Toni Hagen Foundation Documentary

Grant Winners 2025

Enuma Rai for Nitu: A Trail Runner

Enuma Rai is a freelance photographer, writer, and storyteller from Buipa Khotang region currently living in Lalitpur. Her documentary ‘Jarna’ won Best National Documentary at Nepal International Film Festival 2024. In 2022, Enuma’s photo won the “Unsung Warriors: Breaking the Bias for Disaster Resilience in the Koshi Basin” competition organised by ICIMOD. Enuma is a graduate of International Storytelling Workshop 2024 hosted by photo.circle.

Through the Toni Hagen Foundation Documentary Grant Enuma will complete her film Nitu: A Trail Runner about 24-year-old ultra runner and sports coach Neetu Tamang as she prepares to compete in a global ultra trail race. The project previously won the Cut.Katha Pitch held at kimff 2024 which enabled her to begin work on the film.

Safal Pandey for The Loudest Cheer

Safal Pandey, a filmmaker from Kathmandu, loves telling stories with deep human connections—sometimes subtly, sometimes realistically, and sometimes loud and bold. His fiction short Arkestra was selected for kimff 2024.

With the help of the Toni Hagen Foundation Documentary Grant Safal will complete his film The Loudest Cheer about his grandmother Maiya Devi Pandey. A 70-year-old former farmer and housewife from Nepal, Maiya Devi has always been football’s biggest fan in her village. Despite age and hearing loss, her passion for the game remains strong. The documentary captures her unwavering love for football as an escape from her routine life.

Urza Acharya for Sawari Sahitya

Urza Acharya, a writer, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist from Bhaktapur, works at Siddhartha Art Gallery and Foundation. Previously a journalist covering arts and culture through a feminist lens, she discovered her artistic path organically. Her practice spans prose, moving images, photography, and digital art. In her free time, she creates whimsical posters and collects curiosities.

The Toni Hagen Foundation Documentary Grant will enable Urza to complete her film Sawari Sahitya which explores the tradition of vehicle literature in Nepal. The documentary explores how drivers, artists, and viewers transform trucks, vans, and taxis into moving canvases of poetry and wisdom through personal stories and vivid imagery.

Toni Hagen Foundation Documentary Grant

The Toni Hagen Foundation, in collaboration with kimff, invites young Nepali filmmakers to apply for the Toni Hagen Foundation Documentary Grant 2025, offering Rs. 2,00,000 each (NPR. 1,70,000 after taxes) for three outstanding documentary projects. This grant supports short, creative, and impactful documentaries that delve into Nepali society, its cultural and historical dimensions, and pressing socio-cultural and environmental issues.

kimff and the Toni Hagen Foundation have proudly supported the creation of 17 films since 2019, which have gone on to be screened at film festivals around the world and win awards at the Nepal International Film Festival (Lahureni, Bishal Magar, 2022) and Film South Asia (Gaine, Pradeep Dhakal, 2019; Lahureni, Bishal Magar, 2022). This year, we are calling for applications from filmmakers who are prepared to submit well-developed concepts and commit to completing their projects within the given time frame.

Toni Hagen Foundation

Documentary Grant 2025

Grant Focus

The grant seeks to support films that:

  • Provide original insights into Nepal’s society, culture, history, and development.

  • Highlight social, cultural, environmental, or ethnographic aspects of Nepal.

  • Engage the audience with creative storytelling and thoughtful visual design.

Eligibility

  • Applicant must be a Nepali citizen

  • Applicants must be filmmakers who are yet to make a feature length documentary

  • Applicants must present an audio/visual portfolio or sample of previous work and their role in making of the project(s)

  • Projects must propose a film of 10 to 20 minutes in length, focusing on concise and compelling storytelling.

Selection Criteria

The selection committee will assess projects based on the following:

  • Story and Concept: Does the film explore timely and relevant themes? Are the topics engaging, with clear subject matter and thoughtfully developed questions?

  • Artistic Approach: We encourage diverse approaches, including personal, experimental, animated, essayistic, or archival storytelling, and beyond.

  • Access and Connection: Has the filmmaker clearly defined their relationship to the subject, participants, and community, and are they mindful of ethical practices in portraying them?

  • Feasibility and Impact: Is the project achievable within the scope and timeline, and will this grant significantly advance the project’s development

Support Provided

Selected projects will receive:

  • Mentorship and feedback sessions with the kimff Doc Lab team throughout the production process.

  • Mentorship from an advisory board of established Nepali and South Asian film professionals

  • Technical guidance and support, as needed, to ensure the films meet professional standards.

Important dates and deadlines

Dec 10, 2024 THF Grant 2025 Open Call Launches
Jan 10, 2025 THF Grant 2025 Application Deadline
Jan 10 to 30 kimff Doc Lab team reviews applications in a two-round process
Jan 31 Announcement of Grant Winners
Feb 1 to March 31 Production phase, with parallel mentoring and feedback sessions led by the kimff Doc Lab team.
April 14 Submission of the film’s rough cut.
April 15 to May 15 Final round of post-production with parallel support of kimff Doc Lab team
May 28 to June 1 kimff 2025

Screening Opportunity

The supported films will be premiered at kimff 2025, held from May 28 to June 1, 2025, offering filmmakers a platform to showcase their work to an engaged audience of film enthusiasts and industry professionals.

Apply Now!

Submit your concept note and application by January 10, 2025, and take the next step in shaping Nepal’s documentary storytelling.

Note: In case of any difficulty in submission of this application due to disability or language barrier, please feel free to write to the following e-mail address: [email protected]

Previous Grantees

About the kimff Foundation

The kimff Foundation is a private, non-for-profit sharing company dedicated to cultivating an informed, dynamic and resilient Nepali society through the power of stories. We do this by exhibiting, funding and producing works in film, media arts and digital media. As a vehicle for educational, humanitarian, and cultural exchange, we present authentic stories about the rich diversity of Nepal to a wide audience through these mediums.

Since the year 2000, kimff has brought an eclectic mix of films from around the world focusing on mountain communities and cultures to Nepali audiences. It has screened hundreds of films and organized discussions on the state of the mountains and their societies – issues ranging from the political determination of mountain communities, to the emergence of identity politics in adventure sports all the way to the effects of climate change on mountainous regions. 

About Toni Hagen Foundation

The Toni Hagen Foundation was set up in honour of the Swiss geologist and development philosopher Toni Hagen (1917-2003). Over the course of the 1950s and 60s, first as a Swiss development official and later as a United Nations expert, Toni Hagen trekked through a largely uncharted Nepal and wrote about its history, people, geography and economy of what till then was still a largely “forbidden” kingdom. He introduced Nepal to the world and to Nepalis.

The Foundation supports the publication and production of content and activities to enhance the knowledge base of the Himalayan region among young Nepalis. Since 2019 the Toni Hagen Foundation Documentary Grant has supported the production of 17 short Nepali documentary films. The films have gone one to screen at the Nepal International Film Festival (NIFF), Film Southasia (FSA), the Nepal Human Rights International Film Festival and the International South Asian Film Festival Canada. Click here to see full details off all the Toni Hagen Grantees to date.

FAQ

Nepali filmmakers who are have not made a feature length film and are proposing a short documentary between 10 and 20 minutes in length are eligible to apply. Applicants must have be able to provide an audio/visual portfolio or sample of previous work and their role in making of the project(s).

The grant supports short documentaries that explore Nepal’s society, culture, history, and development. Films may focus on social, cultural, environmental, or ethnographic aspects and are encouraged to employ creative storytelling approaches, including personal, experimental, animated, essayistic, or archival styles.

While the grant is for a total of NPR 2,00,000 taxes will be deducted as per Nepal government law and each selected filmmaker will receive Rs. 1,70,000 after taxes to support their project.

Yes, but the application must designate a lead filmmaker who meets all eligibility requirements.

Applicants must submit:

  • A completed application form
  • Proof of previous audio/visual work
  • Any material also shot, recorded or photographed for the film
  • A scanned copy of a government-issued ID

Applications will be assessed based on:

  • Story and Concept: Relevance and engagement of themes and subject matter.
  • Artistic Approach: Creativity and diversity in storytelling methods.
  • Access and Connection: Ethical considerations and the filmmaker’s connection to the subject or community.
  • Feasibility and Impact: The project’s achievability within the timeline and the grant’s potential to advance the project.

  • Submissions open on December 10, 2024.
  • The deadline to apply is January 10, 2025.
  • Selected filmmakers will be announced on January 31, 2025.
  • Production phase with mentoring and feedback will be from February to March 2025.
  • Rough cuts must be submitted to kimff by April 14, 2025.
  • Final post-production phase will be from April 15 to May 15, 2025
  • The selected documentaries will premiere at Kimff 2025, held from May 28 to June 1, 2025.

No, each applicant can submit only one project.

If you have any additional questions, please email us at [email protected]