Funding and Support

The Monochrome Awards is primarily aimed at people of whom photography is a passion and a way of life. It is a platform where professionals and amateurs can enter their shots amongst a sea of ambitious and creative community of photographers from around the world for a chance to win $3000 and an opportunity to show their work to an international audience.

Administered by The RPS in partnership with The Guardian. The Joan Wakelin Bursary offers £2000 for the production of a photographic essay on an overseas social documentary issue. The Bursary was established in 2005 in memory of distinguished documentary photographer and Honorary Fellow of The Society, Joan Wakelin.

The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund (DFF) supports engaging documentaries in post-production which exhibit compelling stories, intriguing characters, and an original, innovative visual approach. DFF grants, up to $20,000, are awarded once each year to documentary feature projects and are open to filmmakers internationally.

The Royal Photographic Society is offering support of a photographic project that will promote environmental awareness. The bursary will provide £4000 to assist with travel expenses, photographic equipment and other project-related costs. The grant looks for a creative interpretation of the subject as well as documentary and editorial photography.

The Jerwood/Photoworks Awards are a major commissioning opportunity supporting early-career artists working with photography to make new work and significantly develop their practice. They particularly seek to encourage artists exploring new approaches to photography.

The Sir Harry Evans Global Fellowship provides an unrivalled opportunity for an exceptional early career journalist: a nine-month fellowship with Durham University and Reuters to undertake an investigative project. The Fellow will pursue the project from inside a Reuters newsroom in London, New York, Sydney or Toronto.

The awards recognize the courage, initiative, and journalistic integrity of freelancers working in news and current affairs. The Rory Peck Trust, which organizes the awards, is dedicated to supporting freelance journalists worldwide, providing assistance in times of crisis and promoting their safety and welfare.

In previous years, grants average around $5,000. Applicants may be a print journalist or a print journalist leading a multi-media team. Projects reported and published in English anywhere in the world are eligible. All reporting and publishing must be completed within six months of the award of the grant.

The Epson International Pano Awards is the world's largest competition dedicated to panoramic photography. Established in 2009 by Australian landscape photographer David Evans, the awards aim to showcase the work of panoramic photographers worldwide and celebrate the art of wide-format photography. The competition is open to both professional and amateur photographers, providing a platform for recognition and exposure in the panoramic photography community.

Large-scale funding for ambitious projects exploring big questions around science, philosophy, human flourishing, and the nature of reality. Typically supports multi-year, research-driven or interdisciplinary work with clear intellectual and societal impact.

The Large Format Short Films Competition is designed to support emerging filmmakers and help turn strong ideas into finished films. This competition isn’t just about winning, it’s about developing your work, building a network and taking steps towards bringing your film to life. Submit a logline, a synopsis and three pages of your script. That’s it.

The Commitment Grants are focused on supporting documentary filmmakers in the post-production stages, working on nonfiction stories celebrating adventure, activism, social justice, culture, and the environment. Mountainfilm promotes and encourages diversity behind the camera, and welcomes applicants from any country.

MPB Photography Award seeks to inspire creatives from around the world to pursue a life and career in the arts, and to help careers grow through funding and increased exposure of their work to galleries, collectors and media globally.

Chromatic Awards is an international competition of color photography open to both professionals and amateurs. Participation in the Chromatic Awards offers not only prestige, but also the opportunity to win extra money for the development of passion.

The Pulitzer Center invites journalists who are working on projects related to tropical rainforests to submit a proposal to the Rainforest Journalism Fund. This particular grant focuses on work around the themes of the rainforest in our overall climate equations, and the solutions and effects of deforestation.

Mongabay are asking for pitches on topics related to Bangladesh’s response to climate change. They’re offering payment for already completed work, and grants to fund future trips for the creation of new stories. Due to limited resources compared to the scale of the challenges, Bangladesh is now facing hurdles in taking adequate adaptation measures to tackle the harmful impacts of climate change.

The Pulitzer Center’s global reporting grants support in-depth, high-impact reporting on critical issues that are often overlooked in the media, from global health to climate change. Their stories address the root causes of crises around the world, including within the United States. They support projects across all media platforms and encourage ambitious, prize-worthy proposals that combine print, photography, audio, and/or video for one or more news outlets.

The Congo Basin Journalism Fund aims to support and build capacity of local, regional, and international journalists reporting on issues related to rainforests, funding costs associated with reporting projects on rainforests, with an emphasis on unreported or underreported issues in the regions and how they connect on a global scale.

The South Asian Journalists Association Fellowship program is designed to promote in-depth, long-form news reports covering issues which are often ignored or given only fleeting coverage by the media. Examples of these are news of natural disasters, accidents and scandals which are often prominently featured as "Breaking News" over a few new cycles, spanning a few days but whose long-term impact are seldom covered in depth, if at all.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a New York based, philanthropic, not-for-profit institution that makes grants in three areas: research in science, technology, and economics; quality and diversity of scientific institutions; and public engagement with science.

Impact Partners Films are looking for early-stage projects that have a director attached and have secured some access. Submitted projects should tell strong, cinematic stories, explore the urgent issues and questions of our time, and have a clear point of view and artistic vision. Through Impact Partner's general and development funds, they invest in 10-15 projects a year, and review projects year-round on a rolling basis.

Culture Colab seeks grantees working at the intersection of pop culture and social change who identify culture change as a clear outcome of their work. Submitted projects must demonstrate commitment to long-term narrative and culture change strategies in the arts, entertainment, digital, mass media, and/or social justice sectors.

This grant aims to support projects that will further understanding of Japanese arts and culture. Successful projects are granted up to $5,000. This grant also supports online projects related to Arts & Cultural Exchange such as virtual exhibitions, virtual performances, film streaming, online conference as well as webinar.

Providing outreach, access, and support to aspiring filmmakers throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The Revolution Fund accepts nominations for proposals for small one-time grants that last no longer than a year. Mama Cash aims to be responsive to movements by meeting them where they are. The Revolution Fund is Mama Cash’s participatory grantmaking fund that enables them to respond to funding requests that fall outside other grantmaking criteria.

Fiscal sponsorship is an arrangement between an existing 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and an individual or entity lacking the legal status needed to receive grants from foundations, individual donors and government agencies.

The Hundred Film Fund aims to fund and produce one hundred films which are making use of AI to tell their stories. If you are a professional director, producer, screenwriter or creative professional looking to tell new stories with an AI-augmented project in need of funding, you're invited you to apply.

The IWMF supports U.S.-based reporting projects by Indigenous journalists on issues related to Missing & Murdered Indigenous People (MMMIP) with a concentration on women, girls, Two-Spirit and transgender people. Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. Indigenous journalists affiliated with media outlets, as well as freelancers, are invited to apply. In addition to monetary support, the IWMF is committed to providing editorial and pitching support to grantees.

The Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Grant will select 10 small businesses monthly from June to December 2026 to receive $10,000 grants.

The Shophand $5k Small Business Boost Grant is awarded three times a year to give small business owners the support they need to overcome their biggest tech or operational challenge.

The QuickBooks Small Business Hero Grant awards $20,000 to US-based small businesses that demonstrate strong community impact, resilience, and integrity. It’s nomination-based, runs in multiple rounds throughout the year, and winners also receive promotion and business support resources to help grow their company.

The World Cinema Fund offers production and post-production funding to film production in countries that lack a constructive film industry, giving talented filmmakers the opportunity to gain or improve their international recognition and reach a global audience. Their Classic Grant supports collaborative projects between German producers and international producers from supported countries.

The World Cinema Fund offers production and post-production funding to film production in countries that lack a constructive film industry, giving talented filmmakers the opportunity to gain or improve their international recognition and reach a global audience. WCF Europe is aimed at providing production funding and extends WCF support to European companies from the member states of the Creative Europe MEDIA sub-program.

To bring awareness to the injustice of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People/Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Transgender people (MMIP/WG2T), the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Fund for Indigenous Journalists supports U.S.-based reporting projects by journalists on the issue.

The BFI National Lottery Filmmaking Fund invests National Lottery funding in a diverse range of work with creative merit and ambition, which the commercial sector is not able to back, in full or in part. Funding supports features from experienced directors with productions budgets of £1,000,000 to £15,000,000 and debut feature directors with production budgets of £3,500,000 to £15,000,000.

The fund will support UK-focused activity at established international festivals, markets, co-production forums, or other industry events or platforms, with international reach and dedicated to screen content.

Awarding National Lottery funding to support original live action and animated feature filmmaking. Discovery feature funding provides awards of up to £1,000,000 for projects with debut directors and a production budget between £1,000,000 and £3,500,000.

The Prix Camera Clara is an international photography competition established in 2012 that focuses exclusively on artists working with large-format cameras. The competition celebrates unpublished photographic works presented as a coherent series or ensemble, judged for artistic consistency in both form and content. The prize aims to support and highlight innovative large-format photography worldwide, providing a platform for artists to gain international recognition.

The Kometa Fellows program funds a year's work for authors (journalists, writers, or photographers) who document reality in contexts of war, censorship, or intense political and social tension. Each Fellow receives €10,000 in funding thanks to a committed sponsor.

AXS Film Fund strives to empower and support independent documentary filmmakers and nonfiction new media creators from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds living with disabilities in their endeavors to tell stories, make films, and create content.

TED and POSCA have launched an artist residency, with the theme Visible Mending, exploring repair as a creative and civic act, mending relationships, restoring ecosystems, strengthening social bonds, and rebuilding trust. Selected artists receive a production budget, creative direction and storytelling support, plus inclusion on TED global platforms for visibility.

The Perspective Fund supports projects by individuals and organisations that stand on their own as first-rate pieces of media and equip their audiences with the knowledge, willpower, and community infrastructure to bring about a more socially and economically inclusive world—one where more people have more access to opportunity. They provide storytellers and journalists with the funding, tools, and strategy-driven support to tell stories about equity and justice that generate action.

Guided by the belief that cinema creates space for dialogue, reflection and connection, DFF brings together filmmakers, audiences and industry voices to honour original storytelling. Winners across all competitions are honoured through the Doha Film Festival Awards Fund in recognition of excellence in cinematic storytelling and craft.

Guided by the belief that cinema creates space for dialogue, reflection and connection, DFF brings together filmmakers, audiences and industry voices to honour original storytelling. Winners across all competitions are honoured through the Doha Film Festival Awards Fund in recognition of excellence in cinematic storytelling and craft.

Guided by the belief that cinema creates space for dialogue, reflection and connection, DFF brings together filmmakers, audiences and industry voices to honour original storytelling. Winners across all competitions are honoured through the Doha Film Festival Awards Fund in recognition of excellence in cinematic storytelling and craft.

Guided by the belief that cinema creates space for dialogue, reflection and connection, DFF brings together filmmakers, audiences and industry voices to honour original storytelling. Winners across all competitions are honoured through the Doha Film Festival Awards Fund in recognition of excellence in cinematic storytelling and craft.

Guided by the belief that cinema creates space for dialogue, reflection and connection, DFF brings together filmmakers, audiences and industry voices to honour original storytelling. Winners across all competitions are honoured through the Doha Film Festival Awards Fund in recognition of excellence in cinematic storytelling and craft.

The Liu Shiming Art Foundation seeks to support emerging artists by encouraging the creation of all forms of art and multicultural study, and encouraging the general public to view the creative process from a multicultural East/West perspective, broadening and enriching the human experience. Every year the Foundation offers grants to exceptional emerging artists.

The Kavli Foundation reward outstanding science reporting that enhances public understanding of science, engineering, and mathematics. They recognize individual journalists—both amateur and professional—whose work demonstrates accuracy, originality, clarity, and public benefit. The awards span various journalism mediums including print, online, radio, and TV.

Decentralised Pictures Filmmaker Assistance Grant offers $1,500 funding towards the production of your project. To apply send a pitch video, or samples of your existing work. Open to all nationalities.

The Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival is a programming-driven, competitive event bringing the best films and books on mountains and the spirit of adventure from around the world to the mountain town of Banff, Alberta. The Festival provides an opportunity for filmmakers and writers to meet and exchange ideas.

€10,000 to fund production of your short film, plus post processing support, and career consultations. Open for women and non-binary filmmakers globally.

Giving you the freedom to make the film you actually want to make. If you’ve got a story you’re passionate about, and a bold way of telling it, Day Job want to help bring it to life. Open to filmmakers worldwide, they want to see live-action, animation and documentary submissions.

An annual prize dedicated to discovering the next generation of photographic artists. The OD Photo Prize is an exciting open call for emerging artists working within the first ten years of their practice in any photographic genre.

The Bloomberg Green Docs competition is open to all eligible filmmakers who would like to compete to win a $25,000 grand prize for a short climate documentary.

Every year, the Foundation awards a grant of 10,000 Canadian dollars and a few 5,000 Canadian dollars grants to some filmmakers to assist in the production of a documentary project. The grant is aimed at young filmmakers born and living in The Global South (Africa, Asia or Latin America) who want to direct a film in the language of their choice that respects the aims of the Foundation.

Create a 3-minute trailer, and have your film production funded. Future Visions are looking for bold, original visions of progress, stories that expand our sense of what's possible. Not simplistic futures, not uniform ones. Ones that offer hope, ambition, and a genuine belief that life can be better than it is today.

The GFX Challenge Grant awards five global grants and ten regional grants to help creatives bring their projects to life, offering the opportunity to create content on topics of significant meaning. Proposed projects may be submitted as still photography or movie format.

To secure documentary filmmakers the opportunity to make their art, the Fund will provide financing to original, high-quality, provocative and/or controversial documentaries which are licensed by a national Canadian broadcaster, cable or pay TV channel, or by an online platform that is available to Canadian audiences.

The goal of LEF New England is to fund the work of independent documentary film and video artists in the region and to broaden recognition and support for their work, both locally and nationally.

The goal of LEF New England is to fund the work of independent documentary film and video artists in the region and to broaden recognition and support for their work, both locally and nationally.

The Doc Society Climate Story Fund provides grants of up to $125,000 to support non-fiction projects in late production and the implementation of impact campaigns for both completed and in-production projects. This call has no set theme, welcoming applications across all areas aligned with the Fund's mission.

Berkeley Film Foundation will provide grants in pre-production, production, post-production and distribution for narrative short film projects, and is interested in short films that use creative, thoughtful and innovative methods to tell a story with a strong theme of social or environmental justice.

The Ian Parry Photojournalism Grant supports young and emerging photographers as they embark on the their careers in the world of photojournalism. They offer financial support, mentorship and ongoing assistance for the promotion of their work.

The H. Allen Brooks Traveling Fellowship will be offered for 2026 and will allow a recent graduate or emerging scholar to study by travel for a continuous period of three, six or twelve months. The fellowship is not for the purpose of doing research for an advanced academic degree or publication. Instead, Professor Brooks intended the recipient to study by travel and contemplation while observing, reading, writing, photographing, or sketching.

The Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook Awards are an annual celebration of the photobook’s enduring role within the narrative of photography. The awards, established in 2012, recognize excellence in three major categories of photobook publishing: First PhotoBook, PhotoBook of the Year, and Photography Catalog of the Year. Each year winners are selected from among nearly one thousand books submitted by artists and publishers from around the world.

The Finish Line Script Competition offers a grand prize of $10,000, helps showcase your writing skills, connects you with industry experts and lets you submit unlimited new drafts.

The Radcliffe Fellowship supports engaged scholarship, where fellows develop new tools and methods, challenge artistic and scholarly conventions, and illuminate our past and our present. They welcome applications from scholars and artists proposing innovative work that confronts pressing social and policy issues and seeking to engage audiences beyond academia.

Vogue welcomes photography, video, and multimedia projects across all genres, including fashion, documentary, portraiture, fine art, and experimental practices. They're looking for work that expresses a clear point of view, whether through the ideas it explores, the emotions it evokes, or the strength of its visual language. This can take many forms, from powerful storytelling to images that stand out for their aesthetic impact.

Regular Grants for reporting expenses for investigative stories on any topic, in any type of media in the U.S. These grants are up to $10,000. The Fund provides grants to journalists for investigative stories that break new ground – which means they uncover wrongdoing in the public and private sectors and reveal information that was previously unknown or hidden, and they shed light on accountability for wrongdoing.

Seed Grants are offered for preliminary reporting that can help shape investigative stories on any topic. This grant is intended for stories based on U.S. topics. The Fund provides grants to journalists for investigative stories that break new ground – which means they uncover wrongdoing in the public and private sectors and reveal information that was previously unknown or hidden, and they shed light on accountability for wrongdoing.

The Guardian and arte.tv are looking for short documentaries with deeply human stories and creative approaches that reveal how political shifts are lived, felt, resisted, defended, or exploited in everyday life.

The Lucie Photo Book Prize, presented by the nonprofit Lucie Foundation, is a global, juried competition celebrating excellence in photography in book format. It welcomes a wide range of submissions—from fully published editions to prototypes, handmade books, and zines. This program supports photographers, editors, curators, and publishers who use photobooks to tell compelling visual stories and drive appreciation of the medium.

Awarding the honors of Photographers of the Year to a distinguished group of those working with the camera as an art form, and welcoming both series and individual entries that remind viewers of the indisputable power of photography.

The Kino Short Film Fund is designed to get your short film made, and covers the costs of production, post-production or distribution.

PhotoVogue’s Regional Open Call invites photographers and video makers from Middle East and North Africa and their diaspora to bring forward their perspectives, celebrating image-making as a space of expression, resilience, and cultural dialogue, and offering global visibility to their work.

The Eidolon Grant is an international initiative aimed at exploring, promoting, and preserving vernacular photography. It invites artists, academics, researchers, and enthusiasts to submit projects that delve into the heritage and contemporary practices of everyday imaging.

The Lucie Foundation Scholarship Program is dedicated to supporting both emerging and professional photographers worldwide. It aims to foster dynamic ideas that challenge and progress the art of still photography. The program encompasses various genres, including Fine Art, Photojournalism, and Documentary photography, supporting works that are original and compelling.

The Luxembourg Art Prize is an annual international art award organized by La Pinacothèque, a private museum located in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The Luxembourg Art Prize is awarded annually to showcase the talents of amateur and professional artists of any age or nationality.

The Independent and Freelance Photojournalist Award recognises excellence in independent visual reporting across three categories: Spot News, Environment, and Solutions. Each category winner receives a USD 5,000 cash prize, with three equal winners recognised annually.

The Pandora Short Film Grant awards an annual $12,000 grant to an early-career US filmmaker for the production of their short, narrative film. In addition, the grant winner and three finalists receive hookups from Panavision and Kodak.

Xposure aims to provide a platform for photographers to reach a wider audience and engage with the global community through exhibitions, workshops, and discussions. This award specifically supports independent and freelance photojournalists who produce ethical, impactful work that highlights important global issues.

Alicia Patterson Fellowships support significant, in-depth written reporting on subjects of public interest. Six-month fellowships pay $20,000, and 12-month fellowships pay $40,000. The Alicia Patterson Fellowships are open only to U.S. citizens who are full time print journalists, or to non-U.S. citizens who work full time for U.S. print publications, either in America or abroad. Freelancers are welcome to apply.

The Aesthetica Art Prize is a place of discovery. Art is the mechanism by which we can begin to make sense of a rapidly changing world. If there has ever been a time that we need art in our lives, it is now. The Main Prize is open to all practitioners working at any level, including students. £10,000 prize money for the winner, a group exhibition in a major public gallery, editorial coverage in Aesthetica Magazine, and a profile on the Aesthetica website.

Numéro Switzerland is pleased to announce its fourth visual arts contest, a celebration of transformation and creativity in constant motion. This year's theme is “Flux et Forma,” inviting photographers, videographers, visual artists, and creators from around the world to explore the beauty of change, movement, and evolution, showcasing their unique visions and perspectives.

The Film Pipeline Short Script Contest is geared toward writers and directors looking to get a project financed and produced, or seeking development on a proof of concept for a feature. All genres accepted, including non-narrative or experimental shorts and proofs-of-concept.

The Annual Photography Awards is an international competition celebrating the best photography from around the world. Open to professionals, amateurs, and students aged 18 and above, the contest aims to preserve photography as a contemporary fine art medium and assist artists in advancing their careers. Participants receive global exposure and are eligible for various cash prizes.

The CFA Institute, in partnership with IMGN, is awarding one filmmaker $4,500 to support an independent narrative project in 2026. Applications are open to U.S.-based filmmakers.