Every program below was checked on its own website in September 2026. Grant cycles open and close on schedules that shift from year to year, so when a program was closed at the time of checking, we say so and give the next window only if the funder published one. Bookmark the source pages and check them again before you plan around a date.
Programs at a glance
| Program | Amount | Who it's for | Status in September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jerome Foundation Film Production Grant (NYC and Minnesota) | Up to $30,000 | Early career directors living in NYC or Minnesota, any genre | Open. Step 1 due October 1, 2026 |
| Sundance Institute Documentary Fund | Up to $40,000 development; up to $100,000 production and post | Nonfiction features worldwide, budgets under $1.2M | Closed; annual cycle |
| ITVS Open Call | Up to $400,000 features; up to $50,000 shorts | Nonfiction films in production, for public media | Closed; recurring |
| Creative Capital Award | Up to $50,000, unrestricted | US artists in any discipline, film included | Closed; 2027 cycle deadline was April 2, 2026 |
| Catapult Film Fund Development Grant | $5,000 to $25,000 | Documentaries in development, through a 501(c)(3) | Closed; development cohort announced fall 2026 |
| Firelight Media William Greaves R&D Fund | $10,000 to $25,000, unrestricted | Established nonfiction filmmakers of African or Indigenous descent in the Americas | Nomination only; 2026 round ran May 1 to June 1 |
| Chicken & Egg Award | $75,000 ($50,000 unrestricted, $25,000 project) | Women and gender-expansive nonfiction filmmakers at advanced career stages | Nomination only |
| Austin Film Society Grant | Varies; travel grants $500 or $1,000 | Texas-based filmmakers, any style | Features reopen spring 2027; shorts summer 2027; travel grants open year-round |
| SFFILM Rainin Grant | Not listed on the fund overview page | Check the program page | 2026 cycle closed; recurring |
| IDA Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund | Not yet published for the new round | Documentaries near the end of production | Expected to reopen late 2026 with a new theme |
The programs in detail
Jerome Foundation Film Production Grants
Jerome is the only program on this list with a window open right now. It runs parallel programs for New York City and Minnesota, each offering production grants of up to $30,000 to early career directors whose work takes creative risks. Only directors can apply, not producers or crew, and applicants must be residents of the city or state through the grant period. Applications opened September 2, 2026. Step 1 is due October 1, 2026 before 4 p.m. local time, invited applicants submit Step 2 by November 24, 2026, and awards are announced no later than March 31, 2027. Minnesota directors can instead apply for a self-designed mentorship grant of up to $10,000, but not both.
Jerome's FAQ notes that it has funded projects completed for under $30,000 but that it's increasingly rare for a grant to cover a whole production budget, so show where the rest comes from.
Sundance Institute Documentary Fund
Development grants go up to $40,000 and production or post grants up to $100,000, and the fund supports roughly 25 to 30 projects a year. It's for nonfiction feature films with budgets under $1.2 million, worldwide. It doesn't fund fiction, series, shorts (there's a separate fund), or advocacy, educational, NGO, or branded films, and projects that applied before generally can't reapply. The application is free by the deadline and asks for a line-item budget from development through completion. Sundance's page listed May 18, 2026 as the start of its most recent cycle and showed applications closed when we checked.
ITVS Open Call
ITVS funds nonfiction films for public media: up to $400,000 for long-form features and up to $50,000 for standalone shorts, for films between 10 and 90 minutes already in production. Earlier projects go to the development funds instead. ITVS retains certain streaming and broadcast rights during the license term, and filmmakers keep editorial control, copyright, and financial ownership. The page showed Open Call as not currently accepting applications.
Creative Capital Award
Unrestricted project grants of up to $50,000 plus professional development services, awarded by discipline through a national open call that includes film. For the 2026 and 2027 cycles, every applicant is also considered for the State of the Art Prize, a $10,000 grant to one artist in each state, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. The 2027 open call closed April 2, 2026.
Catapult Film Fund
Catapult's Development Grant ranges from $5,000 to $25,000 for documentaries in development, and it runs a separate Research Grant and a Rough Cut Retreat with True/False. Catapult doesn't grant to individuals: a selected project needs a US-based 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor to accept the award. Applications go through Submittable and close at 5 p.m. Pacific on the deadline day. All three programs were closed in September 2026.
Firelight Media William Greaves Research and Development Fund
Unrestricted grants of $10,000 to $25,000 for 8 to 10 mid-career nonfiction filmmakers of African or Indigenous descent living and working in North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean, for projects in research, development, or pre-production. The 2026 round was by nomination only, from May 1 to June 1.
Chicken & Egg Award
A $75,000 award, $50,000 of it unrestricted and $25,000 for the filmmaker's projects that year, plus a year of mentorship, for women and gender-expansive nonfiction filmmakers who have made several films. Recipients come through a confidential nomination process, and unsolicited applications aren't accepted. Chicken & Egg's other programs, including a lab for first and second feature documentaries, have their own timelines on its apply page.
Austin Film Society Grant
AFS funds Texas-based filmmakers working in any style or genre and says it has awarded more than $3 million in cash grants since 1996. The feature grant reopens in spring 2027 and the short film grant in summer 2027. Travel grants stay open all year: $500 for a festival in North America and $1,000 outside it, for Texas filmmakers accepted to a festival on AFS's list.
SFFILM and IDA
SFFILM runs several funds, including the Rainin Grant, a Documentary Film Fund, and a Sloan science development fund. The 2026 Rainin cycle is closed; check the fund page for the next one and its eligibility rules. The International Documentary Association says its Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund is expected to reopen in late 2026 with a new theme, aimed at projects near the end of production and approaching a premiere.
Why so many grants go to nonprofits
A lot of public and foundation money can't be paid to an individual or an LLC. The National Endowment for the Arts, for example, says funding in its Grants for Arts Projects category isn't available to individuals. Catapult requires a 501(c)(3). The usual workaround is a fiscal sponsor, a nonprofit that receives the grant for the project and passes it on under a written agreement, usually for a percentage fee. Set this up before you apply, because some applications ask who the sponsor is.
Writing an application that survives a panel
Panels read hundreds of applications, and the ones that get cut early share the same problems.
Start with a budget that matches the ask. Show a line-item budget from development through delivery, what's already raised, and exactly which lines the grant will cover. A $25,000 request against a $400,000 documentary with nothing else raised reads as a project that won't get made. Start from the documentary budget template and see how to budget a documentary for lines applicants forget, like archival licensing and E&O insurance.
Keep the work sample tight. Most funds ask for a sample of a set length. Cut a sequence that shows access and style, and label clearly whether it's from this project or past work.
Give real dates for shoot blocks, picture lock, and delivery. A schedule built from a board, even a rough one, is more convincing than "production: summer." The production calendar template works for this.
Don't make the grant the whole plan. Funders want to see the grant as one source among several. Show equity, other grants applied for, in-kind support, and any incentive. How to finance an indie film covers how those layers fit together.
Tracking grant money after it lands
Most grants come with reporting: an interim report, a final report with a cost statement, and sometimes a credit requirement in the end titles. Code grant-funded costs to their own budget column from the start, so the final report doesn't mean rebuilding the ledger. Restricted money (like Chicken & Egg's $25,000 project portion) has to be spent on what it was given for, while unrestricted money can cover anything, including overhead.
Grants count as soft money in the finance plan, and they sit at the bottom of the recoupment waterfall because nobody gets them back. Tax treatment depends on who receives the money and how, so ask your accountant before the first payment arrives.