Applying to the Sundance Documentary Fund
About this Insider Session
In our Insider Sessions, Sundance Institute staff answer your questions and guide you through the process of applying to our labs, grant opportunities, and the Sundance Film Festival.
Join the staff of the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund to learn about how to apply to the Fund, how our team evaluates applications, the types of projects we support, and more. We break down the different components of the application and offer advice on how to approach them. An open Q&A with attendees follows the presentation. Please note that this 2024 recording does not reflect recent changes to our resubmission policy or the sunsetting of the Sony Music Vision Fund. Check our FAQ for current information.
The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund is a global granting opportunity that supports independent filmmakers of cinematic documentaries, from development through release, on a wide range of contemporary topics and themes. For over two decades, the fund has been a stable source of nonrecoupable funding, supporting work that expresses the world in creative, complex, beautiful, and provocative ways. We remain committed to nonfiction projects that elevate and advance cultural dialogue, expand the form through creativity and innovation, and have the potential to generate social impact around some of the most compelling issues of our time. We seek to uplift projects from filmmakers with distinct visions and meaningful connections to the work they create. As a global granting opportunity, the Documentary Fund remains committed to elevating voices beyond our borders, celebrating a rich diversity of filmmaking traditions. We are keen to support stories that contribute to a more equitable, free and just world. Recently supported films have included All That Breathes, Ascension, Collective, Cookie Queens, Crip Camp, Cutting Through Rocks, Faya Dayi, Fire of Love, How To Build a Library, I Didn’t See You There, Jaripeo, Mija, The Mole Agent, No Other Land, Nocturnes, Seeds, Sugarcane, Union, and Writing With Fire.
Helpful links:
Documentary Fund Proposal Checklist
2027 Documentary Fund Application
Insider SessionTeam
Dominic Davis
Manager, Documentary Film Fund
Dominic Davis returned to the Sundance Institute in 2022 as Manager of the Documentary Film Fund. In 2011, Dominic worked as a coordinator in the Artist Relations of the Sundance Film Festival, where he discovered and then pursued film programming as a profession. While programming for the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History, Tribeca Film Festival and Rooftop Films, he reviewed applications for Catapult Film Fund and Creative Capital and managed the Rooftop Films Filmmakers Fund. Dominic has a degree in mass media studies and political science from the University of Kentucky. When not watching movies, he goes for very long runs.
Evan Neff
Coordinator, Documentary Film Fund
Evan Neff is a nonprofit arts professional working to expand the breadth of stories in independent film to affirm and embrace underrepresented experiences through community-focused artist support. Evan coordinates the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund and has served on review panels for Tribeca Film Festival, International Documentary Association, Impact Partners, The Gotham, NewFest, and SFFILM. Evan produced Sam Green’s Don’t Call Me Gay Zelig (Whitney Biennial 2019), co-produced 32 Sounds (Sundance 2022), and associate produced Storm Lake (Full Frame 2021) and A Thousand Thoughts (Sundance 2018). Evan was named a 2023 Rockwood Institute/MacArthur Journalism and Media Leader and a 2020 Impact Partners Producing Fellow. Evan champions bold, underrepresented voices that have the power to create new ways of seeing.
Katherine Street
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer
Katherine "Kat" Street is an LA-based award-winning filmmaker and Philadelphia native. A cinephile at heart, she writes female-driven stories with complex (oftentimes damaged) main characters, centered around self-discovery, self-love, and belonging.
She has written numerous short-form projects, including original shorts, pilots, and features. She wrote and directed the dramatic short film “Cycles,” which received festival recognition in both acting and best romantic short. She also created her award-winning flagship web series "The New Adult,” which is currently streaming on Kweli TV.
Kat is a Stowe Story Lab SAGIndie Fellow and a participant in the BlackMagic Collective Emerging Filmmakers Initiative. In 2021, she founded the Black Film Challenge, a project that showcases filmmakers of African descent and the movies they create.
She earned her BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a concentration in Cinematography and has literary representation with Yak Yak Mgmt.