Pillars Fund
10 New Filmmakers Awarded Coveted Pillars Artist Fellowship
/ July 23, 2024
CHICAGO — Pillars Fund, Riz Ahmed and his production company, Left Handed Films, are excited to announce the newest cohort of the Pillars Artist Fellowship. This year’s fellows include Oscar-qualifying directors, a father and filmmaker moved to action by the uprisings in Ferguson, the only Arab director to win twice at the Venice Film Festival and an animator who mentors young filmmakers in refugee camps.
“We are immensely proud to be working alongside these principled, visionary, and courageous artists,” says Arij Mikati, Pillars’ Managing Director of Culture Change.. “The competitive applicant pool of hundreds inspires me with an impossible-to-miss reminder: There is no shortage of Muslim storytellers prepared to share fresh, exciting narratives. All they need is the chance.”
The Pillars Artist Fellowship is providing crucial financial and professional support during an extraordinarily challenging time in the entertainment industry, which was already difficult for Muslims. It is game-changing—championing Muslim filmmakers whose work is disrupting tired, harmful narratives while winning over critics and audiences with honest, compelling and unique stories.
Each fellow receives an unrestricted $25,000 and mentorship from industry experts that includes insight for navigating the business, professional development and creative guidance in their fields. The fellows will attend all-inclusive learning retreats in New York City, London and Los Angeles and have access to a trailblazing advisory committee of award-winning Muslim actors, directors, producers and writers.
The eight months of programming are designed to catapult the fellows’ careers and elevate their impact on culture and entertainment.
The 2024 Pillars Artist Fellows are:
- Jude Chehab, Documentarian, New York
- Mahnoor Euceph, Writer/Director, Los Angeles
- Amber Fares, Documentarian, New York
- Nuhash Humayun, Writer/Director, Dallas
- Soudade Kaadan, Writer/Director, London
- Liam LoPinto, Writer/Director, New York
- Aiman Mimiko, Writer/Director, Los Angeles
- Maryam Mir, Writer/Director, New York
- Warda Mohamed, Writer/Director, London
- Mobolaji Olambiwonnu, Documentarian, Los Angeles
We are honored to be working with the amazing team at Pillars Fund,” says Left Handed Films.. “Together, we’re proud to have selected such a promising cohort of emerging filmmakers for this unique program. The Pillars Artist Fellowship has created a community of outstanding Muslim artists with so many successes already under their belt, and we can’t wait to see its legacy continue to grow.”
The Pillars Artist Fellowship Advisory Committee includes: Riz Ahmed, Bisha K. Ali, Mahershala Ali, Sana Amanat, Karim Amer, Mo Amer, Rosa Attab, Jessica Beshir, May Calamawy, Yann Mounir Demange, Mohamed Diab, Sarah Goher, Sahar Jahani, Zainab Johnson, Lena Khan, Nida Manzoor, Hasan Minhaj, Nijla Mu’min, Amina Munir, Jehane Noujaim, Aida Osman, Saagar Shaikh, Bassam Tariq, Ramy Youssef
Pillars Artist Fellowship Sponsors: Netflix, Amazon MGM Studios
ABOUT PILLARS FUND
Pillars Fund amplifies the leadership, narratives, and talents of Muslims in the United States to advance opportunity and justice for all. Since our founding in 2010, Pillars has distributed more than $7 million in grants to Muslim organizations and leaders who advance social good. We invest in community-focused initiatives, push back against harmful narratives, uplift Muslim stories, and organize Muslim donors to give together strategically. Learn more at pillarsfund.org.
ABOUT LEFT HANDED FILMS
Left Handed is the production company started by Riz Ahmed, focused on stretching culture with bold stories. The company continues to have a first look deal with Amazon MGM Studios which was announced in January 2021. Allie Moore oversees production and development for film and television. Left Handed is currently in pre-production on a comedy series for Amazon Prime Video created, written by and starring Ahmed. He will also serve as a co-showrunner alongside Ben Karlin (“Modern Family”). It follows a struggling actor, named Shah Latif, who’s on the cusp of landing a breakthrough role when he finds himself thrust into a full-blown existential crisis and trippy conspiracy thriller all at the same time.
Left Handed won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film with “The Long Goodbye” in 2022 and made history the same year with Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee” the first movie to earn Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature. Most recently, Left Handed executive produced Saim Sadiq’s film, “Joyland,” the first Pakistani film at Cannes, which won both the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and Queer Palm, as well as the Indie Spirit Award for Best International Feature in 2023. The company’s debut feature “Mogul Mowgli,” directed by Bassam Tariq, won the International Critics’ Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, was nominated for a BAFTA Award for ‘Best British Film’ and received six British Independent Film Awards nominations, with the film taking home ‘Best Debut Screenwriter’ for Ahmed and ‘Best Music.’ Left Handed currently has a wide-ranging slate of upcoming projects including a reimagining of “Hamlet” from Aneil Karia which is in post-production and an adaptation of Booker Prize Nominated Novel Exit West for Netflix in partnership with the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions and Joe and Anthony Russo’s AGBO.