SFFILM has awarded $543,000 in grants to film filmmakers from around the world. The funding, announced today , will support over 30 projects ranging from short films to full-length documentaries.

While the artistic development grants support filmmakers as far away as Haiti, Honduras, Ghana and Guatemala, a handful of recipients have Bay Area ties — and are telling Bay Area stories. San Francisco-based Sahand Nikoukar , Berkeley filmmaker Elivia Shaw , and Stanford professor Jamie Meltzer , as well as San Francisco born-and-raised artist Róisín Isner and Richmond’s own Vicky Ponce are all SFFILM grantees.

“I’m excited,” says Ponce. The funds will assist in the post-production for her comical coming-of-age film, Juan Po and The Last Day of School .

The story, written by Pon

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