rachel” episode was nominated for both an Emmy and a Producers Guild Award. As showrunner on Viceland’s groundbreaking series “Cyberwar”, she explored global digital conflicts, from NSA whistleblowers to Anonymous hackers. On Spotify’s “Music Happens Here” series, she served as both director and showrunner, finding innovative ways to bring music genres to life-from Pink Floyd to A$AP Mob. The series won three Clio Awards.
In 2018, she founded Viva Vida Productions, dedicated exclusively to creating documentary films, series, podcasts, and non-fiction branded content. Her first feature film “Exodus Stories,” intimately follows three Central American immigrants on their perilous caravan journey to the U.S., just as the promise of asylum-the beacon of hope they risk everything for--is unraveling. The film was awarded the prestigious 2024 Latino Film Institute/Amazon MGM Studios Works in Progress grant, the 2023 PBS/Firelight William Greaves Production Fund, the 2024-25 Firelight Impact Campaign Fund, the 2021 IDA Logan Elevate Grant, the 2019 SFFilm/Catapult Documentary Fellowship grant, and received both the 2019 LPB Current Issues Fund and 2020 LPB Public Media Content Fund grants. Ilse is also a Logan Non-Fiction Fellow and Women in Film Fellow. She is currently executive producing and producing the companion podcast Exodus Stories: From the Darién to Dream, part of a multi-platform impact strategy.
REBECCA WOLFF | Producer (she/her)
Rebecca Wolff is an award-winning producer who runs Grasp the Nettle Films, a CE50 company (Creative England’s award to the top 50 creative companies in the UK), specialising in genre films and documentaries. In 2024 she was nominated as BIFA Breakthrough Producer. She has produced many short films funded by BFI Network, Creative England, The Guardian and other schemes, developing regional and diverse talent relationships. Her debut fiction feature as a lead producer alongside Jude Goldrei, THE SEVERED SUN (written and directed by Dean Puckett and funded by Screen Cornwall, Onsight and HH5), premiered at Fantastic Fest in Autumn 2024 and was released in the US in May 2025 by Dark Sky Films, it is set for a UK release in October 2025.
She produced acclaimed feature documentary GRAND THEFT HAMLET alongside fellow producer Julia Ton, which premiered at SXSW March 2024 and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature, before a long festival run and a theatrical release in the UK and the US by MUBI, as well as streaming worldwide. It won two BIFAs and was longlisted for a BAFTA. She was named Film London Lodestar for Producing 2025. Her documentary OUR LAND (funded by BFI Doc Society, Ecotricity and Lush) premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest 2025 and is represented by Impronta Films for International Sales and Met Film for UK and Ireland distribution. Her BFI Doc Society, Screen Scotland funded feature SUPER NATURE, is just about to premiere in the Grierson Competition Strand at BFI LFF in October 2025 and is represented by Autlook Filmsales.
ED OWLES | Producer (he/him)
Ed co-founded and runs Postcode Films, an award-winning non-fiction production company focusing on creatively made social issue documentary. Ed is a 2024 Ji.hlava Emerging Producer, 2022 Film Independent Fellow and Sundance DFP Grantee. In 2023 he produced BFI Doc Society/Sundance/France TV/Whickers supported ‘Red Herring’ (dir. Kit Vincent) which was BIFA nominated and screened at IDFA, True/False, Sheffield Docfest and Thessaloniki. He’s previously directed two feature docs, ‘The Auction House: A Tale of Two Brothers’ (2014), described by The Hollywood Reporter as “tremendously vivid and expertly entertaining” and H is for Harry (2018, co-dir Jaime Taylor), available on Netflix.
THE FIRE IN US
IMMERSIVE DOCUMENTARY, Sci-Fi, Magical Realism | UK
Inspired by BIPOC futurism, and collaborating with young people of colour, we will create an immersive, interactive installation that gives those who feel excluded from the climate debate, the power to create the future they want.
PRODUCERS:
Rebecca Wolff & Ed Owles
DIRECTOR:
San San F. Young
SAN SAN F YOUNG | Director (she/her)
San San F Young: A Scottish / Hong Kong Chinese Producer Director of creative documentaries, San has a love for filmmaking that pushes form and boundaries. A former current affairs reporter followed by years of crewing in feature fiction for studios like Working Title, Vertigo and Ealing, her focus is now combining real world stories with the cinematic.
Her work is commissioned by channels including BBC3, Al Jazeera and VICE and has won two One World Media Awards, A Foreign Press Association award, and has been selected for various markets, festivals and schemes. Member of BAFTA Crew, Brown Girls Doc Mafia and a BEATS (British East Asians in Theatre and Screen) Fellow, and an National Film and Television School, UK Directing Alum, San is a constant advocate for greater diversity in both the storytellers we celebrate and the stories we tell. Hong Kong Mixtape, 2023, a Screen Scotland and BFI Doc Society supported film, was her debut feature-length documentary. Her second feature length THE OTHER PREPPERS and immersive installation THE FIRE IN US with Rebecca Wolff and Grasp the Nettle Films, is so far supported by the Scottish Documentary Institute and funders, Uncertain Kingdom.
ASHER GOLDSTEIN | Producer (he/him)
Asher Goldstein is a Los Angeles based producer whose work spans acclaimed independent features and studio releases. He produced Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 , which won both the Audience and Jury Prizes at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival and received recognition from the National Board of Review. Goldstein later produced Warner Bros.’ Just Mercy, adapted from civil rights leader Bryan Stevenson’s New York Times bestselling memoir, and the film received four NAACP Image Awards, including Outstanding Motion Picture.
In addition to producing, Goldstein has packaged, structured distribution for, or overseen production on more than 50 independent features, with projects including Green Room among his credited work. He is a recipient of the 2020 Cinereach Producers Award, and he graduated with honors from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
CARLOS LÓPEZ ESTRADA | Producer (he/him)
Carlos López Estrada is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker from Mexico City. His debut film, "BLINDSPOTTING," premiered to critical acclaim at Sundance 2018. Distributed by Lionsgate Entertainment, the film earned Carlos a nomination from the DGA for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film. Carlos's third film, “DISNEY'S RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON," was a nominee for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards in 2021. In television, he has directed an episode of FX and Marvel’s "LEGION," and is developing an original comedy series titled "SMUGGLERS" at FX. As a producer, he champions emerging talent through his company Antigravity Academy. Their first produced film, "DÌDI (弟弟)," premiered at Sundance '24, where it won the audience award and sold to Focus Features. "DÌDI (弟弟)" also won the 2025 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.
VALERIE BUSH | Producer (she/her)
Valerie Bush is an LA based Producer and Head of Production at Antigravity Academy, the production company founded by filmmaker Carlos López Estrada. She most recently produced Dìdi (弟弟), written and directed by Sean Wang, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and won both the Audience Award and the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble, before being acquired by Focus Features and released theatrically in July 2024.
Valerie also worked on Fremont, credited as an associate producer by the film’s distributor (Music Box Films), and Antigravity notes she served as the film’s line producer. Antigravity further states that Fremont debuted at Sundance 2023 and won the John Cassavetes Award at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Beyond features, Valerie leads Antigravity’s Screenwriters Camp and oversees the company’s short film program in partnership with the Dolby Institute. She began her career producing commercials and music videos, and her resume lists a BS in Television, Film & New Media Production from San Diego State University.
Reference Image Credit: Minuit Machine - Contradictions
thirstygirl
Comedy, Drama | USA
When Charlie is forced to drive her estranged younger sister cross-country to rehab, her own secret addiction comes to the surface in the most devastating and hilarious ways.
PRODUCERS:
ASHER GOLDSTEIN, Carlos López Estrada, Valerie Bush, Michael sherman
WRITER / DIRECTOR:
Alexandra Qin
ALEXANDRA QIN| Writer, Director (she/her)
Alexandra Qin is a French Filipino Chinese writer-director born and raised in Paris and based in New York. Her first short film, THIRSTYGIRL, was an official selection of Sundance ‘24 among 50 other festivals worldwide. Her first screenplay, the THIRSTYGIRL feature, was selected for the 2025 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs, the 2024 Black List Projects Lab, the 2024 CAPE List, and received the 2024 Gotham Week Honors. She was named one of Vimeo’s 10 Breakout Creators of 2024. Before working in film, she had a decade-long career as a software engineer, a prison reform activist, and an international public speaker. She is the founder of Emergent Works, a nonprofit that teaches formerly incarcerated people digital literacy and coding skills, and she is the cofounder of Justice4Caesar, the collective that freed Ornell Caesar from Rikers Island after he was unjustly incarcerated in 2021. She is represented by Atlas Artists and UTA.