Supported Projects
These funds are intended to support projects as they move through the film festival circuit. Festival submission fees add up quickly, and this cash grant is meant to help filmmakers manage the costs. Eligible projects must have been finalists in our 2026 Spring Grants Program.
2026 Film Festival Grant
A Song Called Quest
Short Narrative from Amadou Diallo
Three musicians reunite after 15 years. But as they play a song from their heyday, old wounds surface, and the long-held secret behind their breakup is revealed.
Family Strings* Colorado Project
Short Documentary from Daniel Wright, Brendan Young, Lyman Smith
As his orchestra audition approaches, a young musician receives a donated World War II era violin, connecting him with its benefactor who is grappling with his family’s Nazi past. Bonded by the instrument, they discover that the old violin carries an urgent message.
Winner of the 2026 Audience Award, Crested Butte Film Festival
Waspringa
Short Narrative from Molly Greville
Three adult siblings reunite for a reluctant family sailing trip in New England, where old grudges, petty rivalries, and awkward confessions churn beneath the surface.
Pride & Honor
Short Documentary from Mai Iskander
PRIDE & HONOR follows Lilly Stephan Steffanides, a terminally ill Navy veteran who rose from 24 years of homelessness to help lead a landmark federal case that restored honor and benefits to over 100,000 LGBTQI+ veterans—achieving their own dying wish of a military discharge upgrade and funeral with full military honors.
River Warrior
Short Documentary from Cassia Sherrill
After enduring a four-year drought, an off-grid farmer embarks on a kayaking journey from her hometown creek in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina all the way to the Gulf—seeking to reconnect with and redefine her relationship to water.
2026 Spring Grants Program Award Recipients
This granting program is designed to support independent theater or film projects in any phase of production. The Flatiron Film Project will select between 3-5 projects, two of which must be led by Colorado-based artists.
Evergreen
Short Narrative from Natalie Jasmine Harris
A young woman travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains with her grandmother’s late-in-life love to scatter her ashes, uncovering buried stories, unexpected kinship, and a new understanding of love.
Currently in post production, September 2026.
First Resort
Feature Narrative from Spencer Paez, Michael Rose, Claudia Restrepo
Dario is a 30-something insecure actor moving backward in his life and career. When his bestie Jamie announces he might leave their starving artist lifestyle behind for a high-paying tech job in London, it upends Dario’s world. He’s thrust out of his comfort zone even more when Jamie’s birthday party is held at a Palm Springs men’s nude resort! Dario’s obsession with conventional beauty and transactional relationships fails him hilariously in the resort’s inclusive, diverse crowd. Rather than look inward, Dario directs his frustration into a rivalry with the gorgeous muscle gay he fears is tearing Jamie away from him.
Shooting January 2027.
God is a Pelican* Colorado Project
Animated Short from Carmela Murphy, AJ Dubler
God is a Pelican is a stop-motion animated short that follows two misfit middle-school girls’ intense, queer, and turbulent friendship as they create their own religion. The religion is rooted in magic and play, while also a critique of institutional structures that have historically excluded queer people. Through this film, the girls reclaim certain aspects of religion like unconditional love and community, using it as a tool to bring queer and “othered” kids together, while also processing difficult feelings like gender dysphoria, loneliness, and growing pains. After playground sermons, midnight pond baptisms, and unruly followers, the religion sparks a school-wide panic, which ultimately leads to a Judas-like betrayal.
Currently in fabrication, September 2026.
Minnesota Goodbye
Narrative Feature from Sid Gopinath, Alifya Ali
Written and directed by Sid Gopinath (with co-writer Aditya Joshi and producer Alifya Ali), this intimate family epic chronicles four generations of an Indian immigrant family building a life at a lakeside cabin in Northern Minnesota. The story is uniquely structured in reverse chronological order through a series of vignettes. Winner of the 2026 AT&T Untold Stories film production prize at the Tribeca Festival.
Premiere: Tribeca Film Festival, June 2027.
Family Strings* Colorado Project
Short Documentary from Daniel Wright, Brendan Young, Lyman Smith
(Formally Strings of Influence)
As his orchestra audition approaches, a young musician receives a donated World War II era violin, connecting him with its benefactor who is grappling with his family’s Nazi past. Bonded by the instrument, they discover that the old violin carries an urgent message.
Premiere: Breckenridge Film Festival, September 2026.