Cate Blanchett has announced that her Displacement Film Fund (DFF) will be getting behind short films by Mo Amer, Annemarie Jacir, Akuol de Mabior, Rithy Panh and Bao Nguyen in a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival
Palestinian American comedian-writer-director Amer, who is best known for his Mo Amer Netflix shows as well as his appearances on Ramy Youssef’s Ramy, is working on Return to Sender about a Palestinian standup comedian dealing with a variety of immigration rules as he embarks on a world tour.
Fresh from her 2025-2026 awards season run with Oscar shortlisted feature Palestine 36, Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s short Deconstruction is inspired by the port city of Haifa and its layers of presence and absence, memory and reinvention. It follows a man navigating the in-between as the past is uncovered, rearranged, sold, and made new.
South Sudanese filmmaker Akuol de Mabior, who was born in Cuba and grew up in Kenya, previously explored the story of her family’s displacement in the 2022 documentary No Simple Way Home. Her DFF-backed short Traces of a Broken Line will look at the impact of war on lineage, through a mother attempting to preserve what she can no longer hand down.
Vietnamese American filmmaker Bao Nguyen, who previously made waves with The Stringer, Be Water and The Return, participates with How to Ride a Bike. It follows a Vietnamese refugee father who never learned to ride a bike. When his attempt to teach this skill to his young son fails, he begins learning in secret, confronting a lifelong shame he has carried since boyhood.
Renowned Cambodian Rithy Panh, whose award-winning works include The Rice People, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, The Missing Picture, Exile, Graves Without a Name, and Everything Will Be OK, is working on short film with Time… Speak.
The biographical work follows an exiled filmmaker as he returns to the broken fragments of his memory – shattered figurines, archives, and silences – to reconstruct through cinema a form of life in which the disappeared continue to speak.
These working titled projects are the second round of shorts to be supported by the short film grant scheme spearheaded by actor and producer Blanchett, through her role as Global Goodwill Ambassador at the United Nations’s refugee agency UNHCR, in partnership with the International Film Festival Rotterdam‘s Hubert Bals Fund (HBF).
Each of the nominated filmmakers will receive a production grant of €100,000 ($116k) to make the short films. The completed projects will then world premiere at IFFR’s next edition, running from January 28 to February 28, 2027.
Launched by Blanchett at the 2025 edition of IFFR in 2025, the Displacement Film Fund is backed by a coalition of film industry experts, creators, business leaders and philanthropists. Its aim is to champion and fund the work of displaced filmmakers, or filmmakers with a proven track record in creating authentic storytelling about the experiences of displaced people.
The DFF’s pilot round backed Maryna Er Gorbach, Mo Harawe, Hasan Kattan, Mohammad Rasoulof and Shahrbanoo Sadat and resulted in the films Rotation, Whispers of a Burning Scent, Allies in Exile, Sense of Water and Super Afghan Gym) which world premiered at IFFR 2026 in January.
“Our first round of DFF shorts have been met with huge enthusiasm from both the industry and our partners, while challenging expectations about what stories of displacement can look like on screen,” said Blanchett.
“The short form is a fantastic medium for these narratives and the way audiences are connecting with the first five films is extraordinary. I’m heartened by the success of our first cohort and thrilled to be revealing the next group of artists to be supported. We’re grateful to be hosted by Thierry Frémaux and the Cannes Film Festival who continue to champion our cause and make space for us in this most celebrated annual gathering of cinema.”
For the second edition of the fund, IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund returns as Management Partner, Amahoro Coalition, Droom en Daad, Master Mind, the Tamer Family Foundation and UNIQLO return as Founding Partners, and UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency – remains Strategic Partner. The SP Lohia Foundation joins as a new Major Partner.
“It is a privilege to return to Cannes with the Displacement Film Fund, following the remarkable journey we’ve embarked on with the first cohort and the success of their premiere screenings at IFFR 2026. The recipients of our second cycle once again reflect an extraordinary breadth of filmmaking talent – with each navigating their own personal experiences of displacement – and we are proud to help bring their vital stories into the spotlight,” said Clare Stewart, Managing Director IFFR, and Tamara Tatishvili, Head of The Hubert Bals Fund.
“At a time of ongoing global uncertainty, our commitment to maintaining this fund only deepens, alongside our belief in championing film as a powerful force for encouraging empathy and positive change.”
According to UNHCR figures one in every 70 people in the world’s population is currently living in a situation of forced displacement due to conflict, war, or persecution.
The recipients for the second round were selected via a two-step process involving a Nominations Committee and a Selection Committee.
The Nominations Committee included journalist and documentarian Waad Al Kateab (We Dare to Dream, For Sama), director and screenwriter Agnieszka Holland (Green Border), UNHCR supporter Ke Huy Quan, Tatishvili, Stewart, and the DFF Partners.
The Selection Committee was chaired by Blanchett and included IFFR Festival Director Vanja Kaludjercic, film and stage producer Barbara Broccoli, educator, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram, and filmmaker Mo Harawe who was selected for the DFF’s first cycle.
