JustFilms Grants

JustFilms Grants

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Ford Foundation
Last Updated: October 04, 2025

Summary

JustFilms Grants, funded by the Ford Foundation, supports artist-driven documentary and emerging media projects that address social justice issues and challenge inequality. By providing resources and support, JustFilms aims to empower storytellers, enhance their creative capacity, and expand the reach of their impactful narratives. This initiative is crucial for transforming stereotypes and building cultural power in marginalized communities, fostering civic engagement, and promoting equity through innovative visual storytelling.

Overview

NOTE: In order to limit the burden on applicants and reviewers, we are requesting you complete this short eligibility quiz first. If you are eligible, you will be advanced to the full submission form. The Ford Foundation seeks to reduce inequality in all of its forms, and artist-driven documentary and emerging media projects are crucial to this effort. As part of the Creativity and Free Expression program, JustFilms funds social justice storytelling and the 21st-century arts infrastructure that supports it. The projects and people we support inspire imaginations, disrupt stereotypes, and help transform the conditions that perpetuate injustice and inequality. What we do We believe that artist-driven moving image storytelling is vital to the pursuit of justice and equity in the 21st century. To flourish, storytellers and their networks need aligned creative, financial, and professional support, as well as distribution systems that enable them to reach a wide range of audiences. Historically, the field of independently produced film and emerging media has been under-resourced—and affordable, reliable access to the work for audiences remains a challenge. To address this, JustFilms supports ideas, individuals, institutions, and networks that work to reduce inequality through film, video, and emerging media platforms, with a special focus on documentary practices. We strive to increase resources in the field, develop artists as leaders, and connect storytellers with the tools and talent they need to do their best work, amplify their message, and extend the impact of their projects. JustFilms projects are inspired by courageous individuals and undaunted communities seeking justice. These powerful stories expand opportunities for civic engagement and affirm the central role of cultural strategies in social transformation. Our strategy is informed by the foundation’s long history of supporting independent documentary film, public media institutions, artists, and freedom of expression—all of which have had a profound effect on the public consciousness. JustFilms inquiry JustFilms supports independent film and emerging media projects that explore urgent social justice issues and seek to challenge inequality in all its forms. We also support the organizations and networks that help further these projects. Funds are distributed in two areas, social justice storytelling and 21st-century infrastructure, which together aim to transform pervasive narratives that produce and maintain inequality, and attract more resources for artist-driven creative visual storytelling around the world.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. We support artist-driven, non-fiction film and new media storytelling projects that explore aspects of inequality and the organizations and networks supporting these projects.All projects submitted for JustFilms grants will be judged on the basis ofArtistic excellenceContemporary relevanceAlignment with Ford prioritiesPotential for strategic impactPotential to transform stereotypes, beliefs, and value systemsCreativity and innovation in formPotential to build cultural power and voice in marginalized communities