First Nations Documentary Development

  • Up to $30,000 for feature and series documentaries, up to $20,000 for one-hour TV documentaries and online series
  • Applications open all year round
  • Decisions made in approximately six weeks

This grant supports First Nations practitioners to develop documentary projects, including features, series, and online productions. Funding is for creating strong written and visual materials to compete for production finance.

Key Requirements

The project must be a documentary as defined by ACMA.

Where the request includes shooting material, a director must be attached.

What is eligible for funding?

Funding covers development of treatments, draft scripts, series bibles, project development, and fees for writers, producers, directors, story consultants, research, and securing production financing.

What companies are eligible for funding?

A sole applicant;

  • must be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander key creative  (writer, producer or director).
  • A writer and/or director must have at least one ‘eligible documentary credit’ in the role they apply with.
  • The producer (where attached) must be either:
  • An ‘experienced producer’, or
  • A producer who has at least two eligible documentary credits’, or
  • An emerging producer applying in conjunction with an experienced producer (if applying in a team).

If applying with a team:

  • The same minimum credit requirements for writer, producer or director apply as mentioned above for sole applicants.  In addition –
  • The director (where attached) and any co-directors must be Aboriginal or a Torres Strait Islander person
  • In the case of co-writing teams, made up of Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers, the original concept must come from the First Nations Australian writer.

Is this grant competitive or entitlement based?

Competitive. Your application will be assessed among other applications by a judging panel.

How can I increase my chances of winning this grant?

By engaging an accredited government grants consultant, such as Avant Group.

Competitive grants often require significant business case development and project analysis to support the application, this may include detailed presentations supporting the project’s merit, projected sales, cost-benefit analysis and more.

As part of your engagement with Avant Group, your account manager will assess the required documents and will provide the following as needed to support your grant submission.

Grant application writeup including a detailed presentation illustrating how the grant funding will contribute to your project, how the funding will contribute to the project’s budget, a project milestone plan, delivery timeline, impact on employment if applicable and a breakdown of the management and leadership team for the project

  • Industry analysis presentation
  • Competitor Analysis Presentation
  • Marketing and Sales Analysis Presentation
  • 3-5 year Cashflow Forecast
  • 3-5 year Balance Sheet Forecast
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis of Grant Funding
  • End-to-end grant application including information collating, analysis and application writing
  • CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) cost-benefit analysis
  • Stakeholder relations and Risk Mitigation Plans
  • Any other relevant forecasting that will support your application

How can I get help with my application? Or know if I’m likely to win funding?

Avant Group offers a no-obligation assessment of your eligibility for funding and will assess your likelihood of a successful grant application.