Funding bodies for documentary

The following overview contains the main funding bodies for documentary filmmakers seeking support for their projects.

Global

• Alter-Ciné Foundation (for young filmmakers born and living in Africa, Asia or Latin America)

• Catapult Film Fund (development funding for international projects)

• CNC Aide aux cinémas du monde (French co-producer required)

• Claims Conference Grant (film grants as part of their ongoing support for Holocaust education, documentation and research)

• CrossCurrent International Doc Funds (supports doc projects by filmmakers from, and telling stories of, underrepresented and marginalized communities around the world)

• Doc Society Climate Story Fund (production and impact grants to creative storytelling projects; feature docs, shorts, web series, animations)

• Doha Film Institute (post-production grants)

• Francophonie (companies or individuals from OIF member states only)

• Hubert Bals Fund (curatorial fund dedicated to supporting filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe in every stage of the filmmaking process; part of IFFR and mainly focused on fiction films)

• IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund (provides production funds to documentary films using journalistic research practice while still making cinematic and artistically rigorous work)

• International Television Service (ITVS) grants (documentary funding and co-production support)

• Impact Partners Films (funding independent documentary storytelling worldwide)

• JustFilms by Ford Foundation (supports artist-driven film and new media storytelling projects that explore aspects of inequality, as well as the organizations and networks that support these projects)

• Perspective Fund (production grants, impact planning & campaign grant and film participants grant)

• The Redford Center (supports environmental filmmakers and frontline stories that drive solutions for people and the planet)

• SCAM Brouillon d’un rêve (development fund, applications in French only)

• Sundance Institute Documentary Fund (supports the work of nonfiction filmmakers from around the globe)

• SFFILM Documentary Film Fund (supports engaging documentaries in post-production)

• Sorfond Norwegian South Film Fund (Norwegian co-producer required)

• Visions Sud Est (supports film productions from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, aims at making them visible worldwide and guarantees their distribution in Switzerland)

• The Whickers (Supports director-led documentaries from emerging filmmakers and audio documentary-makers worldwide and offers development grants for independent documentary filmmakers from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and (West) Asia)

• World Cinema Fund by Berlinale (supports exclusively the production and distribution of feature films and feature-length documentaries; focused on the following regions and countries: Latin America, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Caucasus as well as Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia and Sri Lanka)

Africa

• Africalia (supports creative projects across the African continent)

• Africa No Filter (grants to African storytellers and content creators with a goal to give space to voices that are historically misrepresented and under-represented across the continent)

• AFAC (supports creative documentary films in the Arab region)

• Documentary Africa (development, production, post-production and impact of documentary films grants to filmmakers and producers from the African continent)

• Doha film Institute (development, production and post-production grants for MENA filmmakers)

• Docubox (supports East African filmmakers)

• Hot Docs-Blue Ice Docs Funds (provides development grants and production grants to four to ten projects annually)

Asia

• Asian Cinema Fund (post-production, script development and documentary grants for Korean and Asian films)

• Doha film Institute (development, production and post-production grants for MENA filmmakers)

• SGIFF Southeast Asian Documentary Grant (supports Southeast Asian documentary filmmakers with four mid-length or feature documentaries grants annually)

• Purin Pictures (supports independent cinema in Southeast Asia)

Europe

• BFI Doc Society Fund (supports creative and hybrid feature documentaries films by diverse, emerging voices from all over the UK)

• DOKweb (supporting creative documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe)

• Ji.hlava Film Fund (provides in-kind grants for visual and sound post-production of documentary and hybrid films at the stage of production or post-production)

• Creative Europe Media Programme (MEDIA strand of the Creative Europe programme is designed to support European film and other audiovisual industries)

Latin America & the Caribbean

• Programma IBERMEDIA (supports co-production projects by companies from Latin America, Spain and Portugal)

• William Greaves Fund (for mid-career nonfiction storytellers from racially and ethnically underrepresented communities in the United States, as well as filmmakers from Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Colombia with a particular interest in those who identify as being of Indigenous and/or of African descent)

North America

• CrossCurrent Canada Doc Fund (supports short and feature-length documentaries from emerging and sophomore Canadian filmmakers who are Indigenous, Francophone, Deaf and/or have a disability, racialized and/or persons of colour)

• Catapult Film Fund (research grant for US based filmmakers only)

• Canada Media Fund (Canada only)

• Center for American Asian Media (supports Asian American film and media projects from independent producers through two funds, the CAAM Documentary Fund and the CAAM Documentaries for Social Change Fund)

• Indigenous Screen Office (Canada only)

• Rogers Group of Funds (Canada only)

Funding bodies for documentary

• Telefilm (Canada only)

• William Greaves Fund (for mid-career nonfiction storytellers from racially and ethnically underrepresented communities in the United States, as well as filmmakers from Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Colombia with a particular interest in those who identify as being of Indigenous and/or of African descent)

Women, non-binary & LGBTQ+

• Chicken & Egg Pictures (supports women and gender nonconforming filmmakers, worldwide)

• Frameline Completion Fund (awards grants to emerging and established filmmakers to complete projects that represent and reflect LGBTQ+ life, worldwide)

• New Voices Filmmaker Grant (supports documentary, narrative, animated or episodic projects by and about the LGBTQ+ community, US only)

• Inside Out RE: Focus Fund (provides direct financial support to LGBTQ women and non-binary filmmakers, worldwide)

Filmmakers with disabilities

• NAI (Nonfiction Access Initiative): Direct Access Fund (underwrites disabled media makers who practice fact-based storytelling, including but not limited to: documentary, nonfiction podcasting, new media, immersive, and other types of nonfiction practice, and are currently working on a project at any stage)

Funding bodies for documentary