All applicants will be notified of their status within four months of the final submission deadline.

While the Rainin grant is open internationally, because there is a requirement of eight non-contiguous weeks spent in the Bay Area, the development/packaging phase heavily favors projects shooting at least partially in the Bay Area so that filmmakers do not have to step away from their critical casting and location scouting work during this important time in a production’s lifecycle.

All filmmakers applying for the screenwriting and development/packaging stage must complete a residency period of eight weeks. The 8 weeks do not need to be contiguous, and can be completed in 2-week trips. The residency does not include living arrangements, but is an open workspace at SFFILM’s FilmHouse office. The residency includes peer-to-peer engagement with SFFILM’s year-round residents and feedback sessions, one-on-one meetings with expert advisors working in various sectors of the film industry, space to work from including a quiet screenwriting room and editing suite, year-round programming including talks, workshops, table reads, and work-in-progress screenings, and support from SFFILM’s Artist Development team.

Projects and filmmakers do not have to be rooted in the Bay Area in order to apply. However, we ask applicants to consider how they can best both learn from and give back to the Bay Area filmmaking community to reach their goals. This can be done by shooting in the Bay Area, participating and hosting talks and events at Filmhouse during the residency, or connecting with local communities or resources within the Bay Area, among other contributions.

A filmmaker can apply twice per project stage with the same project. (i.e. two times for screenwriting, two times for post-production, etc.)