AFS Grant
Austin Film Society
Texas filmmakers have their own state fund: cash for features and shorts in production or post, with camera and finishing packages on top.
up to$20kGrantbetween rounds
Screenwriting grants and film funding in United States
37 funds a writer based in United States can apply to: 29 at home and 8 from Europe and the world. 12 take an application from the writer alone.
37 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 States
National and regional funds, broadcasters and foundations at home.
Arts Innovator Award
Artist Trust
Two Washington artists a year receive USD 25,000 for pushing at the edges of their field, with no project report attached.
range$25kGrantbetween rounds
Creative Accelerator Fund
Illinois Arts Council
Illinois pays working artists USD 10,000 by lottery rather than by jury: show an active practice with two work samples and the state lottery draws the winners region by region.
range$10kGrantbetween rounds
Fellowship Awards
Artist Trust
Washington State's merit award for working artists: USD 10,000 with no strings, judged on the body of work rather than a project.
range$10kGrantcloses tomorrow
Grants for Artist Projects (GAP)
Artist Trust
Small, fast and plentiful: 65 Washington artists a year receive USD 2,500 toward a specific project, from research travel to a first draft.
range$2.5kGrantbetween rounds
Minnesota Film Production Grant
Jerome Foundation
The Minnesota twin of Jerome's New York City grant: up to USD 30,000 of production money for early career directors who take creative risks, applied for in two steps each fall.
up to$30kGrantcloses in 23 days
New York City Film Production Grant
Jerome Foundation
A production grant for New York City directors near the start of their careers, in any moving-image form from animation to documentary.
up to$30kGrantcloses in 23 days
NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship
New York Foundation for the Arts, with the New York State Council on the Arts
An unrestricted USD 8,000 for the artist rather than the project, awarded by peer panels in rotating disciplines.
range$8kGrantbetween rounds
BPM Open Call
Black Public Media
Public television's fund for Black nonfiction stories runs one call a year: five projects get USD 20,000 and a place at PitchBLACK, where one leaves with up to USD 150,000 of production…
range$150kInvestmentbetween rounds
Creative Shorts Fellowship
Vision Maker Media
A short film with a mentor attached: Vision Maker Media pays up to USD 25,000 to an emerging Native filmmaker to shoot and finish a documentary, drama, animated or experimental short, and…
up to$25kGrantbetween rounds
Incubator Fund
ITVS, Independent Television Service
ITVS's development door, replacing its earlier diversity development fund: a small first payment to shape a nonfiction feature or web series for PBS streaming, with a few months of…
up to$10kGrantpaused
Media Fund and Shorts Fund
Pacific Islanders in Communications
Pacific Islander stories for public television, in two sizes: an hour or half-hour documentary with up to USD 65,000, or a short of any genre with up to USD 25,000, including…
up to$65kInvestmentpaused
Open Call
ITVS, Independent Television Service
The largest sums in American documentary funding come from public television's co-production arm, which has backed 659 films through this call.
up to$400kInvestmentpaused
Public Media Content Fund
Latino Public Broadcasting
Documentaries and limited series about Latino life for national public television, funded from first research through the final mix.
range$100kInvestmentbetween rounds
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grants at Film Independent
Film Independent, with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Science on screen pays here: three cash grants a year for fiction projects about scientists or technology, awarded inside Film Independent's Episodic Lab, Producing Lab and Fast Track…
range$30kGrantbetween rounds
Building Bridges Documentary Fund
Center for Asian American Media, with the Doris Duke Foundation
Documentaries about American Muslim experience can draw real sums here, from USD 10,000 of research money to USD 100,000 for production or post.
range$100kGrantbetween rounds
range$10kGrantbetween rounds
Creative Capital Award
Creative Capital Foundation
Film sits beside visual art, dance and literature in this national open call, which gives individual artists up to USD 50,000 to make a new work and keeps advising them afterward.
up to$50kGrantbetween rounds
New Filmmaker Program equipment grant
Panavision
No cash changes hands, but a camera package from the house that shot most of Hollywood can be the biggest line in a first film's budget.
StipendStipend or servicesany time
Sloan Distribution Grant
Film Independent, with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
A single USD 50,000 check for a finished science-themed fiction feature heading into release, meant to buy a smarter rollout.
range$50kGrantbetween rounds
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
Also open to writers in United States
European and international funds, and funds from other countries that take applications from here.
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.