Cate Blanchett has teamed with International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund to launch the Displacement Film Fund, a new short film grant scheme.
Offering up to five individual production grants of €100,000, the Displacement Film Fund has been established to champion and fund the work of displaced filmmakers, or filmmakers with a track record in creating authentic storytelling on the experiences of displaced people.
The Fund’s selection committee will be chaired by Blanchett, who is a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency.
The selection committee also includes For Sama director Waad Al Kateab, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, Green Border director Agnieszka Holland, IFFR festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, educator, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram, Flee director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, and Amin Nawabi [alias], an LGBTQ+ asylum seeker who is Jonas’ inspiration for the story of Flee.
The finished projects will have their world premieres at IFFR 2026.
The Displacement Film Fund was first initiated and developed at UNHCR’s Global Refugee Forum by Blanchett and fellow UNHCR supporters Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once), and his wife Echo Quan, healthcare exec Ayman Tamer, Koji Yanai (Perfect Days), and investor Isaac Kwaku Fokuo.
The Fund will be formally launched at IFFR this week where Blanchett will appear on a panel with Koji Yanai, Waad Al-Kateab, Jonas Rasmussen, HBF head Tamara Tatishvili and moderator Uzma Hasan to discuss the scheme’s origins and aims.
One in every 67 people on earth is forcibly displaced due to conflict, war, or persecution.
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