SFFILM Rainin Grant

 
Submissions for the 2025 SFFILM Rainin Grant are now closed.

Overview

The SFFILM Rainin Grant program is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the US. Grants support films that address social justice issues—the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges—in a positive and meaningful way through plot, character, theme, or setting and benefit the Bay Area filmmaking community in a professional and economic capacity.

Awards are made to 15-20 projects once a year in the fall, for screenwriting, development, or post-production. In addition to a cash grant of up to $25,000, recipients receive access to the FilmHouse (located in SOMA in San Francisco) and benefit from SFFILM’s comprehensive and dynamic artist development programs.

Since 2009, the SFFILM Rainin Filmmaking Grants program has funded more than 100 film projects, including Sean Wang’s Dìdi (弟弟), Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama, Fernando Frias’s I’m No Longer Here, Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth, Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men, Jeremiah Zagar’s We the Animals, Chloé Zhao’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild. Supported films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, South by Southwest, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival and many more. Learn more about the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

Current SFFILM Rainin Grants are as follows:

• Screenwriting Grant: These grants are open to filmmakers anywhere in the US, as well as internationally, and are up to $25,000. The funds allow filmmakers to devote dedicated time to furthering their work, and the grant includes a FilmHouse residency in the Bay Area to further develop the screenplay, and have access to both peer and established mentorship engagement.
• Development Grant: These grants are up to $25,000 for producers of narrative features tackling social justice issues who demonstrate a need to engage with the Bay Area to develop and package their films. The grant includes a FilmHouse residency with peer and established mentorship engagement. Successful projects will be at a stage to pursue financing, casting, location scouting, and/or other key activities to package the film before production. Major screenwriting work should be complete by this stage.
• Post-production Grant: These grants are up to $25,000 for filmmaking teams of a narrative feature. Projects should have significant creative work remaining in the editorial process or have a specific need related to sound or color in post-production. There is no Bay Area residency commitment required for this stage.

Timeline

• Grant opens Tue, March 4, 2025
• Regular Deadline Fri, May 16, 2025 (Application Fee $30)
• Final Deadline Fri, May 30, 2025 (Application Fee $50)
• Finalists Notified in September 2025
• Recipients Announced in October 2025

Who Can Apply

• Filmmakers must be at least 18 years old.
• Filmmakers may not be an SFFILM or Kenneth Rainin Foundation employee or member of any SFFILM or Kenneth Rainin Foundation Boards.
• Applicants must be actively engaged in one of the following phases: screenwriting, development, or post-production and should apply for the phase of production they expect to be in six months after the final submission deadline.
• Primary applicants must be in a key creative role for the film: screenwriter, director, or producer.
• Film must feature plot, character, theme and/or setting that explores social justice issues, such as human and civil rights, anti discrimination, disability issues, gender issues, sexual identity and/or other social issues of our time. Project must have strong and recognizable social value, contributing, for example, to a greater public appreciation of a disenfranchised group, identifying an area where social change is needed or bringing to light a difficult or inspirational story, condition or issue.
• Film must be a feature-length fiction film. Short films or documentaries are not accepted.
• Project may not be work for hire.
• Project budgets shall be $3,000,000 or under including all phases of production.
• Projects may reapply and must include what significant progress has been made since the last submission.

How to Apply

To begin the application process, navigate to the “Apply Now” page to review the required items for submission. If you have not yet created an account for the SFFILM Grant Platform, please do so (please note: this is separate from your SFFILM member account).

Please select ‘SFFILM Narrative Grants 2025’ from the dropdown menu and complete the core questions. If eligible, you are welcome to submit to more than one of our Narrative grants by answering supplemental questions for each opportunity you’d like to be considered for.

If you are a member of SFFILM, your application fee is waived. If you are not a member of SFFILM, there is an application fee that must be paid in order for your submission to be considered. To pay the application fee, enter your credit card information at the end of the application after you hit “submit.” Email grants@sffilm.org if you have any technical questions.

Application elements (subject to change):

• Logline. Please provide a brief summary of the film. (95 words or less)
• Filmmaker Bio (400 words or less)
• Project synopsis. (400 words or less)
• Describe how your film, through plot, character, theme, or setting, explores urgent social issues of our time. (300 words or less)
• What made you want to tell this story and why is now the right time for you to tell it? (300 words or less)
• How does the film contribute to or uplift the Bay Area filmmaking community professionally or economically? For Screenwriting or Development Phase (300 words or less)
• Please describe your artistic vision and stylistic approach. How will your film look and feel? (300 words or less)
• List the names and roles and briefly describe the qualifications of the other key (up to 5) individuals involved in the project. These individuals could include producers, directors of photography, editors, actors or other key cast and crew. State the date they became attached to the project. (300 words or less)

Work Sample Materials:

• Current script sample: Ten consecutive pages of the script you are applying with. The ten pages do not need to be the first ten pages. Please select what you believe to be the best ten pages. Please include a page introducing the script pages that provides any necessary context.
• Script sample explanation: This should introduce the script pages from the project for which you are applying and provide context as well as any other pertinent information that would be helpful for the review panel to consider, such as which draft of the film this is and why you selected this passage.
• Budget Top Sheet (required for development and post-production applicants. Optional but strongly encouraged for screenwriting stage applicants)
• Optional but strongly encouraged: A lookbook or pitch deck for the project.
• Optional but strongly encouraged: A previous work visual sample 5-10 minutes in length.

Finalist Materials

Approximately 25 applicants will be chosen as finalists. The following materials will be required for further consideration before the winners are selected. Finalists will have approximately two weeks to submit these items:

Screenwriting

• A one-page writer/director’s statement. This should provide insight into who you are and your process.
• A two to three page treatment. This should give us a clear sense of the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
• A minimum of 25 pages of the script you are applying for. The 25 pages do not need to be the first ten pages. Please select what you believe to be the best 25 pages.
• A script explanation that gives context in terms of where we are in the script as well as orientates us as to where we are in the story (500 words max)
• Proof of rights to story (if applicable)
• Optional: A minimum of ten pages of a previous script. The ten pages do not need to be the first ten pages. Please select what you believe to be the best ten pages. If you don’t have a previous screenplay, you can submit a visual sample, with an online link in an attached document alongside an explanation of the visual sample.

Development/Packaging

• A one-page director’s statement. This should provide insight into who you are and your process.
• A one-page producer’s statement. This should provide insight into who you are and your process.
• A two to three page treatment. This should give us a clear sense of the beginning, middle and end of the story.
• Full Script: Please submit the latest draft of the script you are applying for.
• Full Script Explanation: Provide any relevant context for your script submission. Please note that some members of the review committee may be unable to read the full script. Make sure to include page numbers for an excerpt of at least 25 pages you’d like the committee to read if they’re unable to read the script in its entirety.
• A full budget that includes actual funds raised to date, in-kind donations with associated market value and any outstanding or pending funds.
• Optional but encouraged: Previous Work Sample. A ten-minute sample of a previous work of the writer/director (short or feature). We will only accept online links.

Post-production

• A one-page writer/director’s statement. This should provide insight into who you are and your process.
• A one-page producer’s statement. This should provide insight into who you are and your process.
• A two- to three-page treatment. This should give us a clear sense of the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
• Full Script: Please submit the latest draft of the script you are applying for.
• A full budget that includes actual funds raised to date, in-kind donations with associated market value and any outstanding or pending funds.
• Work sample one: A ten-minute sample of the work in progress. We also invite you to submit a full copy of the film but we can’t guarantee we will watch more than ten minutes. Should you choose to submit the entire project please include a timestamp of the 10 minutes you would like the committee to watch if they are unable to view the full cut.
• Optional but encouraged work sample two:
• A ten-minute sample of a previous work of the writer/director (short or feature). We only accept online links.

Click here to download a PDF containing additional details about grantee requirements.

FAQs

Do I need to live in the Bay Area to be eligible for the Rainin Grant?
The SFFILM Rainin grant is open to applicants who live anywhere in the U.S. or internationally. The stories can be set anywhere in the world.

What stages does the Rainin grant support?
Rainin supports films in the screenwriting stage, development/packaging, and post-production.

What is the difference between the regular deadline and the final deadline? Will my project be more competitive if I submit earlier?
The regular deadline fee is $30 and the final deadline fee is $50. We encourage filmmakers to submit as early as possible but it does not make the application more competitive.

How much funding can I request?
Applicants can request up to $25,000.

Is there a budget cap?
Yes, the film’s budget must be below $3 million.

What are acceptable uses of the funds?
For the screenwriting stage, the funds are awarded to the writer or writer/director and can be used for cost of living expenses and childcare while the filmmaker works on the project. Filmmakers have also used the funds for research trips, consultants, and table reads. For the development stage, the funds are awarded to the producer and should be spent on parts of the development process such as casting agents, location scouts, and/or lookbooks. up to 40% of the awarded funds can be used to create a proof-of-concept, mood reel, or a closely related short film if the producer feels that this is the best use of those funds to unlock additional support for the film. For post-production, you should clarify which elements of post-production you would like to put the grant towards.

Is there a limit to the number of times I can apply?
No, there is no limit. Projects may reapply and state what significant progress has been made since the last submission.

The application asks how my project uplifts the Bay Area filmmaking community. I do not live there and my film is not set there. What are the expectations?
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.

What is the residency? Is it mandatory?
All filmmakers applying for the screenwriting and development/packaging stage must complete a residency period of four weeks. The 4 weeks do not need to be contiguous. 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. We strongly encourage filmmakers to fulfill the residency requirement during the annual San Francisco International Film Festival in April in order to take advantage of the industry and programming. Is there an additional stipend for travel and accommodations to the Bay Area?

Is there an additional stipend for travel and accommodations to the Bay Area?
No. Filmmakers are welcome to apply the grant toward cost of travel but no additional stipends are provided.

I don’t live in the Bay Area and am not shooting there. Can I still apply for the development/packaging grant?
Yes, all stages of production are welcome to apply even if you do not reside in the Bay Area.

I would like to submit my project to more than one SFFILM narrative grant. Are there additional fees?
You are welcome to submit your application for consideration for multiple narrative grant opportunities. Please be sure to review the eligibility for each grant and answer the supplemental questions each grant requires. There is only one submission fee per application.
 
For more information about our grants and fellowships, please contact grants@sffilm.org.