40 Grants, Labs, and Fellowships for First-Time Documentary Filmmakers
One of the biggest surprises from my 75 Active Grants for Documentary Filmmakers post was how many readers were making their very first feature or short doc.
A lot of big funds technically accept debuts, but some are quietly geared toward filmmakers who already have a feature premiere, a broadcast relationship, or a festival track record. If you are early in your career, it helps to know which opportunities are explicitly open to first or second features, emerging filmmakers, students, or youth storytellers.
This guide gathers 40 grants, labs, and fellowships that are especially friendly to first-time documentary filmmakers. I have grouped them into four buckets:
Global grants for first-time and early-career directors
Labs and fellowships tied to your first or second feature
Theme and region-based funds that welcome debuts
Youth, student, and “first break” fellowships
For each entry you will find:
A working link
“Typical” timing for deadlines (subject to change)
A short description in plain language
Always check each fund’s website for the latest guidelines and dates. Many of these shift themes, cycles, or dates from year to year.
Global grants for first-time and early-career directors
1. The Whickers Film & TV Funding Award
Typical deadline: Annual call, usually closing in January or February.
The Whickers offer up to £100,000 for an authored documentary by an emerging director, plus a smaller development award for runners up. They are very debut-friendly and explicitly focused on strong personal authorship and distinctive access.
2. Catapult Film Fund
Typical deadline: One or two calls per year, often in spring or fall.
Catapult provides development grants (often around 10–25k USD) for independent, character-driven feature documentaries at the early stage. They are open to first-time feature directors and strongly value access, cinematic potential, and originality.
3. Sundance Documentary Fund
Typical deadline: Rolling cycles that shift every few years, often with one main call annually.
The Sundance Documentary Film Fund supports independent nonfiction features at development and production. First-time directors, especially with bold artistic approaches or underrepresented perspectives, are regularly funded.
4. IDFA Bertha Fund – IBF Classic
Typical deadline: Typically two cycles per year, often in early spring and late summer.
The IDFA Bertha Fund supports creative docs by filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. The IBF Classic program offers development and production support and has a long history of backing first-time and emerging directors.
5. SFFILM Documentary Film Fund
Typical deadline: Usually one application window per year, often in late summer or fall.
SFFILM’s Documentary Film Fund provides substantial post-production and finishing support for feature docs. They do not require a previous feature credit, and many first-time directors have used this to close their budgets.
6. Miller / Packan Documentary Film Fund – The Rogovy Foundation
Typical deadline: Historically two rounds per year, often with spring and fall deadlines.
This fund awards up to 25k USD to feature documentaries that have strong social impact potential. Early-career directors are welcome, and the fund backs a mix of development, production, and post projects. BAVC Media
7. Hot Docs
Typical deadline: Calls open periodically, often once per year.
CrossCurrents supports emerging filmmakers from historically marginalized communities around the world. Grants can cover development or production, and supported directors often go on to premiere at international festivals. The funding opportunities may have changed, so check their website for more details.
8. IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund
Typical deadline: Typically one call per year for development or production.
The Enterprise Fund backs in-depth, journalistic feature docs with development grants up to around 25k USD and larger production awards. First-time directors can apply if they are tackling ambitious, deeply reported stories. Desktop-Documentaries.com
9. IDA Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund
Typical deadline: Annual themes with one application window per year.
Named after filmmaker Pare Lorentz, this fund supports features that explore U.S. social issues or environmental topics through strong visual storytelling and clear thematic focus. Debut features are welcome, especially when the project clearly fits the year’s theme. International Documentary Association
10. ITVS Open Call
Typical deadline: Historically, one or two deadlines per year.
Open Call is not a “grant” but a co-production partnership that funds independent docs for public television in the United States. First-time filmmakers with a strong team and clear public-media potential absolutely get selected. Desktop-Documentaries.com
Labs and fellowships tied to your first or second feature
These programs usually provide a combination of money, mentorship, and a cohort, and many explicitly prioritize first-time feature directors.
11. Firelight Media Documentary Lab
Typical deadline: Annual call, often in spring or early summer.
Firelight’s 18-month fellowship nurtures underrepresented nonfiction storytellers working on their first or second feature documentary. Fellows receive a 25k USD project grant, retreats, and intensive career support.
12. Chicken & Egg Pictures – Eggcelerator Lab
Typical deadline: Usually one call per year.
This two-year lab supports women and non-binary directors making their first or second feature-length documentary. Funding is paired with mentorship, professional development, and a powerful alumni network.
13. BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship
Typical deadline: Annual deadline, often late fall or early winter.
The MediaMaker Fellowship supports documentary makers using storytelling for social justice. Fellows receive a stipend, feedback on their works-in-progress, and hands-on mentorship in impact and distribution strategy.
14. Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship
Typical deadline: Annual call for 18–25-year-old filmmakers.
Though not doc-only, Sundance Ignite is a major entry point for young filmmakers, including nonfiction storytellers. Fellows receive a year of mentorship, a trip to the Sundance Film Festival, and project support.
15. Film Independent Documentary Story Lab
Typical deadline: Annual cycle, typically early in the year.
Film Independent’s Doc Story Lab focuses on the creative development of feature-length documentaries. It is especially helpful for first-time directors in post or late production who need structure, feedback, and industry connections.
16. The Gotham Documentary Feature Lab
Typical deadline: Generally one application window per year.
The Gotham’s Documentary Feature Lab selects about 10 nonfiction features per year, all directed by first-time feature filmmakers in post-production. Fellows get multi-module support across completion, marketing, and distribution, plus access to Gotham Week’s Project Market.
17. Points North Fellowship
Typical deadline: Tied to the Camden International Film Festival, often spring or early summer.
The Points North Fellowship brings up to six teams of early and mid-career filmmakers to Maine to develop their feature documentaries. Fellows receive story consultations, pitch training, and access to industry meetings during CIFF.
18. Kartemquin Films – Diverse Voices in Docs
Typical deadline: Annual, often late fall.
DVID is a professional development program for Midwestern filmmakers of color working in documentary. It offers a series of masterclasses, mentorship, and a pathway into Kartemquin’s broader community and programs.
19. UnionDocs Collaborative Studio
Typical deadline: Annual call, often in spring or early summer.
The CoLAB is a 10-month intensive in Brooklyn for emerging nonfiction artists. Participants collaboratively produce short docs, explore new documentary forms, and build relationships with visiting filmmakers and curators.
20. Berlinale Talents – Doc Station
Typical deadline: Applications for Berlinale Talents usually close in early fall for the following year.
Doc Station is a project development lab within Berlinale Talents for documentaries in early development. Selected filmmakers workshop their projects and present them to industry during the Berlin International Film Festival.
Theme and region-based funds that welcome debut docs
These funds are often tied to issue areas, regions, or broadcasters, but they regularly support first-time directors who meet their brief.
21. Doc Society – Climate Story Fund
Typical deadline: Annual open call, announced early in the year.
The Climate Story Fund provides up to 125k USD to nonfiction projects and impact campaigns that help audiences imagine just climate futures. Early-career directors are welcome as long as the project is production-ready and impact-driven.
22. The Redford Center Grants
Typical deadline: Open calls have recently run in spring, with multi-year cycles announced in advance.
Redford Center Grants fund feature-length environmental documentaries and their impact campaigns. They are one of the few funds dedicated exclusively to environmental stories and explicitly support projects at various stages, including early development.
23. Roy W. Dean Film Grants – From the Heart Productions
Typical deadline: Multiple seasonal deadlines each year (spring, summer, fall).
The Roy W. Dean Grant funds independent shorts, features, and documentaries under 500k USD that “make a contribution to society.” This is a classic first-time filmmaker grant that combines a modest cash award with significant in-kind services.
24. National Geographic Society – Storytelling Grants
Typical deadline: Multiple themed calls each year, such as “The Big Questions” or freshwater storytelling initiatives.
NatGeo supports photographers, filmmakers, writers, and other storytellers whose work aligns with its focus areas in science, conservation, and education. First-time feature directors can apply as long as they demonstrate a strong portfolio and clear story plan.
25. AFAC – Documentary Film Program
Typical deadline: AFAC runs two open calls per year that include the Documentary Film program.
This program supports documentary filmmakers from the Arab region with development, production, and post-production grants, with amounts up to 50k USD for features. Emerging directors are explicitly encouraged to apply.
26. Screen Australia – Documentary Development
Typical deadline: Continuous application windows with periodic decisions.
Screen Australia’s Documentary Development program offers up to 30,000 AUD per application to develop documentary projects for cinema, TV, or online distribution. It is open to Australian teams at various career stages, including emerging filmmakers assembling their first major project.
27. Visions Sud Est Fund
Typical deadline: Two deadlines per year, usually in February and August.
Visions Sud Est supports fiction and documentary features from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Docs can receive up to 20,000 CHF for production or 10,000 CHF for post-production, and many grantees are first-time feature directors from low-production-capacity countries.
28. DMZ Docs Industry Fund
Typical deadline: Annual call, recently with deadlines around March.
Run alongside the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival in Korea, the DMZ Docs Industry Fund supports documentary projects from Korea and Asia in development, production, and post-production, often via pitching forums and industry awards.
29. Nordisk Film & TV Fond – Documentary Production Support
Typical deadline: Several decision dates per year; applications are rolling from Nordic producers.
The Fund supports feature docs and documentary series with Nordic producers and distribution commitments in at least two Nordic countries. Emerging directors can be competitive if they have strong national support and a compelling international co-production.
30. Fondation Liban Cinema – Film Fund
Typical deadline: Calls and windows vary by year.
Fondation Liban Cinema offers documentary development and production grants to emerging and established talents from the Arab world. It focuses on strengthening independent filmmaking in the region and often supports first or second feature projects.
Youth, student, and “first break” fellowships
These programs are especially powerful if you are in school, in your twenties, or making your first serious nonfiction work.
31. The Gotham Documentary Development Initiative
Typical deadline: Annual cycle, usually announced early in the year.
This initiative supports early-career filmmakers who have directed no more than one documentary feature. It offers development funding, feedback, and access to Gotham’s broader ecosystem of labs and markets.
32. Doc Society – New Perspectives Fellowship
Typical deadline: Cohorts are not annual, but calls reopen periodically.
New Perspectives is a two-year fellowship supporting U.S.-based BIPOC directors with daring documentary projects, providing both funding and deep creative support. It is explicitly designed for filmmakers who are still early in their careers and perspectives.
33. NeXt Doc Fellowship
Typical deadline: Annual application cycle, usually closing in spring or early summer.
NeXt Doc is a year-long fellowship for nonfiction filmmakers ages roughly 21–25, run by Youth FX. Fellows attend a fully funded retreat and then spend the year developing their craft, networks, and projects with mentorship and masterclasses.
34. Independent Lens Creator Lab – ITVS
Typical deadline: Recent calls have opened in November with December deadlines.
Creator Lab is a six-month program for vertical video makers, offering up to 36k USD in production funding, mentorship, and distribution on Independent Lens / PBS social platforms. It is a great entry point for early-career nonfiction storytellers experimenting with shorts and serialized work.
35. Carole Dorothy Joyce Grant for Student Filmmakers
Typical deadline: Annual, with deadlines recently around late November.
This From the Heart Productions grant is specifically for student filmmakers with films under 50k USD in budget. The winner receives around 3,000 USD plus donated services, making it a very approachable first grant application while you are still in school.
36. Screen Australia – First Nations Documentary Development & Production
Typical deadline: Rolling or periodic calls across development and production.
Screen Australia’s First Nations programs support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytellers, including documentary development and production funds. These programs are explicitly intended to build careers and often support early-stage projects and first features.
37. Fulbright–National Geographic Award Program
Typical deadline: Aligns with Fulbright application cycles, often early fall for the following academic year.
This award adds up to 20k USD in support for Fulbright grantees whose research projects incorporate storytelling, including short film and multimedia. It is ideal for early-career filmmakers who want to pair documentary work with field research and global travel.
38. IDA – Getting Real Fellowship
Typical deadline: Linked to the Getting Real conference years, with special calls ahead of the event.
The Getting Real Fellowship highlights emerging and mid-career documentary professionals whose visions will benefit their communities and the field. It is more career-focused than project-focused, but it can be an important early vote of confidence and networking opportunity.
39. Pretty Wild Fellowship – Points North / YETI / Little Monster Films
Typical deadline: Annual call, often announced in late summer.
Pretty Wild provides 50k USD and intensive mentorship for four cinematic, character-driven short documentaries about the outdoors and the people connected to those landscapes. It invites both emerging and established directors, with strong emphasis on fresh voices and underrepresented regions.
40. Points North – North Star Fellowship
Typical deadline: Usually aligned with other Points North artist programs each year.
North Star is one of several Points North fellowships that support filmmakers from underrepresented communities with mentorship, workshops, and industry access. It is designed to give early-career filmmakers a “north star” for the next phase of their documentary work.