Documentary Development Program
Screen Australia
Development money for documentaries headed for cinemas, television or direct-to-audience platforms such as YouTube and VR.
up toA$30kRepayableany time
Screenwriting grants and film funding in Australia
48 funds a writer based in Australia can apply to: 31 at home and 17 from Europe and the world. 17 take an application from the writer alone.
48 listed.
Nothing matches. Try another stage, or leave the country on "any country": international funds are listed under every country they are open to.
Based in Australia
National and regional funds, broadcasters and foundations at home.
Documentary Production Program
Screen Australia
Three lanes for documentary production: Producer First for films still closing finance, Platform First for commissioned programs, and Direct-to-Audience for work released on YouTube…
up toA$500kInvestmentcloses in 95 days
First Nations Documentary Development
Screen Australia, First Nations Department
Treatments, draft scripts, research and sizzle shooting for documentaries by First Nations key creatives, including emerging producers.
up toA$30kGrantcloses in 74 days
First Nations Feature Development
Screen Australia, First Nations Department
Draft money for feature screenplays by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers with a track record.
up toA$45kGrantcloses in 74 days
First Nations Feature Production Fund
Screen Australia, First Nations Department
Production and post-production investment for low-budget features written and directed by First Nations filmmakers.
VariesInvestmentany time
First Nations TV Drama Development
Screen Australia, First Nations Department
Series bibles, treatments and scripts for telemovies and television drama led by First Nations writers. The series cap of AUD 65,000 is the highest of the department's development strands.
up toA$65kGrantcloses in 74 days
Narrative Content Development
Screen Australia
The national agency's one development door for drama and comedy on any platform: cinema features, television and streaming series, and work released straight to online audiences.
rangeA$50kGrantany time
Narrative Content Production
Screen Australia
Production finance for features, television and direct-to-audience drama, in two feature lanes: Market First for packages with distribution attached and Creative First for bolder films…
VariesInvestmentcloses in 32 days
ABC First Look, Early Development Grant
South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) with the ABC
Early concept money aimed at one buyer: drama, comedy, children's, factual and documentary ideas for the ABC, developed in South Australia from an outline or treatment.
up toA$50kGrantcloses in 12 days
Development Fund
Screen Queensland
Since July 2024 Queensland's development money has been a straight grant with no copyright interest taken, unusual among the Australian state agencies.
up toA$50kGrantany time
Development On Demand
VicScreen
Victoria's open-door development scheme for fiction, documentary and VR, with no closing date.
up toA$50kRepayableany time
Development Program
Screen NSW
New South Wales pays only the NSW spend, so a Sydney-based writer's fee is exactly what it covers.
up toA$50kRepayableany time
Direct to Audience Production Program (Canberra Screen and Games Fund)
Screen Canberra, for the ACT Government
Grants for Canberra creators who publish their own short-form narrative, comedy, factual or animation online, with two local key creatives and no commission attached.
up toA$40kGrantcloses in 138 days
Diversity Development Grant
South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC)
A development grant that opens after the first draft and asks for a South Australian writer or director from an underrepresented group, with D/deaf and disabled creatives first in line.
up toA$20kGrantbetween rounds
Documentary Development Investment Fund
Screenwest
Pitch decks, treatments, sizzle reels and the attaching of producers for Western Australian documentary features, singles, series and large-format work.
up toA$25kRepayablecloses in 50 days
Documentary Production Fund
Screenwest
Production money for Western Australian documentary singles, series, features and large-format films that already have a market partner, matched against that partner's cash.
up toA$400kGrantcloses in 43 days
First Nations Project Development Fund
Screenwest
Year-round development money for First Nations writers and producers in Western Australia, covering writers' rooms, new drafts, story developers and casting agents for scripted work, or…
up toA$35kRepayableany time
Matched Development Investment Fund
Screenwest
Once a broadcaster or distributor puts development money into a Western Australian project, Screenwest can match it within eight weeks of the deal. The investment is repaid on production.
up toA$50kRepayableany time
Matched Market Development Grant
South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC)
Automatic rather than judged: if a project led from South Australia has development money confirmed from Screen Australia or the market, the SAFC matches it, subject to funds.
VariesGrantany time
Online Production Grants
Screen Queensland
A rare production grant a solo writer-creator can hold alone: episodic series for YouTube, TikTok or Instagram, or one-off XR, with no IP taken and marketing costs allowed.
rangeA$100kGrantbetween rounds
Originate Slate
VicScreen
Slate money for established Victorian drama and comedy companies: at least three early-stage series over 12 to 24 months, with VicScreen's grant matched by the company and not recouped.
up toA$150kGrantcloses in 22 days
Production Fund (Production Finance Fund and Regional Filming Fund)
Screen NSW
The state's production money is a grant, not equity: Screen NSW cash-flows it and the producer keeps ownership.
up toA$1.1MGrantcloses in 22 days
Screen Finance Fund
Screen Queensland
Production finance for features, series and documentaries that spend in Queensland, scaled to that spend.
up toA$850kGrant or repayableany time
Screen Production Fund
South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC)
South Australia's main production money, sized at up to a tenth of what a project spends in the state and open all year.
VariesGrantany time
Screenability Filmmakers Fund
Screen NSW
A short-film production fund for New South Wales teams led or co-led by a filmmaker with a disability.
VariesGrantpaused
Scripted Concept Development Fund
Screenwest
Small early money, AUD 10,000 at most, to take a long-form idea to market-ready pitch materials in Western Australia.
up toA$10kGrantcloses in 121 days
Scripted Production Fund
Screenwest
Grant finance of up to AUD 700,000 for features and series shot in Western Australia with a buyer already attached.
up toA$700kGrantcloses in 85 days
Scripted Project Development Fund
Screenwest
Development money for Western Australian features and television series that already have real material: outlines, a pilot, a bible or a draft screenplay. Four rounds a year.
up toA$35kRepayablecloses tomorrow
Short Film Fund
Screen Queensland
Grants of up to AUD 50,000 for 5 to 15 minute shorts aimed at cinema screens, with a polished screenplay required at application and no treatments accepted.
up toA$50kGrantbetween rounds
TV and Film Production Program (Canberra Screen and Games Fund)
Screen Canberra, for the ACT Government
Canberra's production grant for scripted and unscripted work with a confirmed path to audience, from a commercial half hour upward, paying up to AUD 300,000 without recoupment.
up toA$300kGrant or repayablecloses in 138 days
Victorian Production Fund, Screen
VicScreen
Production investment tied to how much a film or series spends in Victoria: between 3 and 10 percent of that spend, cash-flowed into the production while the producer keeps the equity.
up toA$500kInvestmentany time
Also open to writers in Australia
European and international funds, and funds from other countries that take applications from here.
Catapult Development Grant
Catapult Film Fund
Seed money for documentaries at the point where nobody else will pay: a grant to shoot and cut the sample that raises the rest.
range$25kGrantbetween rounds
Documentary Film Support
Perspective Fund
A private documentary funder that reads inquiries all year and writes checks of USD 25,000 to 150,000 without taking rights or credits below USD 150,000.
range$150kGrantany time
IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund
International Documentary Association, with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
A production fund for documentaries built on reporting, created in 2017 as an answer to misinformation.
VariesGrantpaused
JustFilms
Ford Foundation
The foundation behind much of American social-issue documentary takes direct proposals from filmmakers through a periodic open call, scored on fit with Ford's justice themes…
VariesGrantpaused
Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The best known paid year of writing in American film: a USD 35,000 stipend to finish a new feature screenplay, open to unproduced writers anywhere in the world.
range$35kGrantbetween rounds
Research & Development Grant
Chicken & Egg Films
Paid thinking time for women and gender-expansive documentary directors between films: a USD 10,000 research grant or a USD 20,000 development grant, with the stage chosen by the applicant.
range$20kGrantbetween rounds
Roy W. Dean Grant
From the Heart Productions
Small cash, large bundle: the winner takes USD 3,500 and a package of donated post, music and consulting worth several times that, for a film meant to do some good.
range$3.5kGrant or repayablebetween rounds
SFFILM Documentary Film Fund
Post-production money for feature documentaries that are shot but not cut, from the San Francisco festival's foundation arm.
range$20kGrantbetween rounds
SFFILM Rainin Grant
SFFILM, with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation
One of the few American grants that pays a screenwriter directly to write, and it can also fund packaging or the edit of the same film later.
up to$25kGrantbetween rounds
Aide aux cinémas du monde (world cinema support)
CNC, Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, with the Institut français
The French door for filmmakers from anywhere else: a grant of up to EUR 300,000 for a feature co-produced with a French company, and a smaller sum to finish a film already shot.
up to€300kGrantcloses in 8 days
Bourse d'écriture cinéma long-métrage (feature film writing bursary)
Association Beaumarchais-SACD
A writer alone, writing in French from anywhere in the world, can win EUR 5,000 for a first or second fiction feature.
range€5kGrantbetween rounds
Bourse d'écriture télévision (television writing bursary)
Association Beaumarchais-SACD
The television twin of the Beaumarchais feature bursary: EUR 5,000 to an emerging writer for an original series or single drama in French, with web series welcome.
range€5kGrantbetween rounds
Film Fund (Trentino Film Commission)
Trentino Film Commission, Trentino Sviluppo (Provincia autonoma di Trento)
A production fund for works shot in Trentino, with the committee meeting about every three months and approved projects listed on the portal back to 2011.
up to€400kGrantpaused
Fondo Grandi Produzioni (large productions fund)
Regione Autonoma della Sardegna and Fondazione Sardegna Film Commission
Money for bigger films that bring a shoot to Sardinia, in three categories by budget size, with a documentary strand. The round was reopened in autumn 2026 for the remaining funds.
up to€338kGrantcloses in 8 days
FVG Film Fund (Friuli Venezia Giulia regional production fund)
Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia, through Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission
A production fund scored on how much of the film happens in the region, with three closing dates a year and a ranking issued within 30 days of each.
up to€350kGrantbetween rounds
IDM Film Fund Südtirol Alto Adige (production, development and short film funding)
IDM Südtirol Alto Adige, Film Fund and Commission
Open to producers from any country, which is rare for a regional fund, as long as the shoot touches South Tyrol.
VariesGrantcloses in 72 days
Doha Film Institute Grants Programme
A rare worldwide grant for a first or second feature at the development stage, with real money behind it: up to USD 20,000 to write and package a narrative feature, more later for…
up to$100kGrantbetween rounds
Also useful
Fellowships and labsPrograms that pick a few writers and work with them for months, on the events pages.Where Creative Europe's development money goesEvery MEDIA development grant since 2014, by country, company and year.How to write a treatmentThe document a development application is built on, step by step.Screenwriting eventsContests, labs, festivals and conferences, with their deadlines.