The Ford Foundation has launched the JustFilms call to support documentary projects from around the world. The program funds feature-length documentaries of at least 50 minutes that focus on social justice and are under the creative control of the filmmakers. Applications are accepted for development, production, and post-production of direct content.
The call is international, allowing filmmakers from all countries to apply. Projects should convey narratives that inspire, challenge stereotypes, and contribute to transforming conditions of inequality and injustice. Short films, series, episodes, or emerging formats such as AR/VR or podcasts are not accepted.
The application deadline is December 30, 2025. Results will be announced approximately four months after the deadline, around April 2026, and funds will be disbursed between June and August 2026. No fixed production dates are set, as projects progress according to each recipient's production schedule.
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JustFilms – Ford Foundation
The 10th Scriptwriting Contest of the Skyline Benidorm Film Festival is open to both national and international screenwriters who wish to participate in a short film-focused competition. Participants can submit scripts in fiction, animation, or documentary, with a maximum length of 20 pages, written in Spanish or Valencian.
The submission period runs from November 17, 2025, to January 19, 2026, while the festival will take place from April 18 to 25, 2026, in Benidorm, Spain. Each author may submit up to three scripts, with a registration fee that varies depending on the number of submissions.
This contest is not a pitch, lab, or market; it is a pure scriptwriting competition judged by audiovisual industry professionals, whose decision is final. The main prize amounts to 1,500 euros, along with a trophy and official recognition in the credits of the future short film. The contest offers an opportunity to showcase original projects and connect with the professional short film industry.
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Screenwriting Contest - SkylineFest
ParisDOC Works‑in‑Progress 2026 is a call from the professional platform of the Cinéma du réel festival, focused on feature documentary projects in advanced editing or post‑production stages. Submission opens on November 17, 2025, and closes on January 7, 2026. The event will take place in Paris, France, on March 25 and 26, 2026, during the festival. The call accepts international submissions from any country, provided materials are in English or French, or with subtitles in one of those languages. It is dedicated to the documentary genre, specifically feature‑length documentaries (minimum 60 minutes) with a first cut completed and meeting originality and distribution potential criteria. Classified under Works‑in‑Progress / Industry, the program offers industry showcases and networking for projects in progress. Accepted formats are feature documentaries in post‑production, presented to industry professionals to support their distribution and promotion.
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PARIS DOC
For the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival – FICCI, the new talents of the film industry are a central focus of interest.
From this perspective, FICCI 64, with the support of Ibermedia, opens the call for La Residencia FICCI as a program of screenwriting aimed at directors and/or screenwriters from Ibero-America and Italy who have verified experience in short films and are developing their first or second feature-length fiction film.
The objective of La Residencia FICCI is to support participants in the initial phase of writing their feature-length screenplays in order to consolidate their artistic and conceptual proposals. In order to nourish the development stage of the projects, participants will also receive complementary inputs during LA RESIDENCIA FICCI on topics such as audience analysis, financing, marketing possibilities, distribution and circulation of the films, as well as other related topics.
FICCI invites the participation of emerging talents who are immersed in the deep exploration of cinema as an art, whose interest consists in reaching art to its contours, imagining new (or antique) ways and routes of relating to the world. Therefore, FICCI is interested in the multiplicity of ways of understanding and imagining filmmaking.
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The Residency - FICCI
