Regional fund Switzerland, Geneva

Soutien complémentaire à l'écriture (complementary writing support)

Run by Cinéforom, Fondation romande pour le cinéma (the fund of French-speaking Switzerland)

A top-up rather than a competition: when a Romand producer puts its own success credits into paying a writer, Cinéforom adds 60 to 80 percent on top, up to CHF 25,000, with no deadline and payment within a week of approval. It rewards companies that actually pay for drafts, and the higher rate for women-led authorship is written into the rule.

Grant up to CHF 25,000Open to writers in SwitzerlandA writer with a producer or a production company

Applications taken any time

The money

Amount
Up to CHF 25,00060 percent of the production support credits a company invests in a script's writing phase, 80 percent when at least half the copyright is held by women or gender minorities; capped at CHF 25,000 for fiction and animation and CHF 15,000 for documentary, from a CHF 900,000 yearly envelope.
What it is
Grant
To apply
Free

Who can apply

Applicant
A writer with a producer or a production company
Where you write
In Switzerland
Rules
A production company registered with Cinéforom files for the author. Authors tax-resident in French-speaking Switzerland may be carried by any Swiss company; authors from a Romand canton living elsewhere need a Romand company. The money must have been spent on writing the script (or the treatment of a documentary), not on an earlier treatment stage, and the company's fees and overhead may not exceed 15 percent of the writing budget.
Stages
Writing
Formats
Feature, Documentary, Animation
Language of the application
French

When to apply

Applications are taken at any time; decisions follow in the fund's own rhythm. No filing deadline; requests are paid as they come, in stages, up to the annual cap.

Also open to writers in Switzerland

See every fund for Switzerland

WritingDevelopmentProductionSwitzerlandNational fundNames no past recipients

Selektive Filmförderung: Drehbuch, Projektentwicklung, Herstellung (federal selective film funding)

Bundesamt für Kultur, BAK / Office fédéral de la culture (Swiss Federal Office of Culture)

Switzerland's federal money, with a CHF 30,000 screenplay grant at the writing end and production grants that reach CHF 1.2 million.

First 2027 deadline Mar 1, 2027A writer alone or a production companyFeature, Documentary, Animation, Short

up toCHF1.2MGrantcloses in 120 days

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Aide sélective à la réalisation (selective production aid)

Cinéforom, Fondation romande pour le cinéma (the fund of French-speaking Switzerland)

The production money of French-speaking Switzerland, four sessions a year with 2027 dates already fixed.

Next deadline Jan 18, 2027A production companyFeature, Documentary, Short, Series, Animation

VariesGrantcloses in 78 days

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Berner Filmförderung: Entwicklungsförderung Stufe 1 und 2, Produktionsförderung (Bern film funding)

Kanton Bern, Amt für Kultur (canton of Bern)

A cantonal fund with a writer-first first step: a Bern author gets CHF 5,000 or CHF 10,000 to write a treatment, paid out as soon as it is granted, then up to CHF 30,000 for the script.

Next dates not yet publishedA writer alone or a production companyFeature, Documentary, Animation, Short

rangeCHF750kGrantbetween rounds

WritingDevelopmentProductionDistributionSwitzerlandRegional fund

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Zürcher Filmstiftung (Zurich Film Foundation)

The richest regional fund in Switzerland treats the writer as an applicant in their own right: a CHF 30,000 stipend tied to the person rather than a project, and development money an…

Fiction and animation Jan 11, 2027A writer alone or a production companyFeature, Documentary, Animation, Short, Series

up toCHF1MGrant or repayablecloses in 71 days

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Where Creative Europe's development money goesEvery MEDIA development grant since 2014, by country, company and year.Fellowships and labsPrograms that pick a few writers and work with them for months, on the events pages.How to write a treatmentThe document a development application is built on, step by step.Screenwriting eventsContests, labs, festivals and conferences, with their deadlines.