Shore Scripts Announces Fall 2023 Short Film Fund Grant Recipient Anjini Taneja Azhar

LOS ANGELES - Dec. 14, 2023 - PRLog -- Shore Scripts announces its Grand Prize Winner of the Fall 2023 Short Film Fund, which awards a $15,000 cash production grant to emerging filmmakers. Who Are You, Nanu? written by Anjini Taneja Azhar is about eight-year-old oddball Aisha who, after her grandfather's (Nanu's) ceremonial cremation brings her to the Holy Ganges River in India, befriends the phantom of her Nanu's rambunctious 11-year-old self and discovers the journey after death.

Since 2015, Azhar has written and directed multiple award-winning shorts, produced for renowned companies such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and artists like Olivia Rodrigo, and co-written a feature for respected producers at CAA. Her most recent narrative short, Everywhere You Go, premiered at the Oscar-qualifying LA Shorts Int'l Film Festival.

At three years old, Azhar's Nanu (grandfather) survived the 1935 Quetta, Pakistan Earthquake that obliterated the entire village. After losing his family, he grew up as an orphan, a ghost, in the streets of India during the partition of India-Pakistan. Who Are You, Nanu? is a personification of utter admiration, and the melancholy that comes with his approaching 90th birthday, as Azhar witnesses the changes that come with old age and the many questions she has left about his incredible story as he begins to forget the answers himself.

The grant's prize package also includes industry guidance from two-time Oscar-nominated producer, Maria Gracia Turgeon (FAUVE, Brotherhood), camera equipment rental provided by ARRI Rental, film festival strategy consultency from Tribeca programmer, filmmaker, and Academy member Kimberley Browning, and more.

The 2nd Place Prize of $1,000 cash was awarded to Michael Basha for My Idiot Sister. The Fund awards prizes for 15 Finalists and accepts short scripts, proofs-of-concept, and submissions from in-production short films seeking finishing funds.

Shore Scripts' first Short Film Fund grant was awarded in 2016 for Salam, written and directed by Claire Fowler, which premiered at Tribeca in 2018 and went on to win a BAFTA Cymru in 2020. Recent alumnus Alexandra Qin's short Thirstygirl is an Official Selection at Sundance 2024.

Shore Scripts was founded in 2012 by producer David Beazley to connect emerging writers with the film and television industry and provide much-needed support as they advance their careers. Since the inception of the Short Film Fund, Shore Scripts has greenlit 19 commissioned short films (http://www.shorescripts.com/history-of-the-short-film-fund/). Production funding is currently awarded twice a year. The 2024 Spring Season of the Short Film Fund will open on January 15, 2024, and award another $15,000 cash production grant to one winning short script.