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
Foundation or company fund United States, New York
Documentary Film Support
Run by 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. It has put more than USD 40 million into films such as No Other Land and Crip Camp. The door is a short letter of inquiry, answered within six months.
Grant, $25,000 to $150,000Open to writers anywhereA writer with a producer
Applications taken any time
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
- $25,000 to $150,000Typically USD 25,000 to 150,000 a project, for production, post-production, impact campaigns, filmmaker-led distribution or paying participants
- What it is
- Grant
- To apply
- Free
Who can apply
- Applicant
- A writer with a producer
- Where you write
- Anywhere
- Rules
- Documentary teams from any country, with a producer attached or a plan to find one, working on a feature or short that engages a social, cultural or political issue. No budget floor or ceiling. Fiction, podcasts and hybrids are rarely funded; for shorts and series the fund prefers to pay for impact work on already financed projects.
- Stages
- Production, completion and distribution
- Formats
- Documentary, Short
- Language of the application
- English
When to apply
Applications are taken at any time; decisions follow in the fund's own rhythm. A letter of inquiry can be sent at any time; an answer comes within six months.
What it gives besides money
Program officer conversations before any invitation to apply; a co-production strand, Perspective Films, adds close executive producing on a few projects a year.
Also open to writers in United States
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
More production funding elsewhere
CMF Indigenous Development, Predevelopment and Production Programs (administered by the ISO)
Indigenous Screen Office with the Canada Media Fund
The Canada Media Fund's Indigenous money is handed to the Indigenous Screen Office to run, with higher contribution rates than the general programs: up to 84 percent of a predevelopment…
up toCA$750kGrant or repayablebetween rounds
Explore and Create: Artistic Creation
Canada Council for the Arts
Since 2026 the Council's Artistic Creation grant stands in for two retired components, Concept to Realization and Research and Creation, and it is the arts council route for a screenwriter…
VariesGrantany time
Indigenous Funding streams
Telefilm Canada
Three ring-fenced streams inside Telefilm's feature programs: development, production and a Talent to Watch component for a first micro-budget feature.
VariesGrant or repayablecloses in 100 days
POV Program
Canada Media Fund
Single, authored documentaries have a selective CMF round of their own, in English and in French, each spring.
VariesGrant or repayablebetween 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.