OPPORTUNITIES

Rolling Deadlines:

• NIO Ventures, an impact consulting firm headquartered in Valencia, Spain, aims to transform mental health through awareness, education, and healing by setting an objective to help produce 50 mental health documentaries in the next 10 years. If you're working on a doc project about mental health, send an email to impact@nioventures.com with your name, location, log line, description, and deck (if available).

• Calling all Indigenous artists! Toronto Art Council’s Indigenous Arts Projects program offers annual multi-disciplinary project grants to support your creative journey. Explore the diverse range of art practices and apply in one of four grant categories. Submissions are rolling—learn more here.

• The Black Artists Grant (BAG) is a £500 no-strings financial support to help UK-based Black creatives. Whether you’re in need of new equipment or to fund your latest project, learn more and apply here.
  

• Submit your documentary for Educational Distribution with GOOD DOCS! If your latest doc is based on education and engaging with students about rarely heard stories then this is where your next application should be. Find out more here.

• The Pulitzer Center provides grants to cover the hard costs of reporting projects. Grants are open to all journalists: writers, photographers, radio producers, and filmmakers; staff journalists as well as freelancers. Deadline is rolling, find out more here.

• The Sustainability Prize, launched by Creo and Sony, offers $5,000 to filmmakers passionate about communicating key themes linked to the Sustainable Development Goals, along with Sony digital imaging equipment and promotion across Sony’s channels. The winners will also get the chance to be honored at a showcase hosted by the United Nations Foundation and Sony Pictures. Apply here.

• Fall Filmmaking Workshops at DCTV: Ready to enhance your filmmaking skills? Explore discounted workshop packages at NYC's DCTV! The Adobe Premiere Package includes both Editing Fundamentals and Intermediate Premiere. With the Class Fundamentals Package, you can choose any two courses—Camera, Audio, or Lighting—or opt for all three. Sign up here.

Upcoming Funding Deadlines

• December 1: As the final act of the Act of Worship impact campaign, the filmmakers launched Act of Worship: The Next Generation. Grants of $1500, along with mentorship, will go to three filmmakers between the ages of 18-25, who self-identify as Muslim and reside in the United States, to make a 2-3 minute short documentary that captures the question: What does it mean for you to be a Muslim in America right now? Click to apply.

• December 6: The Ford Foundation is funding up to 30 feature-length documentaries, at all stages of production, that push boundaries, explore inequality, and drive social change. Apply here.

• December 9: Directing your first feature documentary? Applications for the 2025 BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship are now open! In addition to a 9-month cohort, traveling, mentorship, insight into the industry, and strengthening your films together, all fellows will also receive $10,000 in unrestricted funding. Apply now!

• December 13: ITVS’ Open Call provides up to $400,000 of co-production funding to independent producers of nonfiction documentaries, ranging from short films to feature length. The documentary can be on any subject, or any viewpoint or style as long as it is in active production already. Get the full scoop here.

• December 13: DOCPITCH 2025 is now accepting submissions! As part of the DocLands Documentary Film Festival, CAFILM is back with $100,000 in awards for five in-progress documentary projects. Get more info + apply here.

• December 15: UpTilt Film Fest is awarding TWO $2,000 scholarships to women and/or gender-nonconforming filmmakers in 2025. One scholarship will be awarded to a North Carolina Resident and the other scholarship is open to anyone! Apply here.

• December 16 / January 6: The Film Independent’s Documentary Story Lab helps directors hone their story as they dive into the editing phase of their feature documentary. For one week, fellows attend multiple workshops and sessions with industry experts, get one-on-one support from an experienced Creative Advisor and Editing Advisor, and pitch their project to industry executives. Non-members need to apply by December 16, and members have until January 6.

• December 17: The Chimaera Project’s TO.GET.HER Finishing Fund program provides funds to U.S.-based directors who identify as women and non-binary. Up to $6,000 will be awarded to selected feature films (over 40 min) and up to $2,500 will be awarded to selected short films (max 40 min). Apply here!

• December 30: The Bitchitra Collective Documentary Film and Media Fellowship is open for entries, along with the Sriyanka Ray Grant in collaboration with Brown Girls Doc Mafia. The Fellowship offers a $2,000 grant and mentorship. The Sriyaka Ray Grant offers $4,000 for one feature or short doc. All women and non-binary filmmakers with powerful documentary ideas are invited to apply here!

• January 5: Check out EURODOC’s workshop designed for Italian producers and hosted in Biella, Italy. In connection with the EURODOC25 annual program, a group of up to 12 participants will attend an intensive 5-day workshop focusing on the development of their documentary project. Learn more and apply.

• January 9: Calling New England-based directors and producers seeking production and post-production funds for feature-length (40+ min) nonfiction film and video projects! LEF Foundation is awarding a maximum of (8) grants of $15,000 each to projects in the Production phase, and a maximum of (6) grants of $25,000 each to projects in the Post-production phase. Apply now.

• January 13: Year-long fellowship opportunity! Women in Film's flagship program welcomes Fellows from all areas of the entertainment industry for a year of mentoring, master classes, network building, and one-on-one career strategy sessions. Details here.

• January 17: The DOK.forum Marketplace is looking for strong documentary film projects in all stages of development. Filmmakers can apply for a wide range of pitch events and award competitions with various prizes, partnerships, and perks. Learn more here.

Upcoming Festival Submission Deadlines:

• December 9: The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) is now accepting film and media submissions for the 43rd rendition of the festival! CAAMFest is one of the nation’s leading showcases for Asian and Asian American talent in film, music, food, and ideas. Enter your doc here.

• December 12: The Sony Future Filmmakers Awards is a major program providing career-changing opportunities for filmmakers. The shortlisted filmmakers are flown to the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, to attend an awards ceremony and an industry immersion program with workshops led by Sony Pictures executives, panel discussions, tours, screenings, and Q&As. Enter your short film (for free)!

• December 15: The 9th annual UPTILT Film Fest (North Carolina's ONLY women-centered and gender non-conforming film festival) is happening March 21-23, 2025! The festival showcases short films from all over the world, plus they refund submission fees and pay a small screening fee for all accepted films. Submit your short doc today.

• December 15: Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival is now open for entries! Submit your short or feature-length doc that showcases the Latino experience here.

• December 16: DOK.fest München, an International Documentary Film Festival held in Munich, Germany has two calls for entries! Submit your feature-length doc for the 40th anniversary of DOK.fest, or your short doc that’s for and about youth for their Film Education Programme.

• January 2: Grounded in the commitment to honor Island Cultures and our World Oceans, the Key Biscayne Film Festival screens captivating short films and feature-length films. An essential aspect of the Key Biscayne Film Festival is its commitment to environmental stewardship. Have a short or feature-length doc that fits the script? Submit here.

• January 3: The 49th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) will take place March 27 - April 5, 2025 in person at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland, OH. CIFF49 will consist of hundreds of films, post-film conversations and Q&As with filmmakers, balloting, and over $135,000 in cash awards. Enter your doc here!

• January 9: The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is ranked as one of the top festivals in North America, and is an Academy Award-qualifying festival for short films, presenting more than 260 features, documentaries, and short films to an audience of roughly 90,000 each year. Submit your doc to SIFF!

• January 9: Film submissions for the 32nd annual Hot Docs Festival, April 24–May 4, 2025, are officially open! Hot Docs accepts short films, mid-lengths, features, and episodic series, so apply today.

• January 10: Beirut International Women Film Festival (BWFF) is organized by Beirut Film Society and features films about women and/or executed by women highlighting the role of women as leaders in their societies. Do you have a doc that fits the script? Submit here.

• January 15 (features) / February 5 (shorts): Tribeca 2025 is happening June 4-15 in NYC and they want to hear YOUR voice! The feature-length deadline is January 15; the short film deadline is February 5. Share your story.

• January 26: New Zealand’s Doc Edge Festival is an Academy Awards® qualifying festival for feature and short documentaries made by talented storytellers from around the globe. Submit here.

• February 1: The Palm Springs ShortFest is one of the largest showcases of short-form cinema in North America. The seven-day festival is Academy Award, BAFTA and Goya-qualifying, annually screening hundreds of shorts from all over the world. Enter here.

• February 21: The 46th season of the Telly Awards celebrates the creativity that emerges when Stories Take Shape in bold and innovative ways. This season Telly Awards is proud to present a brand new conversation series, “Throughlines,” and to bring our screening series to even more cities around the US. Submit here.

• February 27: The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, Africa’s foremost platform for documentary excellence, invites you to submit your feature-length, mid-length, and short documentary films for consideration in our 27th edition, scheduled for June 19-29, 2025, in Cape Town, Johannesburg. More details here.

• February 28: Submissions for Rooftop Film’s 2025 Summer Series are now open! The Summer Series runs annually from May to September, featuring daring new indie films, all screened outdoors, in front of big audiences, all around New York City. Submit here.

• February 28: Sheffield Doc Fest welcomes documentary and nonfiction films of all lengths and from all around the world. Submit here!

✌️ Have an exciting opportunity to share? Send an email or submit here.

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