Australian actor Cate Blanchett is the driving force behind the newly launched Displacement Film Fund, which helps refugee filmmakers tell their stories.

The fund was firstly developed by Blanchett and other UNHCR supporters.

“We were talking about how refugees, asylum seekers and people who are displaced often feel invisible, and how could we make their stories more visible,” Ms Blanchett said, during her appearance at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam.

The fund offers up to five individual grants of €100,000 for up to five displaced filmmakers, or filmmakers who create material that highlights the experiences of displaced people.

It also supports short films as they allow displaced filmmakers to bring their projects to life quicker, compared to features.

Ms Blanchett referred to the fact that the number of displaced people has reached 120 million, the same as Japan’s population.

“I find it bewildering, I think we all do, about how vast and urgent this situation is. Yet these stories don’t seem to be getting into the mainstream,” she said.

Appearing at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, Blanchett highlighted the urgency of the situation.

“These very human stories have been politicised and made toxic. I’ve been a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador for almost 10 years now, meeting refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people, and hearing their stories. Their lived-in experience has been inspirational to me. Their resilience, courage, their fortitude. Their stories beggar belief,” Ms Blanchett said.

She said there was a stigma around refugees, which in turn resulted in their dreams and aspirations being disregarded.

The Oscar-winning actor said that displaced people “often feel invisible,” while the “very human” reality of displacement has been “somehow been kept off our screens”.

The fund comes at a time where there are wider challenges for the film industry.

“We’re releasing this fund at a really turbulent, and potentially exciting, time when audiences are hungry for consuming stories in many different ways. Also, the industry is, in a lot of ways, in free fall, and that’s an opportunity to reforge itself into something more exciting as well,” Ms Blanchett said.

The fund’s selection committee also includes director Waad Al Kateab, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, director Agnieszka Holland, IFFR festival director Vanja Kaludjercic, educator, activist and refugee Aisha Khurram, director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, and Amin Nawabi, an LGBTQ+ asylum seeker.