A Massive List of Fall 2025 Grants, Labs & Fellowships

If, like all of Hollywood, you took an extended August break, we’re right here that will help you get again on the horse. Our fall record consists of deadlines for TV writing alternatives in addition to labs, fellowships, and monetary assist for docs and narratives in all phases of manufacturing.Whereas the chaos of our present administration has sadly impacted grantmaking, notably at California Humanities and the Rogovy Basis, we now have scoured the panorama for the brand new alternatives which have emerged.Alternatives are organized by deadline – from September by means of early December– and by class: documentaries, narratives, and screenwriting. An asterisk(*) signifies a chance out there in a number of classes.As at all times, use your finest judgment when deciding to use.Documentary ‘Mayor’ directed by David Osit | Supported by the Catapult Movie FundFemale Movie Membership*The Feminine Movie Membership, a London-based group created to foster neighborhood in the course of the pandemic shutdown, is providing €10,000 in funding to brief documentary and narrative movies to filmmakers anyplace on the earth.The price range is allowed to be greater than the grant, however to make sure the movie will get made, the filmmaker must have all extra funding in place by Sept eighth. It is a fast-track alternative and requires a practical plan in place to complete the movie by October 2026.Utility price is £50Deadline: September 7The Catapult Growth GrantCatapult’s flagship program will provide fifteen (15) grants of as much as $25,000 USD to filmmakers worldwide who’re in growth with a documentary characteristic or brief. This grant can be utilized for quite a lot of growth wants and should consequence within the creation of a fundraising piece as the ultimate deliverable. We prioritize suave, transferring storytelling and usually are not tied to any particular social subject agenda. Candidates might want to have a confirmed US-based 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor in an effort to obtain the funds.Earlier grantees embrace Rita Baghdadi, David Osit, and Elan and Jonathan Bogarín.From Catapult:“We search for suave, compelling tales with a desire for character-driven narratives. The venture must be motivated first by story. Some sorts of movies, corresponding to survey, are much less prone to be a great match for Catapult, however we’re at all times open to inventive approaches. We often don’t fund initiatives that rely purely on interviews as the first narrative machine, or historic and biographical movies, until there’s a distinctive angle or strategy that makes the subject material well timed and related.”Deadline: September 8Women and gender non-conforming movie professionals who’re California residents are eligible for this grant, made doable by the Los Angeles County Division of Arts and Tradition.Quick Type Grants –between $500-$3,000 cash– will assist completion of a brief documentary, with a accomplished runtime of not more than half-hour. There is no such thing as a price to submit, however you should be a registered member of Girls In Media at a fee of $60 for college kids and $120 for business professionals.Grantees may even obtain focused consultations, mentorships, and companies for movie ending. Consultants embrace: Vickie Sampson – Publish manufacturing sound; Jennifer Smith – Music clearance; and Kimberley Browning – Movie pageant technique. Final 12 months’s grantees embrace Catie Skipp, for her brief doc ‘Monster Slayer’ (premiered at Tribeca 2025).Deadline: September 15Funded by All Details, an organization began by two LA-based filmmakers in 2020, this grant will present direct, unrestricted growth funding to empower documentary filmmakers dwelling and dealing in Los Angeles County.$10,000 – $30,000 per venture will probably be given to particular person documentary filmmakers (Director and/or Producer in a key inventive function) for feature-length documentaries meant for principal pictures primarily inside Los Angeles County. Tales ought to discover Los Angeles topics, points, cultures, peoples, or histories. Funds are unrestricted however meant for growth actions corresponding to analysis, writing, creating pitch supplies/sizzle reels, securing preliminary rights or location scouting/journey inside LA.Deadline: September 15This fund, administered by Movie Birmingham, is providing grants of as much as $10,000 in manufacturing funding to scripted documentary brief filmmakers worldwide. Awards will probably be given to initiatives that intend to be in manufacturing not more than six months after the deadline closes. Filmmakers may also compete in a particular class to shoot their movie on real 16mm movie inventory. Winners of this class will obtain 10 x 400ft rolls of KODAK 16mm movie inventory, together with processing prices. Submission price is £30 Common Deadline: September 30This €10,000 grant is open to characteristic movie administrators –narrative or documentary– who expertise marginalization attributable to their gender or sexuality. The winner may even obtain market steerage and manufacturing assist for his or her venture. One of many finalists will obtain the SIMBELLE IMPACT AWARD –an extra $10,000 unrestricted grant for the filmmaker– to be determined by Jury Member Lauren Melinda, founding father of Simbelle Productions.Filmmakers making use of with documentary initiatives should have begun manufacturing and should be looking for ending funds. Utility price is $60From BTTL:“Candidates should reveal how the grant funding will can help you advance in a crucial space of growth – be it casting, location scouting, hiring crew, or capturing a scene – there aren’t any limits, so long as the motion taken strikes the needle in your venture. That is about discovering movies with sturdy inventive benefit and a daring authentic imaginative and prescient, prepared to enter manufacturing earlier than the tip of 2026.”Deadline: October 1 (Late Deadline)BFI and Film4 Future Takes gives assist for higher-budget stay motion, short-form initiatives from groups of writers, administrators, and producers primarily based within the UK. They’ll assist as much as six brief movies, with funding of between £60,000 and £90,000 per movie.Future Takes helps scripted stay motion work or hybrid documentary involving scripted or dramatised parts. Movies is usually a most size of 25 minutes, and the appliance should be made by the lead producer with a longtime monitor file in transferring picture work and be a UK resident. The producer can’t be the author or director of the venture.The director should have a longtime inventive monitor file in scripted transferring picture work and had no multiple characteristic movie produced and commercially distributed within the UK.From Future Takes: “Because it turns into more durable to get debut options financed and in entrance of an viewers, there’s a appreciable hole within the assist out there to filmmakers who might have began their careers however are lacking the piece of labor that may enable them to maneuver on to greater, bolder work.Future Takes goals to assist the creation of modern, bold short-form works that command the next price range and won’t be realisable with out assist. This might imply concepts, settings or filming methods which might be really boundary pushing, both in type or content material.”Deadline: October 20Despite its unlucky acronym, the Filmmaker Help Program (FAP) is usually a lifesaver for Canadian residents trying to get their movie over the end line. This program gives chosen Canadian filmmakers the chance to journey to Montreal to finish a portion of their post-production in-house at Balmoral Studios. Providers supplied embrace post-production companies and entry to post-production gear corresponding to image and sound modifying suites, on-line modifying companies, title and credit design, sound results, voice recording, mixing, entry to the NFB archives, grasp copies, and authoring of an entire digital cinema bundle (DCP).Filmmakers dwelling inside 150 km of Montreal should cowl 10% of the overall value of requested post-production companies. For filmmakers who stay greater than 150 km from Montreal however want to journey to Montreal to entry the companies, the NFB waives the ten%.The movie should be an unbiased Canadian manufacturing. Eligible codecs and genres embrace: Quick, medium-length, or feature-length documentaries, documentary collection for the net, animated brief, medium, or characteristic movie, brief fiction, and experimental movies.Deadline: November 14The IDFA Bertha Fund (IBF) is devoted to empowering the inventive documentary sector in Africa, Asia, Jap Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania with growth grants of as much as €7,500 per venture and manufacturing grants of as much as €25,000.Along with their funding schemes, the IBF gives a spread of actions to empower filmmakers all through the inventive and manufacturing processes, together with tailor-made consultancies, expertise growth alternatives, and entry to IDFA’s markets.From the Bertha Fund:“Documentary movies supported by the IBF specific the inventive imaginative and prescient of filmmakers, utilizing sturdy visible therapies to inform compelling tales that may attain a worldwide viewers. We take dangers on unknown and seasoned filmmakers, supporting their breakthrough from marginalized positions to probably the most revered platforms.”Deadline: December 10Launched in 2018, The DocProject is a program of the Media Freedom and Info Entry Clinic at Yale Regulation Faculty. Below the steerage of skilled media legal professionals, Yale legislation college students present filmmakers with professional bono authorized analysis and recommendation from the earliest phases of their initiatives by means of rough-cuts. Supported movies embrace ‘Lacking In Brooks County’, ‘Pay or Die’ and ‘Unseen’.From DocProject:“The venture’s mission is twofold: to help documentary filmmakers who wouldn’t in any other case have entry to authorized sources, and to coach the subsequent era of media legal professionals.”Deadline: Rolling ‘Voices From The Caravan’ directed by Ilse Fernandez, screened this summer time at Works-In-ProgressFinished your characteristic doc and searching for a check viewers? Movie Impartial has your again. Their L.A.-based screening collection gives a spot for filmmakers to share their initiatives and obtain constructive suggestions. Audiences are invited to look at movies as they enter the ultimate phases of modifying, providing suggestions by way of in-depth surveys and a moderated dialogue, serving to to prepared their initiatives for festivals and distribution.This system is open to filmmakers situated anyplace, however the director and/or key members of the inventive crew should have the ability to attend the screening in particular person. Filmmakers should present a full edit on the time of submission. There’s a $25 utility price.NOTE: Movie Impartial membership just isn’t required when making use of to Artist Growth applications. Nevertheless, all members accepted into applications are required to affix Movie Impartial at the usual annual Basic Membership fee of $105, along with the preliminary utility price.Deadline: RollingIf you are an Australian-based filmmaker, you’re in all probability already conscious of Display screen Australia. Their documentary growth program awards grants of as much as $30,000 (Australian) to one-off and collection documentaries, in addition to VR. A full record of Display screen Australia’s funding alternatives will be discovered right here. From Display screen Australia:“Display screen Australia is dedicated to constructing fairness into its applications and its engagement with the neighborhood. Gender fairness, anti-racism, genuine story-telling, from and about under-represented teams, and inclusivity are priorities for Display screen Australia. We count on that the lived expertise portrayed by means of the narrative and characters are mirrored inside the important thing inventive crew. It is important the inventive crew has the cultural authorship to inform the story in order that telling of the story is genuine. This will probably be taken into consideration when assessing functions.”Deadline: RollingFree session to assist documentary filmmakers primarily based in Scotland, sponsored by the Scottish Documentary Institute. From SDI:“Our consultancies are delivered as one-on-one brief on-line assembly periods discussing your venture and giving recommendation that finest helps you on the stage you might be at. This could come within the type of steerage on pitching and suggesting funding alternatives; we could possibly facilitate introductions to business contacts who might help, or we might type a direct collaboration.”Deadline: RollingNarrative ‘Chasers’ directed by Erin Brown Thomas | Supported by the WIM Quick Movie Ending GrantFemale Movie Membership*The Feminine Movie Membership, a London-based group created to foster neighborhood in the course of the pandemic shutdown, is providing €10,000 in funding to brief documentary and narrative movies to filmmakers anyplace on the earth.The price range is allowed to be greater than the grant, however to make sure the movie will get made, the filmmaker must have all extra funding in place by Sept eighth. It is a fast-track alternative and requires a practical plan in place to complete the movie by October 2026.Utility price is £50Deadline: September 7Women and gender non-conforming movie professionals who’re California residents are eligible for this grant, made doable by the Los Angeles County Division of Arts and Tradition.Quick Type Grants, between $500 – $3,000 money, will assist completion of a brief documentary, with a accomplished runtime of not more than half-hour. There is no such thing as a price to submit, however you should be a registered member of Girls In Media at a fee of $60 for college kids and $120 for business professionals.Grantees may even obtain focused consultations, mentorships, and companies for movie ending. Consultants embrace: Vickie Sampson – Publish manufacturing sound; Jennifer Smith – Music clearance; and Kimberley Browning – Movie pageant technique. Final 12 months’s grantees embrace Erin Brown Thomas, for her pilot ‘Chasers’ (premiered at Sundance 2025).Deadline: September 15An intensive, three-day on-line program designed for narrative filmmakers who want to make the transition into the episodic directing area. Filmmakers should present two samples of directing work, certainly one of which should be a story brief or characteristic. Previous advisers embrace Beth Schachter, Jen Arnold, and Maggie Kiley.From FI:“Six administrators, whose work embodies the range, innovation, and uniqueness we nurture and champion at Movie Impartial, will probably be chosen…Supreme candidates are those that have honed their directorial abilities and inventive imaginative and prescient by means of expertise, together with directing brief movies, characteristic movies, or industrial initiatives.”Deadline: September 22A project-based award for cis and trans ladies and non-binary administrators, aged 39 or older, who’re engaged on their first narrative characteristic. This unrestricted, $25,000 award seeks to acknowledge filmmakers for his or her distinct visions, storytelling and singularity.From Of A Sure Age:“The Lynn Shelton “Of A Sure Age” Grant was created…to honor the legacy of beloved filmmaker Lynn Shelton…Shelton usually spoke of feeling impressed after seeing filmmaker Claire Denis converse at Northwest Movie Discussion board and studying that Denis didn’t make her first characteristic till age 40. Shelton went on to make her personal first characteristic movie (We Go Manner Again) on the age of 39. Within the years since, she constructed a prolific canon of characteristic and tv work and made an indelible mark on the panorama of American cinema.”Deadline: September 27This fund, administered by Movie Birmingham, is providing grants of as much as $10,000 in manufacturing funding to scripted documentary brief filmmakers worldwide. Awards will probably be given to initiatives that intend to be in manufacturing not more than six months after the deadline closes. Filmmakers may also compete in a particular class to shoot their movie on real 16mm movie inventory. Winners of this class will obtain 10 x 400ft rolls of KODAK 16mm movie inventory, together with processing prices. Submission price is £30 Common Deadline: September 30This €10,000 grant is open to characteristic movie administrators — narrative or documentary — who expertise marginalization attributable to their gender or sexuality. The winner may even obtain market steerage and manufacturing assist for his or her venture. One of many finalists will obtain the SIMBELLE IMPACT AWARD –a further $10,000 unrestricted grant for the filmmaker – to be determined by Jury Member Lauren Melinda, founding father of Simbelle Productions.From BTTL:“Candidates should reveal how the grant funding will can help you advance in a crucial space of growth – be it casting, location scouting, hiring crew, or capturing a scene – there aren’t any limits, so long as the motion taken strikes the needle in your venture. That is about discovering movies with sturdy inventive benefit and a daring authentic imaginative and prescient, prepared to enter manufacturing earlier than the tip of 2026.”Deadline: October 1 (Late Deadline) ‘Leaving Ikorodu in 1999’, directed by Rashida Seriki | Supported by BFI Future TakesBFI and Film4 Future Takes gives assist for higher-budget stay motion, short-form initiatives from groups of writers, administrators, and producers primarily based within the UK. They’ll assist as much as six brief movies, with funding of between £60,000 and £90,000 per movie. Future Takes helps scripted stay motion work or hybrid documentary involving scripted or dramatised parts. Movies is usually a most size of 25 minutes, and the appliance should be made by the lead producer with a longtime monitor file in transferring picture work and be a UK resident. The producer can’t be the author or director of the venture.The director should have a longtime inventive monitor file in scripted transferring picture work and had no multiple characteristic movie produced and commercially distributed within the UK.From Future Takes: “Because it turns into more durable to get debut options financed and in entrance of an viewers, there’s a appreciable hole within the assist out there to filmmakers who might have began their careers however are lacking the piece of labor that may enable them to maneuver on to greater, bolder work.Future Takes goals to assist the creation of modern, bold short-form works that command the next price range and won’t be realisable with out assist. This might imply concepts, settings or filming methods which might be really boundary pushing, both in type or content material.”Deadline: October 20Shore Scripts is providing a $15,000 manufacturing grant for a profitable brief movie script, plus $4,000 in ending funds to a separate winner.From Shore: “As a lot as we like to learn scripts, too many wonderful shorts by no means progress past the written phrase, which is why we established the Quick Movie Fund to assist take these compelling tales off the web page and onto the display.Earlier winners have gone on to achieve illustration, bought screenplays, and been staffed on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, & BBC reveals as a direct results of profitable and producing their shorts with us.”Late Deadline: October 31Despite its unlucky acronym, the Filmmaker Help Program (FAP) is usually a lifesaver for Canadian residents trying to get their movie over the end line. This program gives chosen Canadian filmmakers the chance to journey to Montreal to finish a portion of their post-production in-house at Balmoral Studios. Providers supplied embrace post-production companies and entry to post-production gear corresponding to image and sound modifying suites, on-line modifying companies, title and credit design, sound results, voice recording, mixing, entry to the NFB archives, grasp copies, and authoring of an entire digital cinema bundle (DCP).Filmmakers dwelling inside 150 km of Montreal should cowl 10% of the overall value of requested post-production companies. For filmmakers who stay greater than 150 km from Montreal however want to journey to Montreal to entry the companies, the NFB waives the ten%.The movie should be an unbiased Canadian manufacturing. Eligible codecs and genres embrace: Quick, medium-length, or feature-length documentaries, documentary collection for the net, animated brief, medium, or characteristic movie, brief fiction, and experimental movies.Deadline: November 14For the second 12 months in a row, Japan-based Manga writer Kodansha is looking for brief movie pitches from around the globe, funding budgets as much as ¥10,000,000 (about $68,000). They welcome functions from administrators, producers, animators, CG creators, and manufacturing firms.From Kodansha:“We’re calling for submissions from a variety of creators, together with not solely filmmakers but additionally artists with concepts and likewise screenwriters…Kodansha’s objective is to “Encourage Unattainable Tales.” We’re searching for submissions from visible creators who wish to work with us to create inconceivable tales that transcend creativeness, that may encourage the world and the hearts of others!”Deadline: November 30If you’re a U.S. or Canada-based scholar or low-budget indie filmmaker, Panavision may provide you with a free digicam bundle.Deadline: RollingIf you’ve gotten an almost accomplished (or completed) narrative movie with a number one character who’s a scientist, engineer, or mathematician, this grant may very well be for you. From Movie Impartial: “The Sloan Distribution Grant is a $50,000 grant awarded by Movie Impartial to a movie that’s getting into its distribution part. Eligible movies should depict themes, tales and characters grounded in actual science, know-how or economics.”Deadline: RollingScreenwriting ‘Flora Borealis’ written and directed by Casey Friedman, MacDowell alumFilm Impartial Screenwriting LabThe Screenwriting Lab is a two-week workshop held in Los Angeles, designed to supply individualized story and profession growth for rising screenwriters with a fiction characteristic screenplay.Every Screenwriting Fellow is paired with a inventive advisor, with whom they’ll work one-on-one and in group periods. A wide range of visitor audio system are invited to display and talk about their very own movies and provide profession insights, and a closing pitch occasion gives additional alternative for individualized suggestions and interplay with business executives.Previous Screenwriting Lab initiatives embrace Chloé Zhao’s ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’ and Robbie Pickering’s SXSW winner ‘Pure Choice’. Previous advisors embrace Eliza Hittman, Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi, and Ti West. There’s a $65 utility price.Prolonged Deadline: September 8MacDowell’s prestigious residency program has supported tons of of artists since its founding in 1907. Artists are supplied with a non-public studio, chef-prepared meals, and dwelling lodging on their 450-acre property in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Residencies final from 4-6 weeks. Previous screenwriting residents embrace Julia Solomonoff, Shaka King, and Josh Locy.From MacDowell: “About 300 artists in seven disciplines are awarded Fellowships annually, and the only criterion for acceptance is inventive excellence. There aren’t any residency charges, and need-based stipends and journey reimbursement grants can be found to open the residency to the broadest doable neighborhood of artists.”Deadline: September 10The competitors related to the Cinequest Movie Competition gives $5,000 for the profitable characteristic script, and $1,000 for a brief/teleplay in addition to recognition in the course of the Writers Celebration on the fest. From Cinequest:”…the Cinequest Screenwriting Competitors empowers inventive and modern writers with the chance to work together with producers and business professionals from around the globe. Finalists will probably be honored in the course of the Cinequest Writers Celebration, a day stuffed with a dynamic assortment of Author Meet Producer occasions, Enterprise of Writing boards, Pitch Coaching, VIP Writers Lunch, and an awards ceremony saying the winners of the competitors.”Deadline: September 12 The Writers Guild Basis, in partnership with TV writers and producers Tanya Saracho (Vida), Mike Royce (One Day at a Time), and Liz Hsiao Lan Alper (Day of the Useless), created this 12-week course to supply writers who’re BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and over the age of fifty, with the instruments and schooling to change into a writers’ assistant and script coordinator, leading to significant employment alternatives.Graduates of this system are added to an ongoing record of skilled writers’ assistants and script coordinators (WA/SCs) that’s made out there to studios, networks, and showrunners in an effort to enhance the pool of eligible hires.The 12-week course incorporates quite a lot of classes tailor-made to the positions of a writers’ assistant or script coordinator. By the tip of the semester, members may have a working data to combine right into a writers’ room and essential connections to entry these alternatives.The course will happen between January and Might of subsequent 12 months. Candidates should be out there for courses, hosted on-line by way of Zoom, on Thursday evenings from 7-10 pm PT.Optionally available in-person meetups and networking occasions are held solely in Los Angeles.Deadline: September 16 NALIP and NFMLA are collaborating with STARZ for the fourth season of the STARZ #TakeTheLead Writers’ Intensive — an empowering program geared toward nurturing new voices in tv. 4 writers will probably be chosen to attach with 15 business professionals from a various vary of TV backgrounds whereas crafting a spec episode therapy. Every author will then be paired with a mentor to put in writing a full spec episode script primarily based on an present STARZ collection.From STARZ:“#TakeTheLead is STARZ’s dedication to amplifying narratives by, about and for girls and underrepresented audiences. We hope that by taking the lead and remaining fiercely devoted to inclusion on and off display, and all through the corporate, in addition to our dedication to daring, unapologetic tales and characters, it can encourage others throughout the business.”Deadline: September 18Sponsored by Channel 4, this course gives 12 UK or Eire-based writers new to tv drama an perception into how the business works and to supply a “dry-run” of what it may be like to put in writing underneath a tv drama fee, particularly for one-hour collection and serial drama, and to work with them as they write an authentic drama script.Writers will probably be anticipated to put in writing an authentic one-hour drama or serial pilot episode and a 2 to 3-page collection define between January and June 2026. Every author will probably be assigned a script editor who’s at the moment working within the business to information them by means of this course of.Candidates should be out there for 2 separate weekend intensives in London: seventeenth & 18th January 2026 and sixth & seventh June 2026.Writers will probably be paid a price for taking part within the course and for finishing two drafts of a one-hour script. All writers will probably be required to grant Shelley Productions a primary choice for Channel 4 to accumulate all rights of their script and will probably be advised inside six months of supply whether or not Channel 4 needs to train this selection. Solely writers who wouldn’t have a broadcast credit score as a tv author or a theatrical launch as a characteristic movie author might apply. Deadline: October 6 ‘Istikhara, New York’, written and directed by Yasir Masood, Blacklist/NDRC Local weather FellowThe Black Checklist and WiF will co-sponsor 6 aspiring tv writers of an underrepresented gender to a four-week episodic lab. The lab will encompass script growth, peer workshopping periods, and grasp courses with established writers and business executives. All members of the 2024 Episodic Lab may even be 2024 WiF Fellows. The Episodic Lab will happen in LA all year long, and journey won’t be supplied for any occasions; subsequently, non-California residents who can’t finance their very own journey are discouraged from making use of.Deadline: December 15 This Fellowship will grant $20,000 every to 3 candidates to assist the revision of a characteristic screenplay or pilot that engages with local weather change in a compelling approach. Grantees will obtain continued mentorship all through the revision course of, in addition to entry to related consultants and consultants. Earlier mentors embrace Brit Marling, Daniel Scheinert, and Mike Schur.Writers should add a venture onto the blacklist web site in an effort to be thought-about; certified screenplays or pilots will obtain one free month of Blacklist internet hosting and one free analysis.Deadline: November 28Useful LinksKeep an eye fixed on our Grants, Contests & Awards part, the place we will probably be sharing new alternatives that come up all through the season.