The British Council offer grants to help Short and Feature filmmakers, and XR creatives, travel to international events where their work is being presented.
- Short Film Grants – attendance at an eligible festival to support a short film screening, for new/emerging writers or directors (those who have yet to have a feature film produced and distributed in the UK), and for producers of any experience level.
- Feature Film Grants – attendance at an eligible festival to support a feature film, for lead producers.
- XR Grants – attendance at an eligible festival/showcase event with an interactive/immersive/XR project, for XR creatives.
We also offer grants for filmmakers to attend Labs and producers to attend Co-production Forums.
You can use our Travel Grants as a contribution towards your visit to a festival or showcase which is screening your work (as long as the event itself isn’t already funding your visit).
You can use the grants for:
- Travel
- Accommodation
- Disability access support
In addition, for a limited number of larger XR Technical Grants, you can use our grants towards costs associated with adapting your project in advance of the festival. Adaptations can include:
- Adapting to the technical requirements of the exhibition space, or for online exhibition
- Internationalisation, including subtitles or audio for the main language required for the country-setting; or content edits required by local laws and regulations to allow public exhibition.
- Where your project requires the attendance of a technician or artist on site to run it
- Some freight or extra baggage charges to transport equipment
When making an application for a Large XR Technical Grant, you are requested to complete our Large XR Budget Template to detail the costs that you are requesting support for and to identify any costs that are covered by the showcase/festival. Please see the Guidelines for more details.
The competition for the very limited number of XR Technical Grants available will be high, and assessment of these applications is made by a jury of industry experts. Please contact us before you make an application at Films@britishcouncil.org.
Awards for Short and Feature Film Festival Grants range from £100- £1,500* but will not normally exceed £750.
For selected A-list festivals only, the maximum travel grant cap for short films and XR projects, will be up to £3,000.
Awards for XR projects are divided into two tiers: Travel only (£100 – £1,500), and a very limited number of Travel/Technical Grants for larger scale showcasing, capped at £10,000.
All applicants must have had their short/feature/XR project selected by at least one of the festivals or showcases on our Key List, and must provide evidence of selection.
As a Travel Grantee you will need to plan your visit travel with the environment and the climate crisis in mind. We can offer additional Green Travel Bursaries to filmmakers who travel to European festivals and events overland.
These grants cannot cover travel that has already taken place. Applications made less than two weeks before the Event is due to start may not be granted, or may be rated lower than filmmaker/creatives who applied earlier.
There is no deadline for Travel Grant funding applications – they can be made on a rolling basis. Applications will be considered at the next relevant assessment meeting.