It all begins with the story you want to tell, triggered by something you experienced, were told, read or saw. Wherever you’re your film idea began, it will stand a stronger chance of receiving a grant from us if you have begun filming – with or without a grant. You don’t have to have to film with a big crew –a series of sequences of your character that helps us understand your idea better filmed on a phone with a great camera can do! Most documentary film funds around the world operate in this way – so to increase your chances of getting funded, take initiative and have a trailer or sequences ready to send in once you see a call. We favor independent filmmakers with some experience. Previous work serves to assure us that you have what it takes to make a great documentary film.

Our funding cycle is irregular – some years we an have as many as three or four calls for funding, and other years, none. This is because we are only able to grant money after we have raised money and rely on partners new and old for this. Sometimes we make calls for feature documentary films, and other times for short films about particular themes identified by the organization we are partnering with. Unsolicited proposals sent in when we have not put out a call for proposals have little chance of receiving funding from us. Follow our social media pages and sign up to our newsletter to know exactly when we are granting and what the exact criteria and deadlines are for that particular call.

Read our funding call carefully and make sure you upload and send everything we’ve asked for in before the deadline. Once you have applied , a panel of experts – all filmmakers, often from different parts of the world – will read and discuss your film ideas and your accompanying material such as trailers, scenes and synopsis. They will shortlist the strongest projects, and if you’ve made It to the shortlist you will be invited to meet so we can know a little more about you and your film idea. We will then deliberate internally with our panel and contact finalists with the good news of their selection.

We invite all our finalists in for a film lab. Attendance to the labs is mandatory. The labs are run by us together with several specially selected mentors who have made award winning films themselves. Depending on the call, the lab could last anything from two to ten days. In this time, filmmakers may see their films change quite dramatically from what they originally sent in. Our goal in this week is to panel beat your film ideas into the best they can possibly be. This may involve discussing characters, storylines, cinematography, sound design and more. We design every workshop we have to reflect the nature of that particular call, and no two labs are ever quite the same.

For some calls, the production time granted is relatively short – anything from a few weeks to several years. Some grantees have taken as long as seven years to complete larger feature length film, and others, no more than a couple of months to complete more experimental pieces. For our rare fiction calls, filmmakers shoot for no more than two days. In other words, its different every time. Our mandate to support independent African filmmakers as fully as we can, and so, where possible, we tend to be quite flexible with time.

Notice the “you” rather than the “we”! Unfortunately we do not offer festival circuit or film launch support. Its not that we do not recognize the importance of supporting this part of the films journey, but because our overall funding is quite limited, and we are forced to select where our financial support will have the most impact. We believe that when grant independent African filmmakers support, we send a signal to other film funds around the world that we believe in you as a filmmaker. Most filmmakers report that by endorsing them with our financial support, they are able to much more easily find support from other global film funds.