the tarkovski grant: new opportunities for indie filmmakers

What do you imagine it would feel like if you were to work passionately on a creative project, and then right when you thought you were all done, you realized that you needed to begin work all over again just to get your project seen by anyone else?

Although this may be the case for many creative fields, in this regard, there aren't many industries that are as competitive as the film industry. This means that when an independent filmmaker wants to get their work properly recognized, they usually need the help of a professional platform just to get the basic attention their work deserves.

The Tarkovski Grant supports hundreds of filmmakers each year in their challenging journeys as independent filmmakers. The Bigger Screen awards grants in the form of film festival submission fee waiver packages. The grant is aimed at independent filmmakers to support them in promoting existing films, no matter the genre, style or length.

The Tarkovski Grant is supported by film festivals from all over the world. The Modus Operandi is very straight forward. If your film gets selected with one of The Bigger Screen's partner film festivals you’ll automatically receive The Tarkovski Grant, allowing you to enter your film with all the partner film festivals free of charge. This not only saves you a lot of money, but it also recognizes your work as something to watch for during the selection procedure, making a selection with another partner film festival more likely - but of course, never guaranteed.

The program started in 2015 by supporting 169 filmmakers. Then the support was extended to 430 filmmakers in 2016, 444 filmmakers in 2017, 351 filmmakers in 2018, 422 filmmakers in 2019, 474 filmmakers in 2020 and in 2021 the support was granted to 611 filmmakers. The average value of The Tarkovski Grant is about $250 per filmmaker, bringing the total value of support until 2021 to a whopping $725,250 or an approximate annual support of $103,607

Enter your film with one or more of the partner film festivals in order to be considered for The Tarkovski Grant:

Amsterdam Independent Film Festival

Athens Documentary Film Festival

Boston Short Film Festival

Bruges International Film Festival

Brussels Independent Film Festival

Doc.Berlin Documentary Film Festival

Doc.Boston Documentary Film Festival

Doc.London Documentary Film Festival

Doc.Sydney Documentary Film Festival

Ghent International Short Film Festival

Ghent Viewpoint Documentary Film Festival