To celebrate the 10th birthday of Girls In Film, GiF London has launched a new funding initiative and mentorship opportunity, awarding £25,000 in production funding to support an exciting filmmaking project, and granting runner-up projects with mentoring support.

Open to women, trans+ and non-binary filmmaking teams based in the UK, we are looking for fiction-based projects across animation and live action genres (excluding music videos), with a maximum running length of 20 minutes.

Girls in Film are seeking exciting, bold and original production-ready ideas that can be delivered by the end of 2026. Shortlisted projects will be invited to pitch to a panel of Executive Producers, with runner-up projects offered additional mentoring to push their projects forward.

Girls In Film couldn’t do this without the help of our amazing sponsors:
Feeld, Prettybird, Bridget Productions, Farago Projects, MOX, and Uncommon. With in-kind support from: AVENUES Studio, 750mph, FOMO Rentals, Emmyland and MCX Hire.

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Girls in Film is a global organisation that champions and connects the new generation of women, non-binary and trans creatives in the film industry. We believe that changing the gender bias in the film industry starts with bringing these groups to the forefront. Our community engages in and progresses discussions around equality and representation in film.

We platform and connect female, trans and non-binary creatives at all levels in the film industry, but our network is made up of film lovers of all genders. We have a strong online presence via our streaming platform and Instagram, and IRL branches in London, New York City, Prague, Johannesburg, Dublin, Aotearoa and Athens.

Rules & Terms

• Applicants must be 18+ and a resident of the UK.

• Director, Writer and Producer must be women, trans+ and non-binary people. Projects may have a co-writer or co-producer who does not identify as women, trans+ and non-binary.

• Projects must be fiction-based, and can be any animation or live action genres (excluding music videos, docufiction will be considered).

• Films must have a maximum running length of 20 minutes. Submitted scripts must be 20 pages or less.

• The project team must demonstrate the ability to meet the required production timeline, with the completed film to be delivered at the end of 2026.

• The total budget should be covered by the fund (£25k) or have minority additional finance already in place (25k or less). The film must be in development or pre-production and not yet shot. The 10th Birthday Fund is designed to support projects before they go into production, not to serve as a finishing fund.

• The project team must own or control all rights to the script and any underlying material.

• If green lit, a minimum of two (2) Heads of Department must identify as women, trans+ and non-binary, with at least one (1) of these HODs fulfilling a technical role (e.g. Director of Photography, Sound Designer, Editor).

THE APPLICATION

Projects must be submitted by the Producer of the project.

Mandatory materials required:
• Script (maximum 20 pages)
• Treatment (including synopsis, director's statement and visual approach with mood board)
• Budget

Mandatory information:
• Overview of schedule
• Team bios and samples of previous work

We are a small team so are unable to provide feedback on all projects submitted. We will only be able to provide feedback to shortlisted projects after pitch stage. Shortlisted projects will be notified mid-July and invited to pitch to a panel of EPs in late July. Fund will be awarded by mid-August.

Full FAQ's on our site at: girlsinfilm.net/10thBirthdayFund