https://www.blackstarfest.org/...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.

• [NEW] Field of Vision has relaunched their *free* mentorship & consultation service! Filmmakers from around the world can sign up for consultation about Professional Development, Technical Assistance, Pitch Training, Story Development, Distribution Strategy, and more. Sign up today!

• Winter Filmmaking Workshops at DCTV: Ready to enhance your filmmaking skills? Explore discounted workshop packages at NYC's DCTV! See the list of classes and sign up here.

Upcoming Funding Deadlines

• February 4: Chicken & Egg Film’s 2025 Research & Development Grant, generously supported by Netflix, supports women and gender-expansive nonfiction filmmakers from around the world who have directed at least two feature-length documentaries and are in the research & development stage of their next feature-length film. A total of $450,000 USD will be awarded in grants amounts of $10,000 USD grants for Research and $20,000 USD grants for Development. More info here.

• February 6: The One World Media Awards 2025 acknowledge and amplify the reach of storytellers across the world reporting from or about the global south. We are looking for impactful journalism in print, digital media, audio, film and broadcast mediums, as well as feature and short documentaries that raise awareness of global and local issues, covering underreported topics or offering new approaches to more familiar stories.

• February 12: The Catapult Development Fund provides early-stage support to documentary filmmakers. Catapult has two funding cycles per year, with application deadlines in the summer and winter. In 2025, they will offer fifteen (15) grants of up to $25,000 to filmmakers in development with a documentary feature or short. Learn more here.

• February 15: Long Meadow Art Residency offers a solo residency set in a breathtaking and tranquil environment. Located in the Berkshires, Long Meadow awards residencies of 6 weeks to 3 months in duration with a stipend of $3,000 per month and supply budget of up to $2,500. During their stay, residents are provided with a house, an art studio, and the use of a car. Apply here.

• February 17: Charlotte filmmakers! The Charlotte Black Film Festival (CBFF) is thrilled to announce the launch of its Micro Film Grant Program. This initiative is designed to empower filmmakers, storytellers, and creatives residing in Charlotte to bring their projects that celebrate the Black community with grants of up to $5,000. More here.

• February 26: Applications for Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival’s Los Fellows Program, in collaboration with PhillyCAM, are now open!⁠ The fellowship program will support three selected Fellows by offering an honorarium award of $10,000 each over the course of their term, as well as capacity building, technical, and mentoring to support the development of their work. Apply here.

• February 27: The World Cinema Fund’s next funding cycle is open! The WCF has positioned itself as a funding institution that can play a cultural-political role in the realization of unique projects and the installation of production structures. Get production funding support here.

• February 28: Do you need some funds for your project, for immigration fees or just some much needed self-care? Undocumented Filmmakers Collective is offering a one-time, unrestricted micro-grant of $500 to their members for the year of 2025. The initial online application will be open from Feb 1 - Feb 28. The application will then be on a rolling basis for the remainder of 2025.

• March 1 - March 31: Long Story Short, Kickstarter’s annual celebration of bold and brilliant short films and the visionary people who make them, is calling all boundary-pushing filmmakers to launch short film campaigns in March 2024. If you’re a filmmaker ready to take your short to the big screen, this is your chance. Learn more and apply here!

• March 20: SGIFF is proud to announce the launch of the SGIFF Film Fund 2025 and invite filmmakers from Southeast Asia to submit their projects for consideration. The grants support four projects annually with three production grants of S$30,000 each, and one post-production grant of $20,000. Apply here.

• March 24: The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley has exciting new grants for nonfiction projects exploring the many dimensions of love. Supported by the John Templeton Foundation, this initiative will fund 24 journalists and media producers with grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. They welcome proposals for articles, videos, podcasts, social media campaigns, and other forms of media that examine love from diverse angles. Click here for more information.

• March 24: The Points North Fellowship invites up to six teams of early- and mid-career filmmakers to Maine to accelerate the development of their feature documentary, culminating in the public presentation of works-in-progress at the Points North Pitch. Fellows will receive one round-trip flight to Maine, two All-Access passes to the Camden International Film Festival, six nights of accommodations (one room with a double bed) during the festival. Learn more here.

• March 25: Exploring new forms of documentary storytelling? Need to develop your non-linear project, boost visibility, and connect with future partners? Submit your creation to the Sunny Innovation Lab 2025 and join us in La Rochelle (June 23-26, 2025) for a unique incubator experience tailored for non-linear narratives: podcast, VR, AR, AI, video games, and more!

• March 25: Sunny Side of the Doc also invites you to submit your documentary project for one of seven pitching opportunities across the following genres: Science, Arts & Entertainment, History, Current Affairs & Investigation, Nature & Environment, New Voices, and Impact Campaigns. This is your chance to showcase your creation on the world stage and connect with 300+ international industry experts in La Rochelle. Pitch here.

• April 3: The Jerome Foundation is looking for filmmakers who take creative risks, have a clear vision, and aim to make an impact on their creative community and the broader field of storytelling for their NYC Film Production Grant. The grant supports New York City-based early career filmmakers working in short or long form, experimental, narrative, animation, documentary, or any combination of these genres. Up to $30,000 available! Apply here.

• April 6: Are you in need of some momentum, mentorship, and support from some of the most brilliant and boundary-pushing artists in the field? Apply for Union Docs’ five-week Early Production Lab (Jun. 30 - Aug. 1), or the three-week Research & Development Lab (Aug. 11 - 29) to kick your project into gear!
Each lab will invite a cohort of 12 filmmakers for a program of seminars, screenings, feedback sessions, and conversations with some of your favorite filmmakers, funders, and festival programmers. Learn more here.

Upcoming Festival Submission Deadlines:

• 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 10: Submissions for DOCLANDS 2025 are now open. Don’t miss your chance to be part of this year’s annual documentary film festival, DOCLANDS, presented by CAFILM. Submit 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 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!

• March 14: DC/DOX is a major new international film festival in the US capital dedicated to championing documentary film as a leading art form. The festival's third edition is scheduled for June 12-15, 2025 and will showcase 100 exceptional documentaries from around the world, plus provide abundant networking opportunities, panels, master classes, and workshops. Enter here.

• March 31: Dokumentale 2025 invites you to submit your documentary of 40+ minutes. In a new section, they will celebrate the creative energy and diversity of Berlin's vibrant documentary community. Films must have had a world premiere in 2024 or 2025, but not a Berlin premiere. Enter here.

• April 1: Spread the word, submissions for the 2025 BlackStar Film Festival are now open! Black, Brown, and Indigenous filmmakers are invited to submit their films for consideration here.⁠

• May 11: Mizna’s 2025 Twin Cities Arab Film Festival seeks films for their upcoming festival scheduled for September 24–28, 2025. They accept narrative, documentary, experimental, and animated films of feature and short lengths. We seek films made by filmmakers from the SWANA region and beyond, as well as films relevant to the social realities of the SWANA region. Enter here.

• May 16: The Climate Film Festival (CFF) is the largest festival of its kind in New York City, supported by the Guardian US and featuring a jury of 15 industry leaders in climate. CFF aims to rewrite the narrative on climate change by harnessing the power of motion pictures, showcasing new and established voices, classic climate films, and energizing, human stories. Submit here.

• May 30: Submissions are NOW OPEN for the 36th annual New Orleans Film Festival! The Oscar-qualifying film festival is one of the largest and most well-respected film festivals in the country, serving audiences numbering upwards of 25,000, hosting as many as 350 filmmakers, and providing cash awards and prizes valued at over $100,000. Submit here.

• June 20: The Woodstock Film Festival is an Academy Awards® qualifying festival for Animated, Live Action, and Documentary short films. The 26th Woodstock Film Festival will take place in New York October 15-19, 2025. Submit your short documentary here.

• August 15: Got a science doc? Each October, Labocine’s Science New Wave Film Festival presents 64 visionary films from around the world that push the boundaries of scientific storytelling. Celebrating its 18th edition, this annual festival is held in New York and on the Labocine platform, uniting filmmakers, scientists, and audiences in a vibrant celebration of the convergence of science and cinema. Submit here.

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

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