STORIES CREATOR FAWAZ AL-MATROUK HAS BEEN AWARDED THE PRESTIGIOUS SFFILM / RAININ FILMMAKING GRANT AND FILMHOUSE RESIDENCY
SAN FRANCISCO – STORIES creator Fawaz Al-Matrouk has been awarded both the SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant with his feature screenplay Mr. Rob and the FilmHouse Residency with his feature project Anwar.
Previous SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking winners include Benh Zeitlin’s Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild, Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, and Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12.
Mr. Rob is based on the true story of Rob Lawrie, a British ex-soldier who risked everything to rescue a little girl from the Calais “Jungle” refugee camp, but was arrested for human smuggling. The judge called it a “crime of compassion.”
Anwar is a sci-fi story where eternal life is the norm and androids have replaced humans. The last biological human wishes to die and reach the afterlife—against the wishes of his foster mother.
SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grants are awarded twice annually to narrative features that tackle social justice issues and will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community. More than $4 million has been awarded since the launch of SFFILM’s flagship grant program in 2009.
FilmHouse provides critical support to local and visiting filmmakers by fostering a thriving creative community that encourages collaboration, resource sharing, peer-to-peer feedback and networking opportunities.
For more information, see the press release from here.
