Now, onto making Gender Bender 2024 a #10on10.

By the end of this fundraiser, 500+ supporters got us to 71% of our goal - while we hoped for it, we never would have dreamt that so many of you would believe in and root for us. Every contribution has made something possible for this festival - THANK YOU.

All our friends and family (two and four-legged) that have been at the receiving end of coercions for donations, rage-filled rants, and stress-induced squishes :)

Aarthi Parthasarathy and Anoushka for all the brainstorming, strategies and the moral support, Shruti and Anush for being the best interns ever and owning and helping run this campaign like bosses, taking on every task and chipping in 100%, even when they didn’t need to.

Studio PingPong for the design that became this campaign's identity, Falana Films for their fantastic documentation and all the ideas .

All our designers who chipped in with no hesitation, our past photographers and videographers, friends who jumped in and participated, treating the campaign as their own.

Our past jury members and grantees who have willingly and happily shared our posts and contributed, even created their own content. Also our past collaborators for their love and belief in this festival.

We'd have lost our collective sanity very early in the game if not for the many amazing folks who saw us through this campaign.

Long post alert! The last 1.5 months of fundraising have been a crazy roller coaster of emotions mostly spent oscillating between "we've got this" and "no way we'll make it".

We're thanking every star out there for all of you. For your continued presence on this journey ✨ Now, onto making Gender Bender #10on10.

Gender Bender 2024, edition 10 is on - and has been made possible thanks to YOUR contribution, every like, share, word and deed of support and love that all of you sent to this fundraiser, the festival, and us.

🗓️ Apply by 31 August! 🫂 Grant support up to 75k 🤸🏾 Applications/proposals accepted in any language! Gender Bender is a joint project of the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore and Sandbox Collective.

If you have an idea for artistic work that examines and re-imagines ideas of gender, we are looking for you! Send in your proposals for our seed grant of up to ₹75,000 by 31 August 2024. Link below for more information and submission guidelines! https://t.co/up491twe9D

Shares are free, though, so let’s get the word out one last time 😜🙌🏾 Gender Bender 10 on 10 - let’s do this. https://t.co/5oPmqoyEVf Pictured here - Gender Bender 2019 Grantees Joshua Muyiwa and Ashok Vish’s fabulous “Camp: Notes from Bangalore” Videography: Falana Films

NEWS FLASH: LAST 24 HOURS TO DONATE! After a month and a half of fundraising, we’re down to our last few hours - here’s one last appeal for donations 🌸 If you haven’t contributed yet (or don’t mind sparing some more!), the time is now, friends.

Even if for vastly different reasons, the humans and floofs of Sandbox Collective need your help to reach our fundraising goal for Gender Bender 2024. Just a couple of days left for the fundraiser to end. Please donate and share! 🌸 https://t.co/5oPmqoy75H #ListentoGinger

Even if for vastly different reasons, the humans and floofs of Sandbox Collective need your help to reach our fundraising goal for Gender Bender 2024. Just a couple of days left for the fundraiser to end. Please donate and share! 🌸 https://t.co/5oPmqoy75H #ListentoGinger

The magic that Gender Bender works! Help us make magic this year, too - contribute to our fundraiser. https://t.co/5oPmqoyEVf

From covering Gender Bender for the next 5 years to curating possibly one of the funnest photo booths ever for the 2021 edition (Falana Fotowale) to helping us brainstorm and put together this fundraiser (the 10/10 line? That’s all Aarthi), this team has had our backs 🙂

The womance started in 2018, when Aarthi, as a part of Kadak Collective, was chosen for a Gender Bender grant ( a second time!). We got talking, she came back with team Falana to document the next edition, and the rest, as they say, is history.