Agility Award
The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon (Ireland)
A first-rung grant for artists the Arts Council has never funded as individuals, to develop their practice, work or skills.
up to€5kGrantbetween rounds
Film funds in UK and Ireland
National Lottery money through the BFI and the three nations' screen agencies, Screen Ireland's loans and the arts councils' awards to a writer alone.
35 listed.
Nothing matches. Try another stage, or leave the country on "any country": international funds are listed under every country they are open to.
Animation Development Loans
Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann
Development loans for animated television series from Irish studios, applied for with a series bible, sample visuals and, if available, a full episode script.
up to€30kRepayablebetween rounds
Authored Works
The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon (Ireland)
The largest of the Arts Council's film awards, for a feature-length film driven by its author's vision rather than a market.
up to€230kGrantbetween rounds
Completion Funding
Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann
Money to finish an Irish feature or feature documentary that was shot without Screen Ireland and has reached a rough cut.
up to€100kRepayablebetween rounds
Creative Futures Slate Fund 2026-2028
Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann
Slate money for established Irish companies to develop several narrative projects at once over two years, with writers' fees, rights and script editors among the eligible costs.
up to€250kRepayablecloses in 19 days
Film Project Award
The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon (Ireland)
The Arts Council's project grant for film as an art form, open to an individual filmmaker as much as to a company, with a ceiling of ninety thousand euro.
up to€90kGrantbetween rounds
First Stage Documentary Development
Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann
Seed money for a documentary feature or series from an Irish company, with rights paperwork needed before any funds are drawn.
up to€15kRepayablebetween rounds
Irish Feature Film Development Loans
Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann
The producer's route to developing an Irish feature, from a treatment or script sample through further drafts, with the same deadlines as the writer-only scheme.
up to€125kRepayablebetween rounds
Production Loans (fiction, documentary, TV drama, animation)
Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann
Screen Ireland's production money across four schemes, each a loan to an Irish company for a project led by Irish talent and mostly in English or Irish.
up to€950kRepayablebetween rounds
Reel Art
The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon (Ireland)
A documentary grant with an unusual brief: imaginative, experimental films about the arts, made for cinemas and judged as artworks. Individual filmmakers may apply directly.
up to€120kGrantbetween rounds
Screenplay Development Loans (Established Talent)
Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann
Ireland's writer-only development loan: a produced screenwriter takes an idea to a first draft with a script editor, and a producer attached makes the application ineligible.
up to€20kRepayablebetween rounds
Short film schemes (Focus Shorts and Frameworks)
Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann, Frameworks with RTÉ
Fully funded shorts for Irish teams: live action through Focus Shorts, animation through Frameworks with RTÉ as co-funder and broadcaster.
up to€73kGrantbetween rounds
Television Drama Development Loans
Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann
Development loans for Irish television drama, applied for by a producer with a writer already agreed.
VariesRepayablebetween rounds
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
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 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.