BFI Development Funding
BFI (British Film Institute), National Lottery
The main public route for developing a British fiction feature, from treatment through to a screenplay ready to finance.
VariesGrant or repayableany time
Screenwriting grants and film funding in United Kingdom
39 funds a writer based in United Kingdom can apply to: 22 at home and 17 from Europe and the world. 15 take an application from the writer alone.
39 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 United Kingdom
National and regional funds, broadcasters and foundations at home.
BFI Doc Society Fund: features development and production
Doc Society for the BFI (British Film Institute), National Lottery
The UK's National Lottery money for feature documentaries, run by Doc Society.
range£150kGrantcloses in 50 days
BFI Filmmaking Fund: Discovery and Impact feature funding
BFI (British Film Institute), National Lottery
Production money for British features in two strands split by budget and by the director's experience.
up to£1.3MGrant or repayablecloses in 45 days
Made of Truth (BFI Doc Society short film fund)
Doc Society for BFI NETWORK (British Film Institute), National Lottery
A yearly grant for short documentaries by UK filmmakers at the start of their careers, in live action or animation.
up to£25kGrantbetween rounds
UK Global Screen Fund: International Co-production
BFI (British Film Institute) for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Government money, administered by the BFI, for UK companies joining international co-productions as the smaller partner.
up to£300kGrantcloses in 23 days
BFI NETWORK England short film funding
BFI NETWORK (British Film Institute), National Lottery
Grants for fictional shorts by filmmakers starting out in England, with the producer signing the application and the writer part of the team.
range£25kGrantbetween rounds
BFI NETWORK England: Early Development Fund
BFI NETWORK (British Film Institute), National Lottery
One of very few British public grants a writer can hold alone, paid to write a treatment for a debut feature before any script exists.
range£5kGrantcloses in 10 days
Feature Film Development
Ffilm Cymru Wales, National Lottery via Arts Council of Wales and BFI NETWORK
Development money for a single feature, documentary or animated film with a Welsh writer, director or producer at its head, and a lone writer may apply.
up to£25kGrant or repayablecloses in 93 days
Feature Film Production
Ffilm Cymru Wales, National Lottery via Arts Council of Wales and Welsh Government via Creative Wales
Production investment for Welsh-led features heading for cinemas, normally capped at half the budget.
up to£600kInvestmentcloses in 3 days
Film Development and Production Fund
Screen Scotland (Creative Scotland), National Lottery and Scottish Government
Scotland's main film fund, in two routes.
range£500kGrant or repayableany time
First Features (Short Circuit)
Screen Scotland and BFI NETWORK, delivered by Film City Futures with Glasgow Film
Development money for a first feature script in Scotland, paid to the writer rather than a company.
up to£20kGrantany time
Green Lit (Northern Ireland Screen and BBC Northern Ireland drama initiative)
Northern Ireland Screen with BBC Northern Ireland
A broadcaster-backed pipeline for emerging Northern Irish drama talent: six outlines win development money, three become standalone scripted films for BBC One Northern Ireland and iPlayer…
up to£10kGrantbetween rounds
Irish Language Broadcast Fund (Ciste Craoltóireachta Gaeilge)
Northern Ireland Screen
Northern Ireland's fund for television made in Irish, across every genre, with the broadcaster usually matching development money and the fund investing up to four hundred thousand pounds…
up to£400kInvestmentbetween rounds
New Writer Focus
Northern Ireland Screen
Northern Ireland Screen's only door for an individual writer: up to four first-time feature writers a year join an eight-month development scheme and can then claim a small individual award.
up to£2.3kGrantbetween rounds
Northern Ireland Screen Fund (production)
Gap finance for feature films, television drama, animation, factual and interactive projects shooting in Northern Ireland, offered once most of the budget is already committed.
VariesGrant or repayableany time
Open Fund for Individuals
Creative Scotland, National Lottery and Scottish Government
Creative Scotland's general grant for individual artists and writers, paying for a period of research, development or making, with the applicant's own time an allowed cost.
range£50kGrantany time
Script, Project and Slate Development funding
Northern Ireland Screen
Recoupable development money for feature film and television drama scripts, and for single projects or slates across film, TV and interactive work.
up to£100kRepayableany time
Short film schemes (Short Film Call, Creative Animation, New Shorts Focus)
Northern Ireland Screen, with Arts Council of Northern Ireland and BFI NETWORK lottery funds
Three short film schemes under one roof for Northern Ireland talent: a production call for live action, factual and VR shorts, an animation scheme run through local studios, and a…
up to£40kGrantbetween rounds
Support for the Individual Artist Programme: Project Funding for Individual Artists
Arts Council of Northern Ireland, National Lottery
Northern Ireland's lottery grant for an individual artist's own project, covering new work, research, time to create, residencies or training.
range£15kGrantbetween rounds
Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund
Northern Ireland Screen
Content money for programs and short digital work in or about Ulster-Scots culture and language, run by Northern Ireland Screen with BBC Northern Ireland as its main partner.
up to£40kGrant or repayableany time
WRITE NOW early stage development documentary fund
Scottish Documentary Institute
A small grant for the writing phase of a first or second feature documentary by a director based in Scotland, before there is anything to shoot.
up to£3kGrantbetween rounds
Emerging Indie Fund
Channel 4
Rather than fund one script, Channel 4 picks up to five regional companies a year (plus two digital ones) and pays for their development slates while a commissioner meets them regularly.
VariesGrantbetween rounds
Also open to writers in United Kingdom
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
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.