Funding Opportunities for Every Aspiring Filmmaker in Black Tinseltown
The days are longer. Pilot season is over. Blockbusters have broken box office records ahead of the summer (*cough, cough* Avengers: Endgame).
Film graduates are on the prowl for summer fellowships that (fingers crossed) will guarantee the job security their film degrees could not. Novice filmmakers have their eyes peeled for another movie director to announce their studio is accepting spec scripts and film festivals to open for submissions.
While the industry is making strides toward inclusion, countless storytellers of color slip under the radar due to lack of funding and exposure.
Aspiring auteurs are making preparations to secure funding for their projects ahead of film festival season in the fall to award season at the beginning of each year. Whether you need funding for production or distribution for your film, documentary or narrative, feature or short, we’ve got you covered with a list of film grants, contests, and platforms with soon approaching deadlines (and some with no deadlines) with initiatives built on empowering Black filmmakers.
Cinereach
Cinereach is a nonprofit film funding organization based in New York that provides grants, fellowships, and even distribution for independent films. Their reach has co-financed and developed some of the most notable projects in recent history that spotlight filmmakers of color such as We the Animals(2018), I Am Not Your Negro (2016), the Oscar-nominated documentary of James Baldwin’s unfinished book “Remember This House”, Strong Island (2017), and Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018).
Feature-length submissions are accepted through Cinereach’s online portal on a rolling basis, even if your film is in the early development stage.
Disney Launchpad: Shorts Incubator
Perhaps the most advertised opportunity for filmmakers on this list, the Disney Launchpad: Shorts Incubator will grant experienced directors representing backgrounds with diverse and varied perspectives, including but certainly not limited to women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, various religious groups, military veterans, people with disabilities and others, the chance of a lifetime to produce a short in this newly announced seven month program with Walt Disney Pictures.
Novice directors should not be intimidated by the program’s call for “experienced” directors as it does not accept submissions from directors who have theatrically-distributed feature films or works of network television, cable television, or premium streaming series. However, applicants must have “at least one (1) scripted, live-action narrative work (e.g., a short, feature film, webisodes or episodic program) of at least five (5) minutes in length within the past eight (8) years”, per the guidelines.
The Disney Launchpad, though not a grant, provides selected directors with classes and script development access, an unprecedented chance to have their short film produced, shot and distributed by the biggest brand in the entertainment industry, a stipend, and airfare for those who need to relocate to SoCal for the program.
With the theme of “discover”, the Disney Launchpad is using its platform to discover new talent and stories from diverse perspectives from fantasy, sci-fi to coming-of-age and even musicals.
How could we ever keep this one to ourselves?
SF Film
Similar to Cinereach, San Francisco Film goes beyond the longest running film festival in the Americas. Besides the year-round programming which includes advance member screenings and red carpet premiere events and the youth education program which serves more than 12,000 students and teachers each year, the SF FILM Makers’ artist development lists several financial and creative resources for indie filmmakers on its platform.
Some known titles supported by SF Film grants in the past include The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Active grants with July 2019 deadlines include the SF FILM Rainin Grant, the Sloan Stories of Science Development Fund, and the SF FILM Westridge Grant. Grants are announced on the site regularly, so those interested are encouraged to subscribe to the SF Film email newsletter.
The Queen Collective
It goes without saying, but we cannot recognize underrepresented voices behind the camera without acknowledging women, especially Black women.
The Queen Collective, Queen Latifah’s program launch, will provide women in film with resources, funding, and distribution for their work to end the disparity of films produced and marketed each year by women and men.
According to the HuffPost Black Voices, the program’s first curated films include directors Brittany “B. Monet” Fennell’s “Ballet After Dark” and Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s “If There Is Light”. Both documentary shorts were screened at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and are available for streaming on Hulu.
In a panel discussion hosted by Academy Award-nominated Mudbound director Dees Rees, Fennell said, “I don’t think women of color always have a seat at the table and I think this program is so different because it arranges opportunities for people to do that” per The Hollywood Reporter.
There is currently no deadline or submission information listed. However, fellow queens are encouraged to revisit reels and await any further announcements on how to apply to be a mentee of Latifah’s groundbreaking initiative.
There is an undeniable shortage in funding and exposure opportunities for Black emerging filmmakers. Hopefully, this list is evident to glass ceiling breakers, hell-raisers, and future Singletons, Duvernays, Lees, and Micheaux's that despite the painfully slow baby steps the industry has taken toward diversifying writer’s rooms, studio conferences, and movie sets, we are heard, we are seen, and our stories are worth telling.
We are the future of Black Tinseltown.
