United States: Emerging Filmmaker Grant Program

The LearningTimes Emerging Educational Filmmaker Grant is the way of helping to fund those furthering the conversations they have as a society about education, teaching, difference, sameness, value(s), community and the power of learning.

The LearningTimes Emerging Educational Filmmaker Grant supports projects across genre and type – short films, animation, features, documentaries, and more – which seek to connect people to educational ideas and movements that have lasting positive impact.

Some examples of projects with an “education theme”:

• An animated short explaining an educational topic
• A documentary about a public-school board hearing
• A comedy short or feature about teachers (think: Abbott Elementary)
• A short film about an underrepresented historical figure
• A children’s program focused on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics)

Funding Information

• The grant provides US-based emerging filmmakers pre-production stages of filming with up to $10,000 to create projects with an education theme.

Why did The LearningTimes Foundation create this grant?

• The LearningTimes Foundation wants to support new voices in the filmmaking industry, and increase the amount and variety of content created around a theme of education. Part of the foundation’s mission is to bring people together through engaging educational events and activities. The LearningTimesFoundation also recognizes the deep financial inequities in the filmmaking business, and seeks to contribute to making the filmmaking industry more equitable and financially accessible for emerging filmmakers.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible to apply, you must be 18 years of age or older, currently based in the United States, and not currently enrolled in an academic program.
• The LearningTimes Foundation accepts applications from core members of the project, defined as: the director, producer, or screenwriter (as applicable).
• They are especially interested in supporting filmmakers frequently underrepresented and historically excluded in the film industry: folks who identify as Black, Indigenous, POC, women, LGBTQIA+ or two-spirit people, dis/abled, d/eaf, and people with other disabilities.

For more information, visit The LearningTimes Foundation.