Upcoming Funding and Festival Submission Deadlines for Film Artists

Arts Council Funding for Film 2026

Full Funding Opportunities Schedule as of January 2026

Reel Art Award Deadline – Thursday 4th June 2026 5pm

Film Project Award Deadline – Thursday 23rd July 2026 5pm

Authored Works Award Deadline – Thursday 10th September 2026 5pm

ilDÁNA Award Deadline – Friday 6th March 2026 5pm

Agility Award – April 23rd 2026

UCC Film Artist in Residence – TBC

PLEASE CONFIRM ALL DEADLINES AND GUIDELINES ETC ON THE FILM SECTION OF ARTS COUNCIL WEBSITE AS THEY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Festival Submissions/Grants/Bursaries, Training & Residencies

We advise film artists to take time to carefully read the supplied guidelines and ensure that you are eligible for any of the listed festival submissions, grants, bursaries and residencies below before you begin planning and writing. We also ask film artists to pay particular attention to the deadlines and closing times for any submissions listed on the funders website.

MCFF’s Angelis Novis Network: a rotating congregation of artists, curators, conservationists, funders, filmmakers, and other professionals from Ontario and around the world who convene online and in person throughout the year.

GOOD WICKEDRY online screenings, T A P E Collective Deadline: Rolling

Sundance Institute Documentary Film Fund Deadline: Rolling

Online residency: Working class creatives, The White Pube
Deadline: Rolling

Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Deadline: 30th April 2026

W innipeg Festival of Moving Image
Deadline: 30th April 2026

Media City Film Festival’s call for entries for its 28th edition is now open. The festival will take place in person in Windsor–Detroit, September 15–19, 2026. Entry deadline: May 1st, 2026. Acceptance notification: July 2026. Absolutely no entry fees.

Encounters Festival, Bristol
Deadline: 4th May 2026

VISIO European Artists’ Moving Image Programme, Lo Schermo dell’Arte
Deadline: 15th May 2026

Recontres Internationales Paris/Berlin
Deadline: 15th May 2026

Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival
Deadline: 15th May 2026

BFI London Film Festival
Deadline: 22nd May 2026

VISUAL and Carlow Arts Office announce a new open call for exhibition proposals, which will result in a new project at VISUAL in 2027. Deadline is Friday 22nd May 2026 at 5pm.

The Paris Festival of Different and Experimental Cinemas Deadline 25th May 2026

Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) CIFF welcomes submissions of features and shorts, and all forms of film production – fiction, documentary, animation, experimental, etc. Friday 29th May – Regular Deadline

25 FPS International Experimental Film and Video Festival, Zagreb
Deadline: 30th May 2026

Interbay Cinema Society (ICS) Grants
Deadline: May 30th, 2026

Aesthetica Film Fesitval, York, UK
Deadline: 31st May 2026

DocsLisboa
Deadline: 31st May 2026

New MFA programme at ECA in Edinburgh for artists working with moving image and experimental forms of cinema Deadline 29th June 2026

Arts and Disability Connect

Round One
Opening: Monday 23rd March 2026
Closing: Tuesday 12th May 2026

Round Two
Open: Monday 10th August 2026
Closing: Tuesday 29th September 2026

The Arts and Disability Connect scheme is designed to support artists with disabilities to be ambitious, to develop their practice and to connect with arts organisations and arts professionals in the Republic of Ireland. If you have questions about the scheme, please email [email protected].

aemi compiles a regular newsletter which includes information about funding deadlines, events, exhibitions, festivals, and opportunities of particular interest to Irish and Ireland-based artist and experimental filmmakers. You can subscribe to aemi’s Monthly Newsletter for free here

You can also access aemi’s Newsletter archive here.

If you would like to submit an event or artist opportunity for an upcoming newsletter you can do so by emailing [email protected]

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This is a still from ‘Daisy: Queer Prophet of the Apocalypse’, a work-in-progress film by artist and filmmaker Venus Patel. The scene is set at dusk on a sandy beach, where a person is shown on their hands and knees, facing sideways towards a low pool of water. They are dressed in a bright blue skirt, and on their head, there is a large rectangular cardboard box painted with a crocodile head. The box is adorned with long green and blue streamers, and their image is reflected in the still water. In the background, we see a townscape and low hills under a cloudy grey sky, with the sun breaking through the clouds in the distance.