Netflix unveils five doc fund winners

Netflix has unveiled the emerging directors who will make five documentaries themed around ‘connection’ for the second iteration of its factual talent scheme.

The recipients of this year’s Netflix Documentary Talent Fund will each receive £30,000 to make short films of eight to 12 minutes about diverse subjects.

Each will get support and training to create the films for the streamer’s YouTube channel under the stewardship of lead producer Elisabeth Hopper, with fellow producers Georgie Yukiko Donovan and Daisy Ifama. 

Picked from a shortlist of 12, the winning shorts are:

Iranian Yellow Pages
Directors: Anna Snowball and Abolfazl Talooni (Snow Films) [main picture]
An exploration of why London-based Iranians place “weird and wonderful” adverts in the Iranian Yellow Pages.

Turn Up The Bass
Directors: Caroline Williamson, Troi Lee
Troi Lee, also known as DJ Chinaman, is a dead DJ and pioneer of the UK’s deaf rave scene. The doc follows him as he puts on his 20^th anniversary show.

Two Mothers
Directors: Anna Rodgers, Zlata Filipovic (Invisible Thread)
An unusual bond compels an Irish mother of twins to travel to war-torn Ukraine to rescue the woman who carried her babies.

Black People Can’t Swim
Director: Olivia Smart
Doc following three people tackling their biggest fear, of learning to swim, from a producer with credits including Surgeons: At the Edge of Life and Rio Ferdinand’s Tipping Point.

First Tremester
Directors: Logan Rea, Krishna Istha
A document of a live performance by Sex Education writer, comedian and performance artist Istha, who interviews potential sperm donors in a bid to start a family.  

Netflix’s first cohort, announced in 2021, included Jason Osborne and Precious Mahaga’s Love Languages, which was longlisted for best British Short Film by Bafta.

Tobi Kyeremateng, who also made her directional debut with Owambe, a short co-directed by Tania Nwachukwu, went on to win a Bafta for her short How To Be A Person.

Netflix’s judging panel was led by its feature docs chief Kate Townsend and featured the streamer’s director of original docs Jonny Taylor, Dorothy Street Pictures chief executive Julia Nottingham and Jenny Popplewell, director of The Family Next Door.