BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship 2026 (up to $10,000) – YOA

Deadline: September 29, 2025

Applications are open for the BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship 2026. The BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship is a 9-month lengthy intensive devoted to supporting documentary filmmakers utilizing daring cinematic language and progressive affect methods to grapple with essential problems with our time.

The cohort is a collaborative, neighborhood-pushed house that locations variety, illustration, and moral relationships with storytelling on the forefront of BAVC Media follow. They goal to construct a secure house for filmmakers to workshop their movies, set up essential bonds and relationships, and acquire worthwhile insights as they go on to construct their careers within the area. They search candidates who’ve the potential to affect the understanding of how documentaries can remodel the world, in addition to increasing the standard of the artwork of nonfiction.

Benefits

• $10,000 distributed to every Fellow over the course of the Fellowship (plus further journey per-diems) Professional mentorship and technique periods targeted on documentary storytelling, profession sustainability, fundraising, distribution, and extra.
• Two San Francisco convenings (journey paid) comprised of immersive tailor-made workshops, intimate suggestions periods, and displays by main filmmakers and business figures.
• All-access go, spherical journey flight, lodging, and a custom-made itinerary for one movie festivals or business conferences assuming journey is secure and advisable. All plans are topic to change in accordance to pandemic restrictions and greatest practices, in addition to the provision of pageant applications.
• Consistent workshops and check-ins, 1-3 hours in size, scheduled prematurely, all year long.
• A constructed-in help community.
• All Fellowship candidates and Fellowship alum are eligible for 5 hours one-one-one mentorship by the BAVC MediaMaker Connect Mentorship Program.

Eligibility

• The MediaMaker Fellowship program is especially serious about supporting a various cross-part of media creators from throughout the U.S. who’re within the technique of directing their first or second characteristic-size documentary. Candidates who’ve directed a characteristic beforehand ought to take care to clearly reveal of their application that this challenge represents a major inventive leap in contrast with any earlier work and make a robust case for why they want a collaborative fellowship expertise at this stage of their profession. Above all, excellent candidates ought to reveal a robust capability for inventive development and eagerness to take part in peer mentorship and collaborative studying experiences with a various cohort of different filmmakers.
• The applicant needs to be the Director and the inventive lead of their challenge – making use of as a person. They should be the one particular person on their filmmaking staff who’s making use of this yr. If they’re part of a Co-Directing staff they need to focus on this program with their accomplice and collectively decide which particular person would most profit from and have the capability to take part in a fellowship of this nature at this juncture. This Fellowship required vital time and vitality over the course of 9 months and candidates needs to be ready for the dedication to their cohort if chosen.
• The challenge you might be making use of with needs to be a characteristic size movie (shorts, sequence, and podcasts usually are not eligible), non-industrial (that means the movie will not be being created for a market viewers with the intent of producing revenue by the promotion of merchandise, providers, or organizations), primarily documentary or non-fiction in nature (this consists of hybrid docs that are inspired to apply), and may have the potential for social affect (social affect could be outlined in some ways and is on no account restricted to coverage outcomes).
• Eligible movies could have at the least begun manufacturing and should have began put up-manufacturing. Projects needs to be in a spot to profit from workshopping (scenes, story, construction, edit, and so on.) with the cohort and seasoned visitor filmmakers. A challenge could be thought of too far alongside to profit from the Fellowship if a effective lower is predicted earlier than the tip of this system yr. This will not be a fellowship for filmmakers who’re nonetheless in early improvement on their challenge.
• Though there is no such thing as a citizenship requirement for the Fellowship, at the moment this system can not help Fellows who’re based outdoors of the U.S. Applicants should primarily reside within the United States and never count on to reside outdoors of the U.S. for a significant part of the yr.

Application

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship.