Every screenwriter’s dream is to see their words come to life on the screen. A film, whether on a small or large scale, requires budgetary resources that not all writers have at their disposal. Once your script is in its final draft, the next step is often securing a budget to take it from script to screen. Here are five ways to fund your short film:
1) GRANTS & FILM FUNDS
Grants and film funds can be a great way to get your short greenlit—they can get you started with a boost or fill the gap in financing! Both grants and film funds provide liquid cash, but they can offer so much more. Grants can offer industry resources such as script development, workshops for pre-production, and meetings that can expand a writer’s network. There is a vast variety of grants and film funds that can help fund your first short film, along with industry resources and workshops—including the Shore Scripts Short Film Fund, which not only awards $15,000 in production but a free camera equipment package from ARRI Rental, mentorship with an Oscar-nominated producer, and film festival strategy consultations with Tribeca programmer Kimberly Browning. Since 2016, the Short Film Fund has greenlit 24 films.
Other short film grants and funds include Roy W. Dean Grant, Escape Route Films, Pandora, First Flights, and Stowe Story Labs. It’s also worth keeping your eyes peeled for grants that had their inaugural years recently and may (or may not be) coming back in the future, such as the Vimeo Short Film Grant, Antigravity Academy’s Short Film Studio, and Monkeypaw’s No Drama. Tribeca also offers grants and mentorship through Chanel’s Through Her Lens and Kickstart With Canva. There are also grants that are not specific to film but do support films each year, like Creative Capital. Plus, it’s always worth checking your local film office, particularly if you are in a smaller market, where grants may be awarded for projects produced by residents of that area and/or for films shot on location in that area. These types of grants range in value and can be a phenomenal way to get financing for your first short.
2) CROWDFUNDING
Since its launch circa the turn of the millennium, crowdfunding has become one of the most used tools for indie filmmakers. Crowdfunding thrives off community building and outreach. Platforms such as Seed&Spark and Kickstarter allow filmmakers to incentivize community donations. Additionally, platforms such as Seed&Spark offer their own grants, development help, and fellowships for successful campaigns. Creating a unique and out-of-the-box reward system with an impactful campaign highlighting ‘why me?’ and ‘why now?’ can make your campaign stand out. Some inspiring case studies include 2023 Live Action Short Academy Award winner THE IRISH GOODBYE, Matthew A. Cherry’s 2020 Best Animated Short Academy Award winner HAIR LOVE, and BUZKASHI BOYS, which was nominated for Best Live Action Short at the 2013 Academy Awards. The more you build community around a crowdfunding campaign, the more anticipation for your film. Rallying visibility through a crowdfunding campaign can bring in higher audience numbers at screenings!
3) DONORS & FISCAL SPONSORS
Fiscal sponsorship is a powerful ally for any short film. Fiscal sponsorship is provided by a non-profit organization, often after an application process, and grants a film project tax-deductible status. This means any donations made to your film through the fiscal sponsor (the aforementioned organization) will be entirely tax-deductible for the donor. Because short films can’t guarantee ROI, offering donors a tax deduction encourages risk-free investment in your vision. In fact, fiscal sponsorship can even make a film more attractive to grants and film funds (some grants require that a film have a fiscal sponsor to be awarded funding). There are some fantastic fiscal sponsors that will support the development journey of your film, such as Film Independent, Women Make Movies, and From the Heart Productions. Not only will these organizations offer a tax-deduction status, but they’ll offer your film a sense of notoriety and backing. With a tax-deduction status, you can begin to reach out to larger donors who might find value in these write-offs, such as corporations or larger organizations.
4) CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS
Corporate donors can be a unique, powerful way to fund your short film. Consider companies that are directly related to the issue of your film (if the script is social/issue-based) or the theme of the film. Then, contact the company’s press or media department with a powerful pitch for a partnership. These partnerships can include in-kind donations, product placement, special credits in exchange for funding, or curated screenings for the organization and its audience.
In-kind donations are donations of goods or services towards the project rather than cash. This can include anything from reaching out to a rental house for free gear or a restaurant for free catering. One example of in-kind donations is 2023 Shore Scripts Film Fund winner Anjini Taneja Azhar, who partnered with British Airways for her film WHO ARE YOU, NANU? The film follows a nine-year-old girl who visits the Ganges River in India for the first time after her grandfather’s passing, where she befriends the ghost of her grandfather’s own nine-year-old self. This short is inspired by Anjini’s grandfather and his life. In fact, the titular character Little Nanu is directly based on her grandfather, who survived the devastating Quetta earthquake of 1935 and grew up as an orphan in India during a tumultuous climate. He pulled himself out of difficult circumstances after receiving an opportunity to work for British Airways, which ultimately offered him a fruitful lifelong career until his retirement. During development, Azhar reached out to British Airways and their head of PR to pitch a partnership between the airline and WHO ARE YOU, NANU? She framed the pitch as the perfect showcase of British Airways’ dedication to connectivity and legacy. As a result, the airline provided free round-trip plane tickets to her six crew members flying to India for production, saving thousands of dollars off the film’s budget.
Sometimes, brands and companies will pay to have their products and logos featured in a film as a form of advertising, through product placement. The fees that they pay can then be used to fund the film. A great example is THE HOLE TRUTH—a comedy short created by Alison Whitney and Natasha Goss, about two mom friends struggling to recover from the dirty little secret that pregnancy left behind—hemorrhoids! It’s a deep dive into adult female friendships and all of the taboos surrounding women’s bodies and postpartum recovery. The film was entirely funded by product placement with brands very familiar to the post-partum audience, including Chicco, Boppy, Lansinoh, Tot Squad, Tiny Transitions, Pura, Lullaby Earth, and b.box. Additionally, THE HOLE TRUTH was the first independent film to offer childcare to any working parent on the set, through the support of their partner BUMO. To secure these sponsorships, Alison and Natasha attended the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas with Jen Saxton of Tot Squad, where they were surrounded by hundreds of businesses promoting their products and services in booths. They walked the convention for three days, wearing t-shirts promoting the film, starting up conversations, and pitching to as many of the company representatives as possible. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they were the only women at the convention pitching a film! Don’t want to get lost in a room full of filmmakers pitching their films for financing? Then, go to the rooms where you’re the only filmmaker there, but you are surrounded by your film’s audience.
5) FRIENDS, FAMILY & COMMUNITY
A short film takes a village, so why not involve friends and family? There are plenty of ways to fill the gap in your film’s budget with the help of your community around you. Recruit friends to help on set as an extra pair of hands to help save costs on crew, find family that can help cater lunch for a day on set, or bring in people you know as extras! Not only will this help with production resources, but it will also allow your community to feel a part of the film. The more visibility, the better!
Also, check out local community resources—you’d be surprised what you might find. There are programs like the Moonshot Film Challenge in New York City, where the organization provides resources such as equipment, production insurance, and stipends, while accepted applicants are placed on crews to work with peer filmmakers in various roles of production. Films are shot over the course of one weekend, and the program’s previously made films have screened at over 100 festivals. There may be similar opportunities in your market of filmmaker collectives, in which members barter their services to help produce each other’s films on the weekends. It’s just a matter of finding those communities—often through word of mouth, your local film office, and social media.
Ready to begin the development journey and finance your first short film? Get started with our five tips and submit your script to Shore Scripts Film Fund for a chance to win a $15,000 grant alongside industry resources and career support.
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Anjini Taneja Azhar is a director and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. After working as an actor for over 10 years on studio features and network TV, shadowing and observing directors such as JJ Abrams, she dove into writing, directing, and producing. Anjini has written and directed multiple award-winning shorts, associate-produced for renowned companies such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, artists like Olivia Rodrigo, and been featured for her work in Forbes Entertainment, Women Cinemakers, and Ladygunn Magazine. Her latest narrative short, WHO ARE YOU, NANU? earned her the Grand Jury Prize Shore Scripts Film Fund Competition, a WritersxWriters Finalist and Hollyshorts Screenplay Competition 2nd Place Winner. She is a Golden Script Finalist and PAGE Awards Semifinalist. Anjini is also a freelance writer for Shore Scripts, a screenplay competition juror for the Slamdance Screenplay Competition, and a screenwriting mentor for Slamdance’s Annual Mentorship Award. Anjini has a deep reverence for cinema, beginning her morning every day at 6AM by watching a film.
