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Chicken & Egg Films Announces 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantees and Relocation of Filmmaker Retreats to Canada
Chicken & Egg Films, the Brooklyn-based organization that champions women and gender-expansive documentary filmmakers with funding, mentorship, and access, announces today the grantees of its 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab. Nine feature documentary film projects, all helmed or co-helmed by first- or second-time directors, will receive one year of professional mentorship and a $40,000 production grant.
Coinciding with the 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab announcement is news that C&E will, for the first time in the organization’s history, host its signature retreats in Canada. Per a press release, this decision was “in response to the fact that travel to the United States has grown increasingly difficult for artists worldwide.”
“In an increasingly fraught and fractured world, convening filmmakers from across the globe has become both more challenging—and more urgent. In a moment shaped by separation and strife, coming together is both an act of intention and significance,” said Kiyoko McCrae, Program Director at Chicken & Egg Films, in a release. “This year’s projects reflect the realities of borders and policies that separate people, while also affirming the extraordinary power of collective effort—what becomes possible when individuals come together, care for one another, and work in solidarity.”
Indeed, several projects amid the 2026 cohort directly confront issues of democracy, migration, environmentalism, race, class and queer identity. Among them are Alyse Shorland’s The People’s Network, about the unique role C-SPAN has played historically and now; Fenced, Gabriella García-Pardo’s essayistic map of seen and invisible American fences; Devon Blackwell’s Untitled Panda Film, which observes China’s practice of loaning these creatures abroad; Taxi Driver, Sara Chishti’s vérité portrait of a group of NYC cabbies; as well as Brit Fryer and Noah Schamus’s With Time, which documents trans elders as they narrate significant moments from their lives.
Past participants of the (Egg)celerator Lab include Jessica Kingdon, director of Oscar-nominated and Tribeca Film Festival Award-winning Ascension; Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, directors of Oscar-nominated Writing With Fire, which also received the Sundance Audience Award and Special Jury Impact for Change Award in the World Cinema Documentary competition; Viv Li, whose Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest will premiere at the 2026 Berlinale; Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig, whose Jaripeo will premiere at Sundance this year; Biljana Tutorov, whose To Hold A Mountain will also premiere at Sundance this year; as well as Brittany Shyne and Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, whose respective Seeds and Cutting Through Rocks are Oscar shortlisted for 2026.
Read descriptions of the 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab projects and filmmakers below.
All Fixed Up (Working Title)
Director: Hao Zhou
Producers: Jenny Wu, Tyler Hill
After struggling to “straighten out” their queer descendent, a family in China pursues a dramatic masquerade that pushes the boundaries of care, identity, and cross-generational understanding.
Fenced
Director/Producer: Gabriella García-Pardo
A personal and darkly humorous exploration of the boundaries we draw—on our landscapes and between ourselves.
Home Movie
Director: Anu Czerwinski
Producer: Anna Stylinska
A transmasculine filmmaker who hides his identity when visiting his family confronts his fears—with the help of his camera—in this tense, transformative family portrait.
Mid Wif
Director: Mia Harvey
Co-producer: Natasha Dack-Ojumu
In Atlanta, two Black midwives work underground to provide safe home births, illuminating the rich legacy of Black midwifery in the US, its roots in ancestral care, and the urgent fight to legalize the profession.
Orange, Beetle, Mother & I
Director: Manisha Halai
Producers: Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh
An Indigenous filmmaker returns to her Himalayan village to document the climate crisis threatening her tribe’s orange orchards—only to find herself caught between her mother, her sister, and her own ties to the land.
The People’s Network
Director: Alyse Shorland
Producers: Sara Archambault, Darcy McKinnon
From bold experiment to essential civic institution, C-SPAN revolutionized the public’s access to power. Now, four decades later, its dedicated staff faces a moment when America needs it most.
Taxi Driver
Director: Sara Chishti
Amid crippling debt and relentless exploitation due to a city-sanctioned medallion-lending scheme, New York City’s immigrant taxi drivers fight to reclaim their humanity and the “American Dream.”
Untitled Panda Film
Director: Devon Blackwell
Producers: Jessica Kingdon, Harry Vaughn, Sigrid Dyekjær
Untitled Panda Film explores various forms of panda conservation around the world.
With Time
Directors: Brit Fryer, Noah Schamus
Producer: Jesse Miller
Queer and trans elders participate in a storytelling workshop, blending realism and fantasy as they transform pivotal fragments of memories into scripted scenes.
The 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab directors are:
Devon Blackwell (US)
Dir. Untitled Panda Film
Devon Blackwell is a director and editor from Silver Spring, Maryland. A 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and a Sundance Ignite Fellow, she is known for her debut film Goodbye Morganza, which premiered at Tribeca and earned a special jury mention, was shortlisted by DOC NYC, and won Best Documentary Short at the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival. Formerly an associate producer at The New Yorker, she has produced acclaimed documentaries including You’ll Be Happier and Nina & Irena which screened at Mountain Film, DOC NYC, and Big Sky among other prominent festivals.
Sara Chishti (US, India)
Dir. Taxi Driver
Sara Chishti is a New York-based filmmaker dedicated to telling underrepresented stories. In addition to directing, Sara produced the Oscar-qualifying film Exodus (SXSW 2025), which was executive produced by Geeta Gandbhir, Blair Foster, and Rudy Valdez and was nominated for a Critics Choice Awards. She also produced San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood, directed by Stanley Nelson. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University’s Film and Media Studies program, Sara is a Brown Girls Doc Mafia Sustainable Artist Fellow and a 2025 Bitchitra Collective Fellow, with work supported by the Center for Asian American Media, Firelight Media, the Islamic Scholarship Fund, the Rogovy Foundation, and Kickstarter.
Anu Czerwinski (Poland)
Dir. Home Movie
Anu Czerwinski is a Polish filmmaker working internationally across documentary and fiction. A graduate of documentary film directing at Université Paris Cité, he has worked as an editor and assistant director on projects including Netflix’s first Polish feature documentary, We Are Perfect, and Woman Of…, which premiered in the main competition at the Venice Film
Festival. His debut feature-length documentary, Home Movie, is supported by the Sundance Institute and was selected for the 2025 Points North Fellowship. Alongside filmmaking, Anu is the first Polish transgender actor to appear in mainstream television and theater.
Brit Fryer (US)
Dir. With Time
Brit Fryer is a queer and trans filmmaker originally from Chicago’s South Side. He has directed several films, including The Script (co-directed with Noah Schamus), which premiered at 2023’s CPH:DOX before finding a home with The New Yorker and Criterion Channel. His film Caro Comes Out premiered on HBOMax in 2022. Brit and his work have been supported by the Sundance Ignite Fellowship, Creative Culture, the PBS Ignite Mentorship, and HBO/Gotham’s Documentary Development Initiative.
Gabriella García-Pardo (Colombia, US)
Dir. Fenced
Gabriella García-Pardo is a Colombian-American filmmaker whose work explores the relationship between land, identity, and belonging across the US and Latin America. She produced and co-wrote La Bonga (True/False 2023) and Backside (Tribeca 2025), and directed The Bardia (Mountainfilm 2022). Gabriella’s work has been supported by Sundance, New America, Creative Capital, Points North, ITVS, and Firelight, among others. Her films as a producer and cinematographer have screened at festivals including Sundance, SXSW, IDFA, and MoMA Doc Fortnight. Previously, Gabriella created short docs at National Geographic as a one-person-band, filmed over 150 musicians at NPR’s Tiny Desk, and led horse treks through Chile.
Manisha Halai (India)
Dir. Orange, Beetle, Mother, and I
Manisha Halai is a filmmaker from the Miju Mishmi tribe in Arunachal Pradesh (India) and the first woman from her community to pursue filmmaking. She also trains and mentors youth in using film for conservation and social change. Her short documentaries explore wildlife and Indigenous knowledge across the Eastern Himalayas, and she is a Fellow of the Himalayan Story Lab.
Mia Harvey (UK)
Dir. Mid Wif
Mia Harvey is an award-winning documentary director and producer. Inspired by her Caribbean heritage, her work often explores how the past shapes the lives and experiences of the global majority today. As an accomplished self-shooter, she gravitates toward intimate, observational filmmaking, guided by a deep commitment to honouring the communities she films. Mia has produced work for British platforms such as BBC, Netflix, and Channel 4. Her short film With Woman won Best Student Film at the 2023 Grierson Awards, received an IDA nomination, was a Vimeo Staff Pick, and is now available internationally on The Guardian Documentaries.
Noah Schamus (US) Dir. With Time
Noah Schamus is a filmmaker and educator. Their first feature, Summer Solstice, screened at film festivals across the US and Europe before premiering theatrically at IFC Center in 2024. The film received a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Their most recent hybrid documentary short, The Script, co-directed with Brit Fryer and produced by Multitude Films as a part of their Queer Futures series, can currently be seen online on The New Yorker and Criterion Channel.
Alyse Shorland (US)
Dir. The People’s Network
Alyse Shorland is a director and producer whose work marries artful filmmaking with incisive journalism. Recent projects include The Debutantes (Tribeca 2024) and The Empire of Ebony. She has directed and produced for The Weekly (New York Times); Vice News Tonight (HBO); This Morning (CBS); Sunday Morning (CBS); and CNN’s documentary series In America with Soledad O’Brien. Alyse was selected for DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 and has won two Emmys, a Peabody, and a Gracie. She also teaches journalism at Rutgers University.
Hao Zhou (China)
Dir. All Fixed Up (Working Title)
Hao Zhou is a filmmaker from southwest China who focuses on queer and feminist themes through both nonfiction and narrative forms. An alum of Berlinale Talents and Talents Tokyo, they have made a narrative feature, The Night (2014), and several shorts including Like What Would Sorrow Look (2024) and Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way (2024). Hao’s work has screened at the Berlinale, Locarno Film Festival, Rotterdam, SXSW, HotDocs, and others.
