For our short film contests, write one sentence that includes two components— 1) a compelling premise and 2) how you would use some of the funding to produce your film if chosen as a winner. Your entry must be one sentence under 200 characters, and you must submit it via the form on the respective contests' entry page (narrative or documentary). You can see all of our funding opportunities here.

Yes, you retain the copyrights to all intellectual property associated with your winning project.

Finalists will be announced via email approximately one month after the final submission deadline for that respective contest period. Make sure you have tom@thefilmfund.co added to your email contacts!

Feedback will be sent shortly after the final judging results are released.

Yes. The big fests like Sundance and SXSW don’t care if your film plays online first, and more and more film festivals are following suit. But if you’re still worried, we can delay your online release. We realize this is a hot topic, and we don’t want to mess with your festival strategy. While you must provide us with a private version of the completed film immediately upon its completion, you do not have to send us a public version until one year after we send you the funding. You can send it to us after your film's physical festival run, or you can send it before the festivals in order to gain traction and pick up something like a Short of the Week or Vimeo Staff Pick. Up to you, as long as you send us the film within one year of getting the funding. Short of the Week is so cool that they’ve compiled some handy data concerning online film festivals and how they affect offline festival runs. We’re not quite an online film festival, but the same thoughts apply: “This is one of the biggest scares for filmmakers (it was ours, too). So we did the research and found that 2/3rds of the top film festivals will accept online films (66% in 2013). And with heavyweights like Sundance and SXSW leading the charge, this is clearly a growing trend. If you want to know about a specific festival, take a look at our Essential List of Festival Eligibility to see if the festivals you’re considering are online-friendly” (Short of the Week).

Yes, and we'll be honored. We'll provide you with our motion graphic that reads "In association with The Film Fund." It looks cool, and it'll lend even more credibility to your project. Not that you're not awesome to begin with. 😀

We want to showcase films even if we didn't fund them. Filmmakers work hard, and we want to promote them. Submit anything related to your work here, and we'll feature it. Free of charge.

Depends on the day! Ask us here. Maybe we can ship you some leftovers. 👀

Yes. We want to make films happen.

Yes. A short film could serve as the pilot episode, right? Just make sure this pilot episode can stand on its own as a short film.

To maintain accountability, The Film Fund will reimburse individual expenses for your film after receiving expense reports, receipts, invoices, etc. We use a payment platform called SnapRefund.

Filmmakers like you who have also submitted their sentence to The Film Fund.

We know there's a simpler way to fund films.

Anything that has the potential to carry a good story. Horror, comedy, drama, documentary, anything. Absolutely no adult films under any circumstance.

Of course. And please keep us posted on any festival news so we can share it on our social media! 

Budgets will be different for each film, but we'd be more than happy to share a sample short film budget with you. Just sign up for our email updates with the button below! 🙂