Desktop Documentaries

Thanks for stopping by 👋
We’ve pressed pause on posting here, but the conversation continues:
• [X/Twitter]: @DesktopDocs
• Facebook: facebook.com/DesktopDocumentaries

Come join us where we’re most active!

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival celebrates the art of nonfiction film by giving voice to the powerful ideas that come forth in documentary. The festival is an important international platform,…

#FestivalFriday 🎞️
The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (Feb 13–22, 2026) is one of the top doc festivals in North America....and Oscar-qualifying for shorts!

🗓️ Final Deadline: Oct 3, 2025
📍 Missoula, Montana
🔗 buff.ly/eV5kX12

#Documentary #FilmFestival

Happening today 🎬
Our Doc Funding Hub workshop is diving into real crowdfunding plans from filmmakers in the room.
Get live feedback on your own plan - or listen in and apply the lessons to yours.
Starts 12pm ET / 5pm PT → buff.ly/ovFnzMo

#Documentary #IndieFilm #FilmFunding

Films — Perspective Fund Apply to the Envision Impact Lab. Click here to learn more.

🎬 Looking for a lab that helps your doc do more than just play to an audience?
The Envision Impact Lab by Perspective Fund is now accepting applications. Deadline: September 21, 2025.
🔗 buff.ly/IrzWxM0

#FundingMonday #DocumentaryFunding #ImpactLab

Doc Funding Hub Monthly Webinar Join our free Live Event for Doc Funding Hub members to discover the key strategies for securing funding and building a solid foundation for your documentary filmmaking projects.

Thinking of crowdfunding your documentary?
This Wednesday, our Doc Funding Hub workshop is dedicated to reviewing real campaign plans. Bring yours for live feedback, or learn from seeing others get workshopped.
Join as a one-off or as a Hub member →

Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival | Discover, Submit, Engage Now Join the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival for diverse films, industry panels, and community events. Submit your film and participate in this premier Bay Area event.

🎬 #FestivalFriday: The Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival returns April 9–12, 2026! Oscar-qualifying for shorts & mini-docs, it celebrates bold, socially engaged storytelling.
Submit by Sept 30!
👉 sebastopolfilm.org
#FilmFestival #Documentary

Firelight Fund | Programs | Firelight Media As Firelight Media celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025, we launch the Firelight Fund to meet this urgent moment. The Fund supports Black, Brown, and Indigenous stories from development through…

🌟 #FundingMonday spotlight: The Firelight Fund is open till Sept 18, offering up to $50K in grants for docs by Black, Brown & Indigenous filmmakers in the U.S. & territories. Social-justice storytelling - this is your moment?
👉 buff.ly/0JMOch2
#Docs #Grants #filmfund

Home - RIDF Submissions are open for the fourth edition of the Rome International Documentary Festival. Each year, RIDF brings to Rome a carefully curated selection of films: bold debuts, innovative forms, and…

#FestivalFriday
Documentary storytellers: the Rome International Documentary Festival (RIDF) is open for entries!

Final Deadline: 15 September 2025

Categories: World-Doc, Ita-Doc, Short-Doc - think bold, creative films completed after 1 January 2024.

DOC LA submit films to Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival — Submit DOC LA, Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival, LA Documentary Film Festival, DOC LA film festival, LA film festival, LA DOC film festival, Los Angeles Film Festival

#FestivalFriday
LAST CALL: Submit to DOC LA by Sept 8, 2025!
Shorts, features, experimental & more—all genres welcome. Rolling notifications by Sept 24.
Submit here: buff.ly/UJGt9r9
#documentary #filmmaker

Initiatives About Us

#FundingMonday
The Catapult Film Fund is closing soon for applications! Submit for the Development Grant or new Project Accelerator by Sep 8, 2025 (5 PM PT).
Details & apply: buff.ly/cOHo5Ph

#DocumentaryFilm #FilmFunding

The NYC Short Documentary Film Festival | Come Explore With Us

#FestivalFriday 🎥
The NYC Short Documentary Film Festival returns for it's 11th year on Nov 2, 2025!
Dedicated to nonfiction shorts 20 minutes or less, screened in the heart of NYC.

📅 Final submission deadline: Aug 31, 2025
👉 nycsdff.com

2025 AFS Grant for Feature Films Is Now Accepting Applications The 2025 AFS Grant for Feature Films is now open for submissions and will close on May 21, 2025, at 5:59 PM CT. Since its inception in 1996, the AFS Grant has awarded more than $2.8 million in cash…

#FundingMonday 🎬
Texas-based filmmakers, take note!
The 2025 AFS Grant for Short Films is now open. Grants support shorts in any style or genre, with a focus on uplifting diverse Texas voices.

📅 Deadline: Sept 4, 2025 (6 PM CT)
👉

Jackson Doc Fest – LANE DOC FEST is an award and theatrical screening event that screens international independent documentary films that focus on special emphasis on social culture and consolidating democracy, peace, and freedom. IN JACKSON, TENNESSEE

🎬 #FestivalFriday
Submit your doc to Jackson Doc Fest - formerly Lane Doc Fest - in Jackson, Tennessee!

🗓 Final deadline: 30 Aug 2025 | Gala & awards: Oct 11, 2025

Details: buff.ly/l0kHUaq
#docfestival #DocumentaryFilm #JacksonDocFest

⏳ Last chance!
Join serial-doc funder Hank Rogerson tomorrow for Part 2 of our doc crowdfunding series - how to keep your campaign alive + thriving once it’s live.
📅 Aug 13 | 12–1pm ET
🎟 buff.ly/XQQhJEY
#DocFunding #Crowdfunding #Documentary

Willkommen im NEST | MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Unsere neue Entwicklungsförderung

🎥 #FundingMonday
The MOIN NEST development programme from Germany’s MOIN Filmförderung offers:
• NEST Space: €7,500 base + up to €50K for docs
• NEST Classic: €7,500 base grant
Deadline: Aug 25, 2025.
One application - pick your track! Apply here 👉 buff.ly/Xvk29jC
#docfunding #filmmakers

Doc Funding Hub Monthly Webinar Join our free Live Event for Doc Funding Hub members to discover the key strategies for securing funding and building a solid foundation for your documentary filmmaking projects.

🎯 Crowdfunding your doc?
Join serial-doc funder Hank Rogerson for Part 2: keeping momentum once your campaign is live.
📅 Aug 13 | 12–1pm ET
Bonus: Replay of Part 1 included!
🎟 buff.ly/XQQhJEY
#DocFunding #Crowdfunding #Documentary

🎬 #FestivalFriday
The Turkish World Documentary Film Festival is now accepting submissions.
🗓 Final deadline: Aug 30, 2025
📍 Open to global docs focused on Turkish culture or communities
Find out more: buff.ly/EmanFlI #IndieDocs

Filmmaking Grants – Southern Documentary Fund Applicants must meet the following criteria to be eligible for our grant:

🎬 #FundingMonday
The Southern Documentary Fund is offering $15K grants to 7 projects with strong Southern roots.
Deadline: Aug 15, 2025
More info 👉 buff.ly/MLYlSgd
#IndieFilm #DocFunding #SouthernDocs

DOC LA Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival DOC LA — Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival — presented by Parajanov-Vartanov Institute

🎬 #FestivalFriday
Final deadline for DOC LA is Aug 21!
Showcase your doc in Los Angeles this fall - they love bold, global, and emerging voices.
🔗 Submit:

Text reads: We're live! Introducing...Disability Media Alliance. DisabilityMedia.org. Image description: A red square image features a Black person with no hair and over-the-ear headphones. They are sitting in a wheelchair pulled up to a desk with a microphone on it. There is a dark red shutter icon in the background, and Disability Media Alliance's colorful logo in the corner.

We’re live! Introducing Disability Media Alliance, a global nonprofit building infrastructure to resource disabled nonfiction media makers!Learn more about our work to support disabled perspectives in nonfiction media making: disabilitymedia.org
Image ID next post
#DisabilityMedia #DisabilityJustice

Fondation AlterCiné

🌍 Young documentary filmmakers from the Global South - this one's for you.

🎬The Alter-Ciné Foundation has a $10k CAD grant to support filmmakers born and living in Africa, Asia or Latin America.

🗓️ Deadline: August 15, 2025
🔗 buff.ly/HKqkx2h
#FundingMonday

🎥 #FestivalFriday
Got a doc with Italian roots?
Documentaria in Sicily is calling! 🌿

📍 In the stunning town of Noto
🗓 Final deadline: Aug 10
🎬 Italian shorts + features
🏆 Multiple awards, live events & more

buff.ly/DSBpbBm
#DocumentaryFilm #FilmFestival

🎬 Final class is TODAY - but you can still join!

Learn how to use Midjourney to create stunning AI visuals for your doc:
🎥 B-roll
📽️ Reenactments
🌀 Abstract scenes

✅ All replays available for 1 year!

Join now → buff.ly/h39Cfel
#DocumentaryFilm #Midjourney #AIinDocs

🎬 TODAY! Talking all things CROWDFUNDING at our live Doc Funding Hub session for documentary filmmakers.

✅ Pre-launch tips
✅ Platform picks
✅ Real campaign lessons

🕓 9am PT, 12pm ET, 4pm UTC
👉 buff.ly/7LVp37X

#CrowdfundingDocs #DocFunding #DocumentaryTips #FilmFunding

🎬 #FundingMonday
The AXS Film Fund offers $10K grants to support nonfiction creators living with disabilities or chronic illness - or working with someone who is.

⏰ Deadline: July 31
🔗 buff.ly/Y6ngkvM

#AXSFilmFund #DocumentaryFunding #InclusiveStorytelling

Submit your Documentary | Docuworld Submit your documentaries to the Docuworld Film Festival, The Documentary Film Festival in London for documentary Premiere ...

🎬✨ #FestivalFriday Spotlight! Docuworld Film Festival in London is calling for compelling docs with narratives that "inspire, educate, and provoke thought".

Final deadline: July 31, 2025.

Festival runs Oct 3–5, 2025 at Curzon Bloomsbury. Enter today! 🌍

How to Raise Money for Your Doc with Jilann Spitzmiller - The Art of Film Funding Jilann Spitzmiller is a veteran filmmaker with over 20 awards for her documentary and multi-media work. For more than three decades, she has honed a mastery in long-range, character-driven, cinema…

🎙️ Fundraising is challenging, but it doesn’t have to be so lonely.

Filmmaker & Desktop Docs instructor Jilann Spitzmiller shares her practical tips on The Art of Film Funding podcast.

🎧 Listen: buff.ly/HbHBexv
💡 Explore our Doc Funding Hub: buff.ly/fqeNVxH

Sandbox Films - sundance.org The Sandbox Fund offers grants, engagement events, and other opportunities for independent artists seeking to explore the intrinsic link between science and culture through innovative storytelling.…

🎬🔬 Got a compelling doc idea at the crossroads of science & culture? @Sundance.org Sandbox Fund offers grants up to $100K + mentorship!

⏰ Apply by July 21: buff.ly/q4FLq4N #FundingMonday

Porto/Post/Doc New Partnership

#FestivalFriday Spotlight!
@PortoPostDoc is accepting submissions for its 2025 edition (20–29 Nov in Portugal).

Known for celebrating innovative and hybrid nonfiction, it’s a gem on the European festival circuit.

🗓️ Deadline: 31 July 2025

More info: 👉

🎬 Starts TOMORROW!

Learn how to use #Midjourney to create stunning AI visuals for your doc, from b-roll and reenactments to abstract story sequences.

Taught live by Sundance-winning filmmaker @philipashane.bsky.social.

🎟️ Still time to sign up →
buff.ly/OeuJXk4
#DocumentaryFilm #AIforFilmmakers