These are some funding sources for documentary filmmakers.
Click on the titles to get more information on these funding opportunities and deadlines.
This list is not comprehensive. If you have updates, please e-mail them to contactATdocsinprogressDOTorg
No Geographic Limitations
All Roads Seed Grant Program: Funds film projects by and about indigenous and underrepresented minority-culture filmmakers year-round and from all reaches of the globe. The program seeks filmmakers who bring their lives and communities to light through first-person storytelling.
BlackPublicMedia.org Open Call for Interactive Web Series: Supports the production of interactive online content designed to engage any audience interested in African Diaspora content online.
Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) Fund: Production and Completion Funding for provocative and engaging Asian-American independent media projects intended for U.S. public television broadcast.
Cinereach: Supports feature-length nonfiction and fiction films at any stage of development that possess an independent spirit, depict underrepresented perspectives, and resonate across international boundaries. We favor story over message, character over agenda, complexity over duality.All filmmakers (including international applicants) must have a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor.
The Fledgling Fund: Supports innovative media projects that can play critical roles in igniting social change. The primary focus of The Fledgling Fund’s creative media initiative is outreach and community engagement. Grants typically fall into three broad categories: Outreach and Community Engagement, Grants for Films in late-stage post production, Innovative Creative Media for use of emerging technology to engage new audiences. All filmmakers (including international applicants) must have a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor.
Gucci-Tribeca Documentary Fund: Provides finishing funds to feature-length documentaries which highlight and humanize issues of social importance from around the world. Eligible films should explore broad social issues or movements through engaging stories that may have potential impact and the ability to inspire dialogue. Films may also challenge the status quo by examining people who are ignored, ostracized or otherwise marginalized; or those fighting for social or political change. We are looking for films that are suitable in style to be able to sustain a festival and/or theatrical run and that could resonate with a mainstream U.S. audience.
Movies That Matter: A program of Amnesty International offering modest monetary assistance to initiate human rights film festivals and to help circulate and exhibit human rights films in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund: Funding for any filmmaker who has ever screened a film at Rooftop Films in New York. Cash awards and mentorships for short films. Equipment and Post-Production grants for feature films.
Rooftop Films/Chicken & Egg Pictures Women Filmmakers Short Film Grant: Cash awards and mentorships matches to female directors.
Sundance Institute Documentary Fund: Research/Development and Production/Post-Production Grants for cinematic feature documentaries about pressing human rights, social justice, civil liberties and related topics from the US and internationally.
Geographically Limited to Filmmakers Based Anywhere in the U.S.
Creative Capital: National grantmaking and artist service organization for individual artists with an open application process. Supports all disciplines in the following categories: Emerging Fields, Film/Video, Innovative Literature, and Performing Arts and Visual Arts.
Independent Television Service (ITVS) Open Call:Completion funds for single nonfiction public television programs on any subject, and from any viewpoint. Projects must have begun production as evidenced by a work-in-progress video. Open Call funding is only available to independent producers who are citizens or legal residents of the U.S. and its external territories.
Independent Television Service (ITVS) Linking Independents and Co-Producing Stations (LINCS): Matching funds to partnerships between public television stations and independent producers. LINCS funds single non-fiction public television programs on any subject and from any viewpoint. Producers must be U.S. citizens or legal residents.
Independent Television Service (ITVS) Diversity Development Fund: Research and development funding to producers of color to develop single documentary programs for public television. Producers must be U.S. citizens or legal residents.
National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) Fund for the Arts: Field-advised, grant program designed to help Latinos develop their creative talents and make lasting contributions to our communities and society as a whole. Launched in 2005 by the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture with major support from the Ford Foundation, the NALAC Fund for the Arts provides financial resources to strengthen Latino arts organizations and to support Latino artists in the creation of their work.
National Endowment for the Humanities America’s Media-Makers Development Grants: Enable media producers to collaborate with scholars to develop humanities content and format and to prepare programs for production. These grants cover a wide range of activities that include, but are not limited to, meetings and individual consultations with scholars, research, preliminary interviews, preparation of program scripts, designs for interactivity and digital distribution, and the creation of partnerships for outreach activities and public engagement with the humanities. Development grants should culminate in the refinement of a project’s humanities ideas, a script, or a design document for (or a prototype of) digital media components or projects.
National Endowment for the Humanities America’s Media-Makers Production Grants: Support the preparation of a program for distribution. Applicants must submit a script for a radio or television program, or a prototype or storyboard for a digital media project, that demonstrates a solid command of the humanities ideas and scholarship related to a subject.
The Playboy Foundation: Seeks to foster social change by confining its grants and other support to projects of national impact and scope involved in fostering open communication about, and research into, human sexuality, reproductive health and rights; protecting and fostering civil rights and civil liberties in the United States for all people, including women, people affected and impacted by HIV/AIDS, gays and lesbians, racial minorities, the poor and the disadvantaged; and eliminating censorship and protecting freedom of expression and First Amendment rights.
Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Prize: Biennial prize honoring the creative process. Celebrates a visionary creative work in process, recognizing the power of original thought and expression in possibly enriching the world around us.
Geographically Limited within the U.S.
New York State Council on the Arts: NYSCA’s Individual Artists Program offers support for the creation of new work by New York State artists through artist-initiated projects in electronic media (video, sound art, installations, and new technologies) and film production, and the commissioning of new work by composers and theatre artists. Artists at various career stages are welcome to apply to this Program. Applicants must be sponsored by an eligible New York State 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Pacific Pioneer Fund: Supports emerging documentary filmmakers who live and work in California, Oregon and Washington state. The term “emerging” is intended to denote a person committed to the craft of making documentaries, who has demonstrated that commitment by several years — but no more than ten — of practical film or video experience.
Geographically Limited to Filmmakers Outside of the U.S.
Hubert Bals Fund: An initiative of the International Film Festival Rotterdam that provides grants to remarkable cinema projects from developing countries. Support for feature films and creative, feature length documentary projects with theatrical potential. Note that creative documentary applications are only accepted for the Post-Production Category.
Independent Television Service (ITVS) International Call: Production funds for single non-fiction television programs that bring international perspectives, ideas, events and people to U.S. television. This initiative is for non-U.S. producers who are citizens of a different country and live outside the U.S.
Jan Vrijman Fund: An initiative of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) to supports documentary filmmakers and festivals in developing countries. Its goal is to stimulate local film cultures and to turn the creative documentary into a truly global film art.
Korda Database: Database on public funding for film and audiovisual works in Europe.
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Check out the Docs In Progress Fiscal Sponsorship Program.
