NY-based Chicken & Egg Pictures has announced their newest recipients and finalists for the 2022 Chicken & Egg Award, the only program of its kind that recognizes advanced-career women and gender nonconforming filmmakers with unrestricted funding. Six directors will receive a $50,000 grant, and two directors will receive a $15,000 finalist grant.
“The Chicken & Egg Award makes bold investments in the personal and professional wellbeing of visionary women and gender nonconforming documentary makers. Over the past seven years, we have given unrestricted cash grants totaling $1.9 million US dollars to 38 change-making directors,” said Program Director Lucila Moctezuma. “Because filmmakers—especially those affected by roadblocks tied to their gender, race, class, and location—deserve financial freedom while they create new projects.”
This year’s Chicken & Egg Award recipients are: Margreth Olin (Norway), Petra Costa Brazil), Beverley Ditsie (Aouth Africa), Anayansi Prado (Panama, US), Brett Story (Canada, UK) and Tracy Heather Strain (US). “They are acclaimed storytellers, activists, thought leaders, and educators hailing from all over the world,” say Award organisers. Previous films by recipients include Self Portrait (co-directed by Margreth Olin) which tells the immensely moving story of Norwegian anorexia sufferer Lene Marie Fossen, whose photographic portraits are acclaimed as latter day masterpieces, and The Edge of Democracy (Petra Costa), a Brazilian citizen’s experience of rising authoritarianism and crumbling democracy.
In addition to career coaching and funding, 2022 Chicken & Egg Award recipients will receive mentorship for the development of new projects. This year, developing projects include Olin’s Songs of Earth, a meditative nature film set in Norway and guided by the filmmaker’s 84-year old father.
Films previously supported through the program include Michèle Stephenson’s Stateless and Julia Bacha’s Boycott, as well as upcoming projects by Maite Alberdi (The Infinite Memory) and Tatiana Huezo (El Eco).
To select recipients each year, a group of diverse nominators—representing a range of positionalities, demographics, and geographic locations—are invited to present eligible filmmakers, organisers say. This is followed by a rigorous deliberation and interview process that includes industry veterans, former Award recipients, and internal team members.
Additionally, Sonia Kennebeck and Ditsi Carolino receive the first-ever Chicken & Egg Award Finalist Development Grant of $15,000, which recognizes their artful filmmaking, daring new projects in development, and impressive Award applications.
Chicken & Egg Pictures supports women and gender non-conforming non-fiction filmmakers whose artful and innovative storytelling catalyzes social change. “We envision an inclusive media industry in which women filmmakers, representing a range of experiences and backgrounds, are fully supported to realize their artistic goals, and to build sustainable and fulfilling careers,” says the company statement.
