Grants & Opportunities
A list of film and media grants, labs, contests and fellowships - updated weekly
Sundance Institute Grants & Opportunities
Other Grants & Opportunities
2022 AXS Film Fund for BIPOC Documentary Filmmakers & Nonfiction Media Creators
DEADLINE: July 31, 2022 This program is for creators of color in documentary filmmaking or nonfiction new media who identify as having a disability. Each year the AXS Film Fund awards up to five creators with grants of up to $10,000 each to assist them in finishing their projects in any stage of production.
2022 NRDC Climate Storytelling Fellowship
DEADLINE: November 30, 2022 The Fellowship will grant $20,000 each to three writers to support revision of a feature screenplay or pilot that engages with climate change in a meaningful way through events, actions, character, emotions, plot, and/or setting.
Actors Fund Entertainment Assistance Program
DEADLINE: Rolling To help our community manage during this public health crisis The Actors Fund has partnered with several industry organizations to provide emergency financial assistance to those who have immediate financial needs. Please note, while some of the funds are for members of entertainment unions, you do not need to be a union member to receive help from The Actors Fund.
Adobe Creative Residency Community Fund
DEADLINE: Rolling The Adobe Creative Residency program supports creators of visual digital work, offering grants of $500–$5,000 for either a portfolio project or a paid Adobe project commission.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation New Media Grants
DEADLINE: Rolling Advance public understanding and engagement with science through the support of innovative projects that use a range of media to reach a broad, cross-cultural audience. Grants support both traditional and web-native media that fall outside the other Public Understanding programs.
AMDOC Funds & Residencies
DEADLINE: Rolling Through our broadcast, interactive and engagement programs, we've has nurtured generations of independent mediamakers with direct funding, mentorship, editorial support and national distribution and engagement strategies. In addition, we provide year-round support for the field through artist-centered programs that include filmmaker funds and talent incubation initiatives.
Behind the Scenes Grants
DEADLINE: Rolling We will accept applications from anyone who has been hospitalized with Covid-19 and is in financial need. Your major source of income must be from your work in the entertainment technology industry, which includes being directly involved with production.
Black Public Media Discretionary Fund
DEADLINE: Rolling The application is an invitation-only funding opportunity. BPM supports storytellers during the most challenging times in the fundraising process -- securing seed and completion funds. BPM accepts proposals for feature-length documentaries, shorts or limited podcast series for public media distribution.
CAAM: Mediamaker Support Opportunities
DEADLINE: Rolling Explore all funding and support opportunities offered by the Center for Asian American Media.
Catapult Film Fund
DEADLINE: Rolling Catapult gives early support to propel projects forward that hold the promise of a story that should be uniquely told in film. Catapult provides development funding, up to $20,000, to documentary filmmakers who have a strong story to tell, have secured access, and are ready to create a fundraising piece to help unlock critical production funding.
CERF+ Emergency Assistance Fund
DEADLINE: Rolling CERF+’s emergency relief grants provide immediate financial assistance to eligible artists working in craft disciplines (such as woodworkers, fiber artists, metalsmiths, glass artists, potters, and furniture makers) after career threatening emergencies. The emergency grants are available to established artists working in craft disciplines including folk and traditional artists.
Creator Fund from Kickstarter, Creative Capital & Skoll
DEADLINE: Rolling $500,000 Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Fund backing projects by Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx creators on the Kickstarter. Effective immediately, funds will be awarded on an ongoing basis to creators with active projects across all of Kickstarter’s categories.
Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism
DEADLINE: Rolling The Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism (ECFJ) is a grant-making program that supports artists producing innovative and revelatory journalistic work for major media outlets. Grant support will range from $500 to $5,000.
Film Independent Fiscal Sponsorship
DEADLINE: Rolling Fiscal sponsorship is an arrangement between an existing 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and an individual or entity lacking the legal status needed to receive grants from foundations, individual donors and government agencies.
Film Independent Sloan Distribution Grant
DEADLINE: Rolling The Sloan Distribution Grant is a $50,000 grant awarded by Film Independent to a film that is entering its distribution phase. Eligible films must depict themes, stories and characters grounded in real science, technology or economics.
Film Supply: Edit Fest Editing Competition
DEADLINE: July 7, 2022 Edit Fest is an annual editing competition that provides editors a chance to break through creatively and showcase their craft. Hosted by Filmsupply, the global leader in cinematic footage licensing.
Final Draft's Big Break Screenwriting Contest
DEADLINE: August 2, 2022 Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest is an annual, international feature film and television screenwriting contest designed to help launch the careers of aspiring writers. Writers who have entered Big Break have had their screenplays optioned, sold, and have secured high-profile representation.
Ford Foundation JustFilms Grants
DEADLINE: Rolling JustFilms supports artist-driven film and new media storytelling projects that explore aspects of inequality, as well as the organizations and networks that support these projects.
Hot Docs Film Funds
DEADLINE: Multiple Hot Docs boasts a $13M portfolio of production funds that provide doc makers with much-needed development, production and completion grants, as well as valuable professional development opportunities.
Hot Docs: Slaight Family Fund
DEADLINE: July 27, 2022 The first of its kind and founded by Hot Docs and the Slaight Family Foundation, this fund is dedicated to filmmakers telling engaging, high-quality stories that embrace music artists in all its forms and that demonstrate Canadian music’s role in the world. The Fund also welcomes international music stories told through the lens of Canadian filmmakers.
Hot Docs: Ted Rogers Fund
DEADLINE: July 27, 2022 This $1-million fund provides production grants of up to $20,000 to Canadian documentary projects.
Hubert Bals Funds
DEADLINE: Multiple The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to help remarkable or urgent feature films by innovative and talented filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe on their road to completion.
IDA DocuClub: Share Your Work-in-Progress
DEADLINE: Rolling The IDA DocuClub is an opportunity for filmmakers to share their work-in-progress in an intimate setting with a general audience at a critical moment in their process. Select filmmakers are paired with seasoned story/editing consultants to help them integrate audience feedback into their film.
IDFA Bertha Documentary Funds
DEADLINE: Multiple Applications to the IDFA Bertha Fund can be made in a variety of different funding categories. In all categories, the Fund is looking for films that use strong visual treatments to tell compelling stories and have the potential to reach a global audience.
If/Then Shorts Documentary Programs
DEADLINE: Multiple If/Then Shorts is a new filmmaking initiative that awards monetary grants and provides year-round distribution mentorship to filmmakers creating short documentaries.
Image Equity Fellowship Presented by Google
Deadline: 7/17/2022 Google's first-ever Image Equity Fellowship is a 6-month, application-based Fellowship awarded to 20 early-career image-based creators of color in the US. Selected Fellows will receive $20,000 in unrestricted funds to create an image-based project that explores and uplifts community(ies) of color with care and nuance. Fellows will receive support from Google and three industry-celebrated nonprofit partners—Aperture, For Freedoms & FREE THE WORK—in the form of dedicated mentorship, workshops, funding and publication of and press for their completed projects.
Impact Partners Development Fund
DEADLINE: Rolling Impact Partners is now accepting applications on a rolling basis for its seven-figure development equity fund. Between 4-8 documentary features, series, or projects will be selected a year and given $10,000-$100,000 per project.
Inevitable Foundation Screenwriting Fellowships
DEADLINE: Rolling These fellowships are for disabled screenwriters who are creating mainstream stories, which may or may not include disabled characters or be about disability. While increasing the presence of disabled screenwriters in the industry will surely advance representation on screen, disabled screenwriters are capable of writing stories that have nothing to do with disability and should have full freedom to choose how much of their work is about a part of their identity or not.
Inevitable Foundation: Mid-Career Screenwriting Fellowship
DEADLINE: Rolling The Screenwriting Fellowship gives professional disabled screenwriters $25,000 in unrestricted funding, bespoke mentorship and access to in-depth workshops to advance their careers and projects.
ITVS Diversity Development Fund
Deadline: 7/8/2022 Diversity Development Fund gives directors of color up to $35,000 in research and development funding so you can develop your documentary for public media. The documentary can be on any subject, viewpoint, or style as long as it is in development or pre-production.
Jewish Story Partners
Deadline: 7/14/2022 Jewish Story Partners offers funding for U.S. documentary feature-length independently-produced film projects that explore some aspect of Jewish experience, are in development, pre-production, production, or post-production, have a director and producer attached (at least one of whom is based in the U.S.) and have footage to share from the submitted project.
Kartemquin KTQ Work-in-Progress Labs
DEADLINE: Rolling Free, intimate feedback sessions for the critique and discussion of work-in-progress by an independent filmmaker. These intimate feedback sessions are open for incomplete projects at any stage of production, whether short fundraising demos or feature-length rough/fine cuts.
Made In NY: PA Training Program
DEADLINE: Rolling The “Made in NY” Production Assistant Training Program is here to help you access your potential in the film and television industry.
Moving Picture Institute Rising Filmmaker Program
DEADLINE: Rolling The Moving Picture Institute's Rising Filmmaker Program supports filmmakers who are committed to developing and producing marketable projects about human freedom.
Moving Picture Institute Screenwriting Workshops
DEADLINE: Rolling In these ten-week virtual workshops, participants develop original concepts under the guidance of award-winning screenwriters and develop them into compelling, pro-freedom scripts for short or feature length films. There is an opportunity for scripts developed in these workshops to be acquired for production as an MPI Original Film.
NYC Women Filmmakers Microgrants
DEADLINE: June 1, 2021 NYC Women FIlmmakers is offering ten (10) NYCWF Microgrants of $500 each to support projects or professional development for Members of the NYCWF Network. Grants can be used for production materials, post production services, film festival or competition fees, film education or training, and purchasing or renting essential equipment or supplies. Priority will be given to projects/films that support underrepresented filmmakers and/or involves NYCWF Network members in key leadership positions.
Pacific Islanders in Communications: Funding and Distribution Opportunities
DEADLINE: Multiple Explore all filmmaker opportunities offered by Pacific Islanders in Communications.
Pacific Islanders in Communications: Special Projects Fund
DEADLINE: Rolling Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC) accepts proposals on an ongoing basis for documentary projects for public television broadcast that fall outside the parameters of their Media Fund. PIC’s capacity to fund these projects is extremely limited and highly competitive. Such projects must meet a set of strict criteria in order to be considered for funding.
Pacific Islanders in Communications: Submissions for Pacific Heartbeat Series Acquisition
DEADLINE: Rolling Pacific Heartbeat is a national public television series of critically acclaimed documentaries that provides an authentic glimpse into the Pacific Islander experience. The series is produced by Pacific Islanders in Communications (PIC) and premiers a new season each year in the month of May.
Points North Institute Artist Programs
DEADLINE: Multiple Our Artist Programs are designed to bring together filmmakers, artists, industry leaders and local audiences, forming a creative community on the coast of Maine that nurtures the careers of diverse nonfiction storytellers and helps them develop a stronger artistic voice.
Pop Culture Collaborative Grants
DEADLINE: Rolling Pop Culture Collaborative grants are awarded to organizations, companies and individuals working to drive mass audience experiences, cultural transformation, narrative shifts, and personal revelations through the power of modern media and entertainment.
POV Call for Entries
DEADLINE: July 31, 2022 POV, public television's premier showcase for independent, nonfiction film seeks programs from all perspectives to showcase in its annual PBS series.
POV's Documentary Funding List
Looking for funding for your documentary? Check out this list for U.S. and international funders.
Project Greenlight on HBO Max
DEADLINE: Rolling Project Greenlight on HBO Max will select one talented, undiscovered woman director for the opportunity to make a studio film for release in 2023. The chosen director will be mentored by Issa Rae and other prominent figures of the industry as they take a Hollywood script through pre-production, casting, principal photography, and post production. The entire journey will be documented and shared in the new series on HBO Max.
Queer | Art | Mentorship Program
Deadline: 7/31/2022 QUEER|ART|MENTORSHIP supports a year-long exchange between emerging and established artists in four different creative fields: Film, Literature, Performance, and Visual Art.
Reel Change: The Fund for Diversity in Film Scoring
DEADLINE: Rolling The Fund for Diversity in Film Scoring is a five-year grant and mentorship program for film composers of diverse ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and abilities that are historically underrepresented in film composition.
Roadmap Writers: Diversity Initiative Competition
DEADLINE: 25th of each month A monthly competition for diverse screenwriters with at least one completed original Feature or TV Pilot who are ready to tackle the marketing aspect of their career. Open to BIPOC, AAPI, LGBTQIA+, womxn over 45, writers with disabilities, and more.
ScreenCraft Film Fund
Deadline: Rolling Every 6 months, up to two filmmakers will be awarded this production grant of up to $30,000 in production funds. We announce the recipient(s) of the grant approximately 10 weeks after each final deadline.
SeriesFest Women Directing Mentorship
Deadline: 7/8/2022 The SeriesFest Women Directing Mentorship offers the opportunity to shadow a director for an episode of a Shondaland original series and provides a $5,000 stipend to use during the duration of the mentorship.
SFFILM Grants
DEADLINE: Multiple Our grants and fellowships provide financial support to independent filmmakers from across the country and throughout the world working on feature-length narrative and documentary projects.
Stochastic Labs Residency
DEADLINE: Rolling Stochastic Labs awards fully sponsored residencies to exceptional engineers, artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs from around the world.
Streetlights Production Assistant Training Program
DEADLINE: Rolling Streetlights is a non-profit job training, job placement and career advancement program founded to assist economically and/or socially disadvantaged young minority men and women to create ethnic diversity in commercial, feature and television production.
The Gotham: Documentary Development Initiative
DEADLINE: July 26, 2022 The Documentary Development Initiative is a new partnership between The Gotham and HBO Documentary Films. The program is created for storytellers who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and/or storytellers with disabilities. The program’s intent is to provide resources to develop thought-provoking, character-driven contemporary ideas for documentary films and limited series.
Women Make Movies Fiscal Sponsorship Program
DEADLINE: Rolling Our Fiscal Sponsorship is designed for women filmmakers who are actively fundraising for their film or video project and need 501(c)(3) non-profit tax-exempt status.
Writer’s Vision Grant from The Blacklist & Warby Parker
DEADLINE: August 15, 2022 Three writers in film, television, and theater will be awarded $20,000 each to either film a short proof of concept based on their feature, develop a new work for the stage, or develop and write an original pilot.