Dear friends,

We hope you've found and felt strength in community so far in 2026. We've been inspired by the many ways people are showing up for each other as neighbors and humans. We're restored by stories that counter harmful narratives we're told to accept as the status quo. May 2026 be a year of truth, of real relationships, and of taking action to honor both. Read on for some of what C&E and our supported filmmakers have been up to since the year began, including our experience at Sundance, a warm welcome to new staff members, the latest program cohort and open call updates, Oscar noms, and beyond. 

With gratitude and purpose,

The Chicken & Egg team

Cutting Through Rocks and The Devil is Busy receive Oscar nominations!

Left to right: Still from Cutting Through Rocks, still from The Devil is Busy

Congratulations to Sara Khaki and Mohammedreza Eyni, whose Cutting Through Rocks is nominated for Best Documentary Feature, and Geeta Gandbhir, whose The Devil Is Busy, co-directed by Christalyn Hampton, is nominated for Best Documentary Short. Cutting Through Rocks was supported by C&E via our (Egg)celerator Lab program and The Devil is Busy through our Critical Issues Fund.

We’re thrilled to see these beautiful, important stories recognized. And we also want to salute all the filmmakers who brought incredible films into the world this year that were not nominated. We're in awe of all the artists who created a path for their story to be made and seen in 2025. So many documentaries have moved hearts and minds and influenced culture and policy—and will continue to do so long after awards season ends!

ICYMI: 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab cohort announced, 2027 Open Call coming soon

From left to right: Stills from All Fixed Up, Fenced, Home Movie, Mid Wif, Orange, Beetle, Mother & I, The People’s Network, Taxi Driver, Untitled Panda Film, and With Time

Last month, we were honored to announce via Filmmaker Magazine our 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab grantees. Nine feature documentary film projects, directed or co-directed by first- or second-time directors, will each receive year-long mentorship and a $40,000 grant, to be put towards production.

“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." —Kiyoko McCrae, Program Director

Read more about the 2026 cohort.

✦ PLUS: 2027 (Egg)celerator Lab applications will open on March 4, 2026. This year's open call includes several changes to the application and process. Learn more here! 

Sundance brunch

On the left: Jenni Wolfson and Geralyn Dreyfous. On the right, from left to right: Susan Margolin, Julie Parker Benello, Kiyoko McCrae, Jenni Wolfson, Nekisa Cooper, and Amber Sasse

“We are incredibly fortunate to meet this moment with resilience and hope. And that is thanks to our community. You’ve invested your energy, your resources, your belief, in us. Simply put, there’s no us without you.” —Jenni Wolfson, CEO 

We’re still feeling the love from our Sundance brunch a couple weeks ago. We invited friends, filmmakers, partners, and donors to gather and celebrate our collective commitment: to show up for the documentary field and its filmmakers with all we’ve got. We also celebrated supported films premiering at the fest—Jaripeo and To Hold A Mountain—and honored the incomparable doc champion Geralyn Dreyfous.

We’re grateful we began the year in community, surrounded by folks who never let us forget the power of documentary as an engine for empathy and change.

Winter community highlights

Still from Songs from the Hole

Meet our new team members

Development Manager Rebecca Berger

Program Intern Samyu Sridhar

✦ “If I don’t tell the stories, who will?” For Movies that Matter Magazine, supported filmmaker Zippy Kimundu reflects on the realities of activist storytelling and why she sees filmmaking as a form of resistance.

✦ Deadline shares key recommendations from ARTEF, the anti-racism think tank for European Film, who released a new report to assess and counter “a climate of fear, scarcity, and pressure that is stifling creativity.” 

✦ Addie Morfoot writes in IndieWire about what the box office success of Melania signals: “What the documentary industry should be worried about is what [this] means for filmmakers motivated to make complex nonfiction films with a worldview that disrupt the status quo.”

✦ “Even at Sundance, arguably the most prized place to launch a documentary, it was the million-dollar (or a lot less) question: Where do these docs go after Park City?” For Documentary Magazine, Anthony Kaufman captures several perspectives on distribution out of this year’s fest. 

✦ Scott Meslow writes in Filmmaker Magazine about the narratives emerging out of Minnesota, highlighting the power of “the legions of everyday Minnesotans who are filming ICE’s actions using their cell phones, essentially becoming documentarians in service of a single, vital goal: to tell the truth.”

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