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
Regional fund United Kingdom, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Irish Language Broadcast Fund (Ciste Craoltóireachta Gaeilge)
Run by 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 in production. Companies apply, so a writer working in Irish needs a Northern Ireland producer and, in practice, a broadcaster.
Investment, up to £400,000Open to writers in United KingdomA production company
Next dates not yet published
That closing date has passed. We check the funder's page every day and add the next dates once they are published.
The money
- Amount
- Up to £400,000Development: at most half the development budget, with a broadcaster usually providing the rest. Production: usually up to GBP 400,000 and 75 percent of agreed costs, with at least 70 percent of those costs spent in Northern Ireland.
- What it is
- InvestmentThe fund takes a share of the film and recoups from its earnings.
- To apply
- Free
Who can apply
- Applicant
- A production company
- Where you write
- In United Kingdom
- Rules
- Independent production companies based in Northern Ireland, or co-productions with at least one Northern Ireland company, making Irish-language content for BBC Northern Ireland, TG4 or RTÉ, or content with a proven wide audience without a broadcaster. Unsolicited scripts are not accepted.
- Stages
- Development and production
- Formats
- Series, Documentary
- Language of the application
- English, Irish
When to apply
The fund opens once a year. The next cycle's dates are not yet published; we add them when they are. The 2026 television call closed at 5pm on September 25, 2026; the next call is not yet published. Applicants must meet the fund's team before submitting.
| Round | Closes |
|---|---|
| 2026 TV funding call closed | Sep 25, 2026 passed |
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 United Kingdom
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
More development funding elsewhere
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
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
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
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.