FILMMAKER COHORT RETREATS RELOCATED TO CANADA FOR FIRST TIME IN PROGRAM HISTORY

NEW YORK, NY— January 21, 2026—Chicken & Egg Films, the organization that champions women and gender-expansive documentary filmmakers with funding, mentorship, and access, announced today via Filmmaker Magazine the 2026 grantees for its flagship (Egg)celerator Lab program. Nine feature documentary film projects, directed or co-directed by first- or second-time directors, will each receive year-long mentorship and a $40,000 grant, to be put towards production.

For the first time in the program’s history, and in response to the fact that travel to the United States has grown increasingly difficult for artists worldwide, the program’s signature retreats will take place in Canada.

“In an increasingly fraught and fractured world, convening filmmakers from across the globe has become both more challenging—and more urgent. In a moment shaped by separation and strife, coming together is both an act of intention and significance,” said Kiyoko McCrae, Program Director at Chicken & Egg Films. “This year’s projects reflect the realities of borders and policies that separate people, while also affirming the extraordinary power of collective effort—what becomes possible when individuals come together, care for one another, and work in solidarity."

Several projects in this year’s cohort offer incisive, timely explorations of governance, democracy, and migration, including Alyse Shorland’s The People’s Network, about the unique role C-SPAN has played historically and now; and Fenced, Gabriella García-Pardo’s essayistic mapping of American fences both those seen and invisible. Outside a US context, Devon Blackwell’s Untitled Panda Film and Manisha Halai’s Orange, Beetle, Mother, and I layer in environmental themes as well. The former observes China’s practice of loaning giant pandas to other countries while the latter portraits a young Indigenous filmmaker whose Eastern Himalayan village and family livelihood are threatened by an invasive beetle species.

Multiple films also lovingly home in on a specific community and the ways they’re moving through today’s confluence of crises. Mia Harvey’s Mid Wif follows a pair of Atlanta midwives whose underground services are vital for Black folks often harmed by the medical system. Taxi Driver, Sara Chishti’s vérité documentary, tracks a group of New York City cab drivers reeling from the impacts of predatory lending schemes and organizing for economic justice.

The intersection of LGBTQ identity and family is laid bare in Anu Czerwinski’s Home Movie, about the filmmaker’s coming-out and familial transformations it sparks, and in All Fixed Up, Hao Zhou’s snapshot of a Chinese family who push boundaries of care after struggling to “straighten out” their relative. Brit Fryer and Noah Schamus’s With Time rounds out the cohort, and documents a group of trans elders narrating, grappling with, and reliving significant moments from their lives.

Past participants of the (Egg)celerator Lab include Jessica Kingdon, director of Oscar-nominated and Tribeca Film Festival Award-winning Ascension; Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, directors of Oscar-nominated Writing With Fire, which also received the Sundance Audience Award and Special Jury Impact for Change Award in the World Cinema Documentary competition; Viv Li, whose Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest will premiere at the 2026 Berlinale; Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig, whose Jaripeo will premiere at Sundance this year; Biljana Tutorov, whose To Hold A Mountain will also premiere at Sundance this year; as well as Brittany Shyne and Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, whose respective Seeds and Cutting Through Rocks are Oscar shortlisted for 2026.

The 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab projects are:

All Fixed Up (Working Title) Director: Hao Zhou Producers: Jenny Wu, Tyler Hill After struggling to “straighten out” their queer descendent, a family in China pursues a dramatic masquerade that pushes the boundaries of care, identity, and cross-generational understanding.

Fenced Director/Producer: Gabriella García-Pardo A personal and darkly humorous exploration of the boundaries we draw—on our landscapes and between ourselves.

Home Movie Director: Anu Czerwinski Producer: Anna Stylinska A transmasculine filmmaker who hides his identity when visiting his family confronts his fears—with the help of his camera—in this tense, transformative family portrait.

Mid Wif Director: Mia Harvey Producer: Natasha Dack-Ojumu In Atlanta, two Black midwives work underground to provide safe home births, illuminating the rich legacy of Black midwifery in the US, its roots in ancestral care, and the urgent fight to legalize the profession.

Orange, Beetle, Mother & I Director: Manisha Halai Producers: Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh An Indigenous filmmaker returns to her Himalayan village to document the climate crisis threatening her tribe’s orange orchards—only to find herself caught between her mother, her sister, and her own ties to the land.

The People’s Network Director: Alyse Shorland Producers: Sara Archambault, Darcy McKinnon From bold experiment to essential civic institution, C-SPAN revolutionized the public's access to power. Now, four decades later, its dedicated staff faces a moment when America needs it most.

Taxi Driver Director: Sara Chishti Amid crippling debt and relentless exploitation due to a city-sanctioned medallion-lending scheme, New York City’s immigrant taxi drivers fight to reclaim their humanity and the "American Dream."

Untitled Panda Film Director: Devon Blackwell Producers: Jessica Kingdon, Harry Vaughn, Sigrid Dyekjær Untitled Panda Film explores various forms of panda conservation around the world.

With Time Directors: Brit Fryer, Noah Schamus Producer: Jesse Miller Queer and trans elders participate in a storytelling workshop, blending realism and fantasy as they transform pivotal fragments of memories into scripted scenes.

Learn more about the projects and filmmakers here.