Financing
Filmmaking - Financing
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True Story: I Used My Jeopardy! Winnings to Finance My First Feature
Peter Johnston on Jeopardy!
“What is MAGIC TOWN?” For me, the clues that prompted this response took my whole life to uncover. Film, trivia, and magic have always been triple passions of mine. At 12 years old, my first paying job was as a… Read more
Knowing the Rich, Staying in LA (?) and Other Takeaways from the 2025 Film Independent Forum
Going Nowhere
If it’s true that the rich are getting richer faster than at any point in American history, then independent producers should devise ways to lure their dollars into films. That was one of three recurring finance-focused sentiments expressed at the… Read more
Catapult Reveals 2024 Development Slate with 15 New Projects
The Mammoths That Tried to Escape the Kingdom of Elrik Khan
Catapult Film Fund, which provides non-fiction filmmakers with early stage funding and mentorship, announced today its 2024 Development Grant recipients. Through its flagship program, the California-based nonprofit will help launch 15 new projects from around the world, including stories from… Read more
A Cinema of Gestation: On Returning to Filmmaking After a False Start, Multiple Life Changes, and 14 Years of Motherhood
Von Rohr on set with actors Raúl Castillo and Mitzi Akaha. (Photo: Nick Dawson)
A Bird Came Down is both a short and a feature-to-be by Heather von Rohr, produced by Nick Dawson, Editor of the Talkhouse and Filmmaker‘s former Managing Editor, and Emmett Kerr-Perkinson. In the guest essay below, von Rohr discusses the… Read more
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A Crisis of Faith: Have Funders Lost Faith that Art Films Can Make an Impact?
In April, the collapse of Participant Media sent shockwaves through the film industry. How could a 20-year-old company—with box office hits such as An Inconvenient Truth and The Help and 21 Oscars, including two Best Picture winners (Spotlight, Green Book)—close its doors without warning? But earlier that same month, another nearly two-decade-old indie film company made a surprising move that offers potential answers to what happened, how the film industry is changing and how well-meaning financiers are reacting to it. Cinereach, a longstanding nonprofit that has supported hundreds of indie films through grants, financing and mentorship, announced a major shift […]
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Las Cruces Days: Making Sundance Grand Prize-Winner In the Summers Using New Mexico Tax Credits
Alessandra Lacorazza’s In the Summers is a film of moments spread across years—moments quiet and seemingly insignificant, as well as larger events whose significance is downplayed at the time only to be properly understood years later. It’s the story of two teenage girls who, each summer, are sent by their mom to spend a few weeks with their charismatic yet irresponsible father, whose ability to love and be a parent is continually undermined by his addictions to drugs and alcohol. Winner of the Grand Jury U.S. Dramatic Competition prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, In the Summers finds a […]
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Chicken & Egg Pictures Awards $400,000 Total to Ten 2024 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantees
Chicken & Egg Pictures, the non-profit organization dedicated to supporting women and gender-expansive filmmakers with funding and mentorship, today announced its 2024 (Egg)celerator Lab grantees. The organization is granting $40,000 each to ten feature documentary film projects, directed or co-directed by first- or second-time directors. Funds are targeted for production, and each director will also receive year-long mentorship. From today’s press release: The 2024 (Egg)celerator Lab films find families reimagining their histories, legacies, generational grief, and intimate end of life journeys such as in Ashley O’Shay’s Southmont Drive (Working Title), Gabriela Díaz Arp’s Matitinó, and Emma Francis-Snyder’s Anatomy of a […]
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XTR is Trying to Solve the Crisis in Documentary Film, but Some Filmmakers Feel Betrayed
On November 15, at a DOC NYC panel called “Balancing Storytelling and Financial Stability,” South African filmmaker Milisuthando Bongela, director of the acclaimed 2023 Sundance film Milisuthando, recounted her unfortunate story of funding gone wrong—and how powerhouse nonfiction studio XTR offered her production hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money last November to help her deliver her documentary for its Sundance premiere, and then, five weeks later and after repeated attempts to follow up, the company responded that they were withdrawing the offer. “When she told this story, I was shocked,” says prominent Oscar-winning documentary producer and Story Syndicate […]
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Chicken & Egg Pictures Announces Inaugural 27 Grantees of its Netflix-Supported Research & Development Grant
Chicken & Egg Pictures announced today the 27 filmmaking team recipients of its inaugural Chicken & Egg Pictures Research & Development Grant. Supported by Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, the grants provide experienced directors with $10,000 for research or $20,000 for development of a new documentary project — stages of the filmmaking process that are often unpaid and unsupported. Chicken & Egg Pictures’s team will also provide grantees with peer support, connecting them to the broader documentary community for mentorship and networking opportunities. From the press release: The 2023 Chicken & Egg Pictures Research & Development Grant is supported by […]
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Rathaus Announces Detroit-Focused $10,000 Film Production Grant
Rathaus, the New York and Detroit-based production company behind such films as Tim Sutton’s Funny Face, Cedric Cheung-Lau’s The Mountains Are a Dream that Call to Me and Diana Peralta’s De Lo Mio, has announced a new grant supporting Detroit-based filmmakers. The Rathaus Film Grant will give $10,000 to one moving image artist in support of a short film, feature film, documentary, hybrid piece, or video art. Funds are unrestricted. As the FAQ notes, they “can be used in any way that significantly progresses your project forward. This could be anything from; supporting you to take time off to write […]
