Funding Opportunities
Back to Documentary ResourcesAmerican Documentary Film Fund
Open to independent American filmmakers for the financing for new projects as well as works in progress. Supports via direct funding, mentorship, editorial support and national distribution and engagement strategies.
Artangel Everywhere
Over the past two decades, through a number of open calls, Artangel has invited UK-based artists to share ambitious ideas to transform the cultural landscape. The resulting commissions have been ground-breaking works in performance, film, installation, and radio, each situated in an unexpected place in the UK.
BFI / Doc Society Fund
The BFI/Doc Society Fund supports creative and hybrid feature documentaries and short films by diverse creative voices from all over the UK. The fund has three calls a year for feature documentaries, and one for shorts.
BFI Young Audiences Content Fund
The Young Audiences Content Fund (YACF) supports the creation of distinctive, high-quality content for audiences up to the age of 18.
Catapult Film Fund
Catapult Film Fund provides development funding to documentary filmmakers who have a compelling story to tell, have secured access to their story and are ready to shoot and edit a piece for production fundraising purposes. Our mission is to enable filmmakers to develop their film projects to the next level at a moment where funding is hard to find. Applications are accepted year-round.
Chicken & Egg Pictures
Chicken & Egg Pictures supports women nonfiction filmmakers whose artful and innovative storytelling catalyses social change. We envision a world in which women filmmakers, representing a range of experiences and backgrounds, are fully supported to realize their artistic goals, build sustainable careers, and achieve parity in all areas of the film industry.
Creative England Growth
Creative England uncovers, connects and backs the best original storytellers; driving diversity, collaboration and growth in the creative screen industries.
DFI: Doha Film Institute
Doha Film Institute's film funding initiatives offer creative and financial support to filmmakers based in Qatar and around the world, helping them to unlock their artistry, manage their productions effectively and make high-quality films.
The Doc Society Circle
The Doc Society Circle is a film fund to support the very best artistic and journalistic films being made by filmmakers globally. It's a fund which complements existing international grantmakers, state funds and broadcast partners for maximum effectiveness. This fund is currently by invitation only.
Film London Funding
Film London directly runs several production schemes - supporting local grassroots film-making talent, artists working with the moving image. Award-winning films have been produced through these varied programmes that were all introduced to encourage creativity and develop skills within London-based film-making communities. Provides various grants for short and feature projects.
Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein
Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein supports cinema films, high-end series and innovative audiovisual formats of all genres. We provide financial support for all phases of the production process from script to screen. MORE INFO
Filmmakers Without Borders
Filmmakers Without Borders supports independent filmmakers around the world via grants and other funding initiatives. Supported projects include narrative films, documentary films, and new media projects that align with themes of social justice, empowerment, and cultural exchange.
Flex Fund (Doc Society)
A joint initiative by Skoll Foundation, Ford Foundation and Doc Society, Flex Fund supports innovative and creative projects emerging from partnerships between moving image storytellers and social entrepreneurs. Flex Fund grants are only available to joint Skoll Foundation and Ford Foundation grantees.
Fondation AlterCiné
Every year, the Foundation awards a grant of 10,000 Canadian dollars and a few 5,000 Canadian dollars grants to some filmmakers to assist in the production of a documentary project. The grant is aimed at young video and filmmakers born and living in Africa, Asia or Latin America who want to direct a film in the language of their choice that respects the aims of the Foundation.
Fork Films Fund
Fork Films awards grants to full-length non-fiction films that foster a culture of understanding and work towards a more peaceful and just society, while utilizing powerful and artistic storytelling methods. Specifically they seek films that promote peacebuilding, human rights, and social justice, with a particular emphasis on projects that bring women’s voices to the forefront.
Good Pitch
Good Pitch brings together documentary filmmakers with foundations, NGOs, campaigners, philanthropists, policymakers, brands and media around leading social and environmental issues. Over a year, the selected filmmaking teams receive sustained mentorship and professional development. This includes two campaign development workshops.
The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund
The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund provided finishing funds to feature-length documentaries which highlight and humanize issues of social importance from around the world. The fund was geared towards films, based anywhere, in production or post-production with no intended premiere exhibition date. Funded films were driven by thoughtful and in-depth storytelling and a compelling visual approach.
The Hartley Media Impact Initiative
The Hartley Media Impact Initiative oversees a fiscal sponsorship program for documentaries that focus on the impact of religions on current global issues.
Hot Docs Documentary Funds (Various)
Hot Docs offer various production funds providing Canadian and international documentary projects with much-needed development, production and completion grants, as well as valuable professional development opportunities.
IDFA Bertha Fund
The IDFA Bertha Fund is designed to stimulate and empower the creative documentary sector in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe by supporting innovative documentary projects by talented filmmakers from these regions. The Fund provides development, production and distribution grants through two funding schemes.
LEF: Moving Image Grants
LEF is a private family foundation that funds creative endeavors in California and the New England region. LEF invests in documentary film and video projects that demonstrate excellence in technique, originality of vision and voice, and creativity in form. Pre-production, production and post-production funding available. Feature-length and primary creative personnel must reside in New England.
Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for Documentary Photography and Film
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for Documentary Photography & Film will award a US$5,000 grant to a single completed “Short-Short” documentary film project. Our grant is open to up-and-coming, independent film makers and directors in all countries. Participant must be committed to the field of reportage and documentary film making. Short documentary projects (10 - 30 minutes) only.
Movies That Matter
Movies That Matter offer a start-up grant for new human rights film events and an impact grantfor existing events that want to increase their impact or want to add new activitiesto their programmes. These events can take various forms, such as human rights film festivals, LGBTQI film festivals and mobile cinema projects. Please note Movies that Matter does not support film production.
One World Media Fellowship
One World Media Fellowship is aimed at aspiring journalists and filmmakers who seek to make a career out of reporting on stories from the global south. We guide filmmakers and journalists on a single project, and provide a supportive network of mentors and peers through the production and completion of their project.
The Pulse Doc Society Genesis Fund
The Pulse Doc Society Genesis Fund is an international film fund supporting the inception of long form feature documentaries driven by imaginative and innovative storytelling.
Rogers Documentary Fund
Supporting Canadian documentary film production in English and French.
San Francisco Film Society Documentary Fund
The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund (DFF) supports riveting documentaries in post-production distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters and an innovative visual approach. DFF grants are awarded once each year to documentary feature projects and are open to filmmakers internationally.
Screen Australia
Various funding opportunities and support for Australian documentaries.
Sundance Documentary Funds
The Sundance Institute Documentary Funds supports the work of nonfiction filmmakers from around the globe. The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund accepts submissions via two open calls per year, with decisions being made in the summer and winter.
The Edinburgh Pitch
The Edinburgh Pitch is the only international documentary pitching forum in Scotland. It is aimed at independent filmmakers and companies developing and raising finance for creative feature documentaries and considering international co-productions.
The Fledgling Fund
The Fledgling Fund offers grants to support outreach and engagement for social issue documentary film projects that have the potential to inspire positive social change around issues that affect the most vulnerable.
The Ford Foundation - Just Films
The Ford Foundation seeks to reduce inequality in all of its forms, and artist-driven documentary and emerging media projects are crucial to this effort. As part of the Creativity and Free Expression program, Just Films funds social justice storytelling and the 21st-century arts infrastructure that supports it.
The Gotham Fiscal Sponsorship
The Jerome Foundation’s Film and Video Grant Program
The Jerome Foundation’s Film and Video Grant Program is a production grant program for individual film and video artists who work in the genres of experimental, narrative, animation, and documentary production.
The Miller / Packan Film Fund
The Miller / Packan Film Fund supports documentaries that Educate, Inspire and Enrich. The Fund is financed through the Rogovy Foundation. We believe in the transformational power that comes from enlightening narratives and inspiring characters.
Threshold Fund (Doc Society)
The Threshold Foundation looks to support documentaries that address the most important issues facing the world using a plan of action that is powerful, innovative, and unexpected. Applications are by invitation only and Doc Society will make recommendations to Threshold Foundations Funding Circle.
Tribeca Film Institute Documentary Funds
Grants and guidance to support exceptional character-driven, nonfiction works that spotlight contemporary themes with an original focus and bold, creative filmmaking.
Visions est sud
The fund supports film productions from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, aims at making them visible worldwide and guarantees their distribution in Switzerland. In case a project is being supported, all rights for Switzerland are automatically transfered to visions sud est.
Wellcome Trust - Public Engagement Fund
At Wellcome, we believe in the power of ideas to improve health. We support thousands of scientists and researchers in more than 70 countries, as well as innovators, educators and artists.
Whicker's World Foundation
The Film & TV Funding Award is awarded annually to an emerging filmmaker from anywhere in the world with the most promising pitch for a director-led documentary. With a main award worth £80,000 and a runner-up contribution of £15,000, The Whickers Film & TV Funding Award is one of the most significant documentary awards in the world.
Women In Film Foundation's Film Finishing Fund
Through this fund, a select group of films is awarded grants in cash and in-kind gifts, enabling them to complete production; many going on to gain distribution, receive top honors at film festivals, and win accolades including Oscars and Peabody awards.
World Cinema Fund
Together with the Federal Foundation for Culture and in cooperation with the Goethe Institute, the Foreign Ministry and German producers, the World Cinema Fund works to develop and support cinema in regions with a weak film infrastructure, while fostering cultural diversity in German cinemas. The World Cinema Fund supports exclusively the production and distribution of feature-length films.