List of the Best Documentary Grants to Fund Your Film

We provide development funding up to $20,000 to documentary filmmakers who have a strong story to tell, have secured access, and are ready to create a fundraising piece to help unlock critical production funding.

Grants are offered to independent artists who are working at the intersection of science and nonfiction storytelling.

The Library of Congress Lavine Ken Burns Prize for Film is a $200,000 cash award for a late-stage documentary film with a running time of 50 minutes or more.

The Points North Fellowship early- and mid-career filmmakers to Maine to accelerate the development of their feature documentary.

The Sloan Distribution Grant is a $50,000 grant awarded by Film Independent to a film that is entering its distribution phase.

Redford Center Grants supports environmental filmmakers and frontline stories that drive solutions for people and the planet, providing the hope necessary for audiences to feel ready to engage in addressing our environmental crises.

The IWMF’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists supports the production of ambitious projects and underreported, globally important stories.

The Media Projects program supports the development, production, and distribution documentary film  that engage general audiences with humanities ideas in creative and appealing ways.

The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund (DFF) supports engaging documentaries in post-production which exhibit compelling stories, intriguing characters, and an original, innovative visual approach.

Hot Docs and the Rogers Foundation founded the $1-million Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund to support Canadian documentary projects.