Grants and Funding for African Documentary Filmmakers

As we already know, documentary filmmaking is a powerful tool for storytelling, capturing the essence of real-life experiences, cultures, and histories. For African filmmakers, this medium provides an opportunity to share authentic narratives with the world. Unfortunately, navigating the funding landscape can be quite challenging. So, we have put together a comprehensive guide to the grants and funds available to support African documentary filmmakers in bringing their stories to life.

1. IDFA Bertha Fund (or IBF)

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) Bertha Fund, founded in 1998, is an annual fund supporting documentaries from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. With its financial backing, filmmakers can transform their unique visions into compelling films that reach international audiences. They also offer training to develop talents through a combination of various programmes in their academy. 

Within the IBF Classic funding scheme are the ‘Project Development’ category and the ‘Production & Post-production’ category. Both categories offer project development and production/post-production support to filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania. They have two submission windows per year: 

• Submissions open May 1 and close June 10, 2024
• Submissions open November 1 and close December 10, 2024=

2. Alter-Ciné Foundation

The Alter-Ciné Foundation offers several yearly grants to young filmmakers from the Global South (Africa, Asia and Latin America) to direct a documentary film on the theme of rights and freedoms, including social and economic rights, women’s rights, the right to culture and artistic creation. The grant of 10,000 Canadian dollars and a few 5,000 Canadian dollars is aimed at young filmmakers who want to direct a film in the language of their choice.

Deadline: August 15, 2024

3. Docubox

East African Documentary Film Fund Based in Kenya, Docubox supports East African filmmakers with grants, training, and mentorship. They focus on empowering local storytellers to create high-quality documentaries that reflect the region's diverse cultures and stories.

4. Hot Docs

Hot Docs is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing and celebrating the art of documentary and creating production opportunities for documentary filmmakers. Year-round, Hot Docs- Blue Ice Docs Fund invests in African documentary filmmakers to tell their stories and contribute to the next generation of African documentary talent with professional development programs and a multi-million-dollar production fund portfolio. This fund offers substantial support to African documentary filmmakers through production and development grants of 40k CAD and 10k CAD respectively. Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group believes in nurturing talent and helping filmmakers create impactful documentaries that resonate globally. 

Submission window: 4 October - 30 November, 2024

5. The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund

The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund supports the work of nonfiction filmmakers from around the globe. In a changing media landscape, the fund has been a stable, progressive force in supporting work that has expressed the world in creative, complex, beautiful, and provocative ways, and has created real cultural and social impact around some of the most pressing issues of our time. In its ongoing search for artists and projects to support, the Documentary Fund is seeking filmmakers with a distinct voice and vision, and a meaningful connection to the work they create. They are especially keen to raise the voices of underserved or underrepresented communities from around the world in the service of building a more fair, free, and open society.

Submission window: 10 June  - 15 July 2024

For more information on funds and grants that you can access as an African documentary filmmaker, click here.