SIFF announces winning projects of 2026 Courageous Documentary Filmmaking Grants
9/22/2026
SEATTLE – Today, SIFF announced the winning projects of the third year of its SIFF Grant for Courageous Documentary Filmmaking program, distributing $450,000 in funding to documentary filmmakers across Washington State. The program was initiated in 2024 and has since awarded funding to 19 projects over the course of three years, with six new recipients joining the slate in 2026.
“We are a country at an inflection point,” said SIFF Artistic Director Beth Barrett. “We are supporting people who are standing up and saying, ‘this story matters.’”
The grants are offered in partnership with the Satterberg Foundation, continuing their tradition of supporting storytellers with projects rooted in moral courage and “taking action despite the risk of negative consequences for doing so.” The Foundation's Moral Courage Committee (MCC) has a long history of offering grants to individuals and organizations to help their work come to fruition and reach wider audiences.
The finalists were selected by a panel of judges spanning from notable documentary filmmakers to Washington film leaders, including Nesib CB Shamah (Washington Filmmaker and Satterberg Foundation Board Member), Melanie Miller (Producer & Co-Founder of Fishbowl Films, ACADEMY AWARD® Winner for Navalny), Sarah Menzies (Director of Original Productions at Cascade PBS), Lu Mukerjee (Director of the Documentary Lab fellowship at Firelight Media), and Beth Barrett (SIFF Artistic Director).
2026 SIFF Grant for Courageous Documentary Filmmaking Awardees:
After Loss
Director: Adrienne von Wolffersdorff
After Loss follows the story of Veronica Leyva as she navigates miscarriages, fertility struggles, and pregnancy. Will she give birth to a healthy baby and grow her family as she hopes? And how will her grief shape her experience?
Flight Path
Director: John Helde
Flight Path follows the scientists and activists working to save the Marbled Murrelet, a mystery bird and one of the most endangered species of the Pacific Northwest. Through a mosaic of candid personal stories, the film explores the struggle against species decline and extinction in the 21st century.
Our Forbidden Country
Director: Clyde Petersen
Our Forbidden Country is a stop-motion animated feature film by Clyde Petersen. Based on oral history interviews, photographs, and collective community memory, Our Forbidden Country rebuilds the queer worlds of downtown Seattle, brick by brick, inviting you to step inside and experience the gay euphoria of the late 1970s.
The Raven and the Bull
Director: Raven Two Feathers
Amidst an uncertain political future, two trans Indigenous men embark on a courageous journey to find joy and peace, embracing who they are, just as Two Spirit people have done since time immemorial.
Refuge
Directors: Ian Bell, Nathan Miller
Along the border, in the Sonoran Desert, tens of thousands of people have gone missing while attempting to cross into the United States. Refuge takes you inside the network surrounding the disappeared: from search and rescue groups, forensic archeologists identifying remains through DNA-analysis, artists building memorials, and families seeking answers.
Tiny Fish
Director: Kika Tuff
In the warming waters of the Pacific Northwest, scientists and community partners confront the decline of a tiny fish whose survival has carried communities, economies, and ecosystems for millennia.