A Hugely Successful Week for Rooftop Grantees

Update: Beasts of the Southern Wild has been awarded the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Congrats to the incredible team who worked so hard on this amazing film!

It’s been an incredible week for Rooftop grantees on both the awards and acquisitions fronts.

Big congrats to Rooftop Grantee Lucy Walker and her incredible film, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom nominated for a Best Documentary Short Academy Award. We couldn’t be prouder of this incredible short about finding hope in the aftermath of inconceivable tragedy. Good luck, Lucy!

In acquisitions news, Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund Grantee Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild (made with our friends at Cinereach) has been bought by Fox Searchlight in a deal out of Sundance. The film’s garnered amazing reviews at the fest, being hailed by The Hollywood Reporter as “One of the most striking films ever to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival…,” and “Visually stunning and boldly unorthodox” by the Huffington Post.

We’re so thrilled that it’s being brought to an even wider audience.

We’re always looking to help foster amazing projects like these, so filmmakers, submit your film here. Rooftop alumni are eligible for filmmakers’ fund grants, along with a host of other support services.