Opportunities from across the sector

We like to keep our networks up to date and informed about other opportunities, research and resources from our partners and others working within the sector.

Here, we’ve compiled a list of things that we hope you find useful or interesting.

Currently open for applications

➡️ Aesthetica has teamed up with Audible to offer two grants of up to £10k to fund ambitious new documentaries exploring the transformative power of listening and storytelling through sound. The Listening Pitch supports selected filmmakers to turn their ideas into fully realised films.

Deadline: 20 April

➡️  FACT has launched its 2026 open call for three paid digital artist residencies. Based at FACT in Liverpool, the 18-week residencies are open to early-career artists living in the North West of England and North Wales. Each resident will receive £4,500 to develop a digital artwork.

Deadline: 31 March

➡️ The BFI NETWORK Short Film funding is open for applications. It supports early career filmmakers to create fictional shortform projects of up to 15 minutes in length in live action, animation and immersive/virtual reality. The Fund grants awards of between £5,000 to £25,000.

Deadline: 18 March, 11am

➡️ The BBC National Short Story Award is open for applications. Award of £15k for the winner and £600 for x4 further shortlisted stories.

Deadline: 16 March, 9am

➡️  Diverse led, or organisations that work with disadvantaged communities can apply to the British Council and Speaking Volumes to develop and deliver a literature project with an international partner. Five grants of £7,000 each available to do so.

Deadline: 27 March

➡️  The Freelands Awards offers three winning organisations £100,000 each for a recent or ongoing project demonstrating commitment to progressive art education approaches with a demonstrable impact. The Freelands Awards are an opportunity to widely recognise, support and share inspiring visual art education work that may not always find the spotlight.

Deadline: 24 March

➡️  CRIPtic Arts has announced the re-launch of their disabled-led artist development programmes for 2026. They’re once again running four artist development projects designed for emerging writers, fresh theatre makers, experienced creatives, and cultural leaders: Reach, Launchpad, Breakthrough and Incubate.

Deadline: 13 March, 5pm

➡️  The Doc Society is offering funding to support ambitious, independent feature documentary films and immersive projects intended for theatrical release, from both emerging talent and more established directors. Awarding funding between £5k – £150k.

Deadline: various

➡️  MIT and Co-Creation Studio is hosting WORLDING – an intensive virtual incubator in Spring 2026. Designed for teams from anywhere in the world it aims to support the intersection of documentary, social XR/game engine technology, community-based design, land-use planning, data visualisation, and climate science. Interdisciplinary teams applying would ideally include 3 members.

Deadline: March 16

➡️ The Jerwood Foundation‘s 2026 funding round is open for applications. It welcomes funding applications from organisations with a focus on making art available for public benefit, and also organisations interested in working with Jerwood Collection.

Deadline: 18 March, 2pm

➡️  Applications for the RTS Bursary Scheme are now open. Bursaries are awarded to students from low income backgrounds. All you have to do is demonstrate your passion for pursuing a career in television, film, digital content production or related media industries.

Deadline:  24 June

➡️ Knowle West Media Centre and the University of Bristol are looking to commission an artist experienced in making work with or about artificial intelligence. The successful artist will collaborate with KWMC and AI PhD students to co-create a prototype artwork/artist-led workshop that playfully engages people in big topics around A.I and promotes deeper understanding of how A.I really works. Fee of £3k.

Deadline: 6 March, 9am

➡️  Could your organisation design and run a development programmes for UK creatives who have media projects? The BFI Challenge Fund seeks an organisation to support participants to advance their projects through a structured development environment.

Deadline: 16 March, midday

➡️   New Writing North have teamed up with Quay Street Productions to offer one North East based screenwriter a unique paid opportunity to develop an original TV idea, hone their craft and build their networks over a 6 month period with leading production company Quay Street.

Deadline: 16 March

➡️  Alternative Classical maintains an arts funding hub, which lists funding opportunities for both individuals and organisations and is regularly updated. It also hosts classical music jobs and opportunities (including trustee roles, music admin positions, composing call-outs and more) that is regularly updated.

Deadline: various

➡️  The Without Walls Blueprint Open Call is for the Research & Development (R&D) of bold and innovative outdoor arts projects. It’s an opportunity for artists to experiment, collaborate, and refine new ideas. You can apply for up to £10,000 to support the research and development of an outdoor arts project.

Deadline: 11 March, midday

➡️  The BFI Filmmaking fund is open, supporting original live action and animated feature filmmaking. Applicants can apply for:

• Discovery feature funding – awards of up to £1,000,000 for projects with debut directors and a production budget up to £3,500,000
• Impact feature funding – awards of up to £1,250,000 for projects with experienced and debut directors

Deadline: Round 1 of Discovery Fund closes on 5 March, Impact fund is a rolling basis.

➡️  Opening on 9 February, The Bagri Foundation grants promote the sharing of traditional or contemporary Asian culture and are available for organisations with an established organisations with a track record of delivering artistic projects. Grants range from £5k to £100k.

Deadline: EOIs by 11 March

➡️  BFI and British Council offers grants to help short and feature filmmakers, and XR creatives, travel to international events where their work is being presented.

Ongoing

➡️  Arts Council England‘s National Lottery Project Grants is an open access programme for arts, libraries and museums projects. It supports individual practitioners, community and cultural organisations.

➡️  Each month, art platform Creative Debuts awards a £500 grant to a UK-based Black artist.

Deadline: Rolling

➡️  Grand Plan offers grants of £1,000 to people of colour, aged over 18, living in the UK, looking to make a leap with their creative practice.

Deadline: Rolling

➡️  British Council can help you screen your feature film to selectors from the world’s major international film festivals and markets.

Ongoing

➡️  The Paul Hamlyn Foundation Migration Fund is open for applications. Supporting collaborations, alliances, and coalitions that build knowledge, solidarity, and power in our communities. For longer term projects funding of up to £60,000 per year (3 to 4 years) and £50,000 per year (5 years).

Deadline: Rolling

➡️ BFI Screen Heritage Fund is now open for applications, offering funding for projects, skills development and training provision to organisations, and a bursaries to those working, or looking to work in the screen heritage sector. Details: BFI National Lottery Screen Heritage Fund | BFI

Deadline: The BFI Screen Heritage Fund is open year-round, and applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

➡️ The UK Games Fund is offering grants between £50,000 – £150,000 for commercial games-for-entertainment content. Expressions of interest are open now.

➡️ Writing opportunities and events from the BBC and across the industry.

Deadline: Rolling

➡️ Ars Electronica and its partners are always on the lookout for creative minds who want to present their work to a wider audience. They have a number of open calls running at the moment. The Prix Ars Electronica is open until 4 March.

Deadline: various

➡️ Lincoln Art Centre want to nurture and inspire the next generation of artists or artistic ideas. They are ‘Open to Ideas’ – Submit your idea or work.

➡️  Support is available from Creative UK for companies working in moving image for storytelling, film, TV, games, animation and immersive industries. Organisations can apply for grants up to £2,500 to work with specialists on strategy, marketing, IP or monetisation.

Midlands opportunities

➡️ GRAIN Projects have a new Bursary opportunity of £2k supporting emerging artists working with photography to make new work and develop their practice. The bursaries will be awarded to artists to realise ambitious new works made in the West Midlands

Deadline: 9 March, 12 midday

➡️  The National Trust at Ilam Park invites proposals from artists, designers, and collaborative collectives for a site-responsive installation that celebrates the history of Ilam as the hall celebrates its 200^th anniversary. £10k commission fee.

Deadline: 30 March

➡️  Contemporary Visual Arts Network West Midlands (CVAN WM) and Contemporary Visual Arts Network East Midlands (CVAN EM), are commissioning 6 Global Majority, Disabled, Deaf and/or Neurodivergent mid-career artists to create new digital artworks exploring the cultural and geographical identity of the Midlands.

Deadline: 25 March, 10am

➡️  The CreaTech Frontier Growth Lab is offering £15,000 worth of bespoke growth and scaling support tailored to business needs. This programme focuses on early-stage development where a business has successfully delivered a Proof of Concept (PoC) and who would now benefit from bespoke support to achieve their own specific growth goals.

Deadline: 15 March

➡️  Applications to The John Feeney Charitable Trust are open. Organisations working in Birmingham can apply for a grant or commission of up to £10,000.

Deadline: 31 March, 5pm

➡️ GirlGrind is looking for talent to feature in Who I Am, Where I Am—a documentary-style campaign celebrating the stories, music, and creative journeys of artists shaping the region’s culture.

➡️ Shout Festival is looking to expand its network and connect with LGBTQ+ Brummie photographers, content creators and videographers to support our future projects.

No deadline

➡️ CWX – Coventry and Warwickshire Exchange connects visionary businesses, ambitious entrepreneurs, and talented creatives across Coventry & Warwickshire. Take a look at their upcoming events.

➡️ Art_Reach has launched INC, a new Impact Network for Creatives, offering a wide range of funded development and training opportunities for creatives and cultural workers, makers or artists in Leicester.

➡️  A database of support for creative freelancers from West Midlands Combined Authority.

Events and Conferences: sign up to attend

➡️  19 March – Let’s Get Real Conference – The Audience Agency – AI – exploring tools, use cases, governance and strategy

➡️  15 – 17 July – AMA Conference, Together – Leeds

Resources

➡️  BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Design) has launched a free online course to help SMEs make informed, responsible decisions about designing and using AI. The course is aimed at small businesses, micro‑enterprises, and start‑ups adopting AI for the first time.

➡️ AI Tools with Andrew Davis – designed to save you time, boost creativity and keep you ahead of the competition.

➡️ Arts Council England has created a toolkit made up of seven guides to help you take a thoughtful and collaborative approach to building AI policies and practices that match your organisation’s purpose.

➡️  Creative AI lab is a collaboration between Kings College and Serpentine that aggregates tools and resources for artists, designers, engineers, curators & researchers interested in incorporating machine learning (ML) and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) into their practice.

➡️  A machine learning emmissions calculator.

➡️ A round-up of digital funding opportunities from Catalyst.

➡️ A great resource from Unlimited – Top tips to help arts organisations make recruitment and employment more accessible.

➡️  Freelance writer Kaitlin Arford compiles a bunch of freelance opportunities.

➡️ Thinking of earning money from your content? We’ve produced a guide on what to consider when publishing your cultural content online. It examines platforms, licensing, subscriptions and great case studies from those who have made it work.

➡️ Bianca Gavin has compiled a directory of Arts, Film & TV organisations and contacts working for better diversity and inclusion in the creative industries.

➡️ Julie’s Bicycle has compiled a Creative Climate Justice Hub – a dynamic library of climate justice resources curated for the arts and culture community.

➡️  ScreenUK Industry has published a UK Producers Co-Production Directory to help find producing partners. Filter by the UK producer’s region(s) of interest

➡️ A range of filmmaking toolkits and resources from the BFI Network.

➡️ Immersive Experience Network have produced an Immersive Audience Report.

Catch up on our latest webinars

➡️  Digital for artists: Friend or foe?

➡️ Working with influencers

➡️ Pitching your idea to funders

➡️ How to use Alt Text & AD

➡️ How to manage digital comms solo

➡️ Tips for refreshing your digital channels and content

➡️  How to create rich immersive experiences

➡️ How to deal with online abuse

➡️ Tackling social justice online

➡️  Exploring virtual production

➡️ How to write a kick ass application

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