Andrew Berends Film Fellowship

The Andrew Berends Film Fellowship is proud to announce its 2022 Fellowship Winner.
We were honored to receive more than 75 applications for this year’s Fellowship. 

A total of $10,000, is presented to Asmahan Bkerat for Concrete Land.
Cecile Weiland will be her mentor.

An intimate portrait of a Bedouin family of three generations, in its struggle to hold on to its traditional life under the pressures of urbanization. Their only wish is to stay together, with their loyal yet eccentric pet sheep, Badrya, firmly by their side.

Asmahan Bkerat is a Palestinian-Jordanian documentary filmmaker.Bkerat’s first short documentary “Badrya” won the Jury Prize for Best MiniDoc at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival. She is currently working on her first feature-length documentary “CONCRETE LAND”. Asmahan is an alumna of Sundance, IDFA, The Whickers, The American Film Showcase, Cannes Docs in progress, Dhaka doc lab, Doc Edge, AIDCand DMZ.

Learn more about all fellows on our Fellows page here.

We are beginning to plan for next year’s Fellowship. If you are an experienced filmmaker and interested in being a mentor, e-mail us at  info at andrewberends dot net
And please consider contributing to the Fellowship through our fiscal sponsor here.

We were honored to receive over 150 applications for this year’s Fellowship. A total of $20,000, personal mentorships with leading filmmakers Tom Lennon and Daniel DiMauro (learn more about the mentors here), and other opportunities for career and project advancement are presented to:

• Alina Simone for her brave and surprising portrait of a Siberian citizen-journalist fighting for her community in Black Snow (working title);
• Sara Khaki and Mohammad Reza Eyni for Cutting through Rocks (working title), the story of a woman who challenges the status quo and inspires the younger generation.

Learn more about each of the Fellows and their projects on our Fellows page here.

At the same time, our first Fellowship year is wrapping up successfully for the 2020 Fellows. One Fellow writes: “The Fellowship connected me with a dedicated mentor that went above and beyond in advancing my film throughout pre production into production.” And another says: “Without their mentorship and financial support we would not have been able to keep our documentary project alive through the tough times of Covid-19.” We are looking forward to staying touch with the Fellows as they finish their projects in the coming years.

And we are beginning to plan for next year’s Fellowship. If you are an experienced filmmaker and interested in being a mentor, e-mail us at  [email protected]. And please consider contributing to the Fellowship through our fiscal sponsor here.

We are proud and excited to announce that we are now accepting applications for the second year of the Andrew Berends Film Fellowship. Submissions will be accepted until Jan 30, 2021.

The Fellowship is accepting applicants, 18 years or older, from all backgrounds and locations, who are currently working on a feature documentary project in the spirit of Andrew Berends’ work. Andy was a courageous and talented filmmaker who sought out stories in places which the mainstream media ignored. He shone a light on communities, people, and children facing unimaginable hardships. He traveled, shot, edited, and promoted his work with intense fervor and dedication.

Learn more about the Fellowship, the submission requirements, and how to apply here.

We were honored to receive nearly a hundred applications. Initially, we had planned to announce one winner. The number of worthy applicants and the unprecedented situation we find ourselves in led us to re-evaluate our potential. We decided that our sponsors’ generosity allowed us to grant awards to three sets of filmmakers and projects.

A total of $20,000, personal mentorships with leading filmmakers Gary Hustwit, David Sampliner, and Gretchen Hildebran (learn more about the mentors here), and other opportunities for career and project advancement are presented to:

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• Braulio Jatar and Anaïs Michel for their moving depiction of Venezuelan refugees trying to rebuild their lives in Cùcuta (working title);
• Angelos Rallis for his heart-rending portrait of an orphaned girl in Bangladesh searching for her birth father in Mighty Afrin (working title);
• Tom Laffay for his stirring work about the identity and spirituality of the Siona indigenous people in Colombia in Tigre Eléctrico (working title).

Learn more about each of the Fellows and their projects on our Fellows page here.

We are proud to support these brave and ambitious filmmakers and to help them move forward with their projects in a time of much uncertainty. We can’t wait to see these films and see them shared with the world.

It has been more than a year since we lost Andy. We miss his friendship, his partnership, his laughter, and his work. We are moved to see his legacy embodied in this year’s Fellows.

The Andrew Berends Film Fellowship would like to thank all of our generous donors, both individuals and foundations, as well as our friends at IFP, VICE, D-Word, Pure Non-Fiction and the Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship. Special thanks to Fellowship Board members Aaron Soffin, Michiel Pilgram, Brenden Hussey, Maria Ibrahimova, and Jason Gardner.

Even as we announce this year’s winners, we are beginning to plan for next year’s Fellowship. Please consider contributing to the Fellowship through our fiscal sponsor here.

Download Full Press Release

Filmmaker Andrew Berends appeared multiple times on the IFC Center stage for the screening series Stranger Than Fiction (now called Pure Nonfiction). His films as a director include THE BLOOD OF MY BROTHER documenting life in Iraq under U.S. occupation; DELTA BOYS about militants in Nigeria’s oil conflict (which landed him briefly in Nigerian jail); and MADINA’S DREAM about refugees in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains. He also served as a camera person on other projects including the Oscar-winning FREE SOLO. In March 2019, he took his own life at the age 46, after bouts of depression and being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The news brought an outpouring of testimonials from his admirers. This tribute brings together his friends and colleagues to share clips from his films and stories from his life. Donations from this event where used to launch The Andrew Berends Film Fellowship, to support independent filmmakers.

With: Thom Powers, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Dr. Isabella Alexander, Aaron Soffin, Mike Liss, Jason Gardner, Philip Robertson, Doug Block, Thomas Lennon and others.
This evening was co-sponsored by the Fulbright Film Series.
http://www.ifccenter.com/series/purenonfiction/
https://www.fulbrightny.org/
https://www.d-word.com/

We are now accepting donations for the Andrew Berends Film Fellowship through IFP here.

The mission of this fellowship is to seek out and support emerging filmmakers from all walks of life that embody Andy’s spirit and determination, with a focus on sharing unheard stories. It was born out of the desire of Andy’s family, friends, and colleagues to keep his memory alive and active in the world of documentary where he himself thrived. We hope you will consider helping keep Andy’s memory and spirit alive by supporting the fellowship. More details including when and how to apply for the fellowship will be available on this site in the coming months.

You can donate to the fellowship here: https://account.thegotham.org//donation/index.cfm/5/Andrew-Berends-Film-Fellowship/