Regional fund Germany, Potsdam

Förderung Nachwuchs: Debütfilm und Kurzfilm (emerging talent: debut and short film)

Run by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

A separate door for first and second features in Berlin-Brandenburg, with smaller sums and a grant option for low budgets. Script and development money for these films still comes through the regular Stoffentwicklung scheme; shorts must arrive with the screenplay written.

Grant or repayable, up to €250,000Open to writers in GermanyA production company

Submission Feb 2, 2027 (closes in 93 days)

The money

Amount
Up to €250,000Debut films: a conditionally repayable loan up to EUR 250,000, or a grant up to EUR 100,000 when the budget stays under EUR 500,000. Shorts: a grant of normally up to EUR 20,000, once a year.
What it is
Grant or repayable
To apply
FreeThe ILB bank withholds 1 percent of a grant or 3 percent of a loan (at least EUR 500).

Who can apply

Applicant
A production company
Where you write
In Germany
Rules
First and second films by directors or producers, applied for by a production company, never during studies. Shorts: a company applying within three years of the team's training, with at least one short already shown at festivals and a finished screenplay; the producer brings 20 percent. Graduation films are reserved for dffb and Filmuniversität Babelsberg students.
Stages
Production
Formats
Feature, Documentary, Short
Language of the application
German

When to apply

The next closing date is Feb 2, 2027. The dates below are the current cycle's, as the funder states them. The short film round opens once a year; its date was not on the page.

RoundCloses
SubmissionFeb 2, 2027

Dates are as the funder states them. Check the time of day and the time zone on the official page.

Also open to writers in Germany

See every fund for Germany

DevelopmentGermanyNational fund

Jurybasierte kulturelle Projektentwicklungsförderung (jury-based project development funding)

FFA, Filmförderungsanstalt (German Federal Film Board)

Development money for the stage after the script: rights, further drafts, casting, budgeting. A production company applies, except in documentary, where writers and directors may come alone.

Next deadline Dec 15, 2026A production company or a writer aloneFeature, Documentary, Animation

up to€100kGrantcloses in 44 days

WritingGermanyNational fund

Stipendium Stoffentwicklung (story development stipend, Talentfilm)

Kuratorium junger deutscher Film (foundation for young German film)

Germany's talent fund pays a writer up to EUR 25,000 to develop an original idea from research to script over ten months, with a dramaturg attached.

Next dates not yet publishedA writer aloneFeature, Series, Documentary, Animation

up to€25kRepayablebetween rounds

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up to$30kGrantcloses in 23 days

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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…

Next dates not yet publishedA writer with a producer or a production companyDocumentary

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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.