updated August 2021

Animation Alliance UK advocates for the support of independent animation in the UK. When AAUK was established in 2011, there had been many years with little or no support for independent animation, and for several years we have lobbied Arts Council England and the British Film Institute to acknowledge and clarify their policies for supporting animation. We are pleased that ACE has changed its guidelines to make it explicit that animation is eligible for support where it falls under its wider remit to support the arts. And following encouragement and discussion with AAUK and Animation UK, we are very excited that the BFI’s Film Fund has now launched a fund for short form animation.

Here’s a summary round up of funding available for independent animation across the UK. Follow the links for details. Let us know if there’s anything remiss.

If you know of other funding or if you have any experience of these funding programmes to share, please use the comments box, start or join a conversation on the Animation Alliance UK Facebook Group, or email us at animationalliance@gmail.com.

LATEST!!!
Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice – current round deadline is 2 September 2021, but you need to register, and that can take up to 10 days. More information here.

NATIONAL
BFI Short Form Animation Fund
Launched in 2019, the recipients of the first round were announced in August 2020. Nine projects received awards of up to £120k for production and an additional six projects were awarded up to £10k to support development.

The deadline for a second round was 16 August 2021.

You can find details of the first round projects here.
And information and guidelines for the second round here.

“The fund can support narrative short form projects in any animated technique or genre (including documentary) and for any platform, eg cinema, online or TV (though not work intended primarily for broadcast television).”

Features, Documentary
For BFI feature funding, see the Development and Production funds information here.
BFI Doc Society Short Film Fund is currently closed. Features fund is open,

Jerwood Arts
Jerwood Bursaries provide funding to help artists explore and develop their next steps, whether through supporting skills and knowledge development and/or supporting the first stage development of a new idea. “We want artists to pursue their interests independently and on their own terms.”

Up to £1,250. Sign up to hear when they announce the next deadline here.
Jerwood Arts supports artists and animators to make experimental film, rather than more  mainstream work.

British Council Short Support Scheme
Once you’ve made your film, and it’s got into a festival…the British Council, in partnership with BFI NETWORK, offers short and VR filmmakers a contribution to travel and accommodation costs to attend international film festivals and events where their work has been invited to screen. The funding is to enable filmmakers to represent their work abroad, develop new contact networks, reach new audiences and increase the exposure of new UK film and film talent internationally.

Eligibility for grants is on the basis that the applicant has had a short film selected by one of the festivals on the British Council’s Key Festivals List.

Information here.

ENGLAND
BFI NETWORK Short Film funding programme
BFI NETWORK is a collaboration between the BFI, national film organisations and leading cultural venues around the UK, including the five English Film Hubs of the BFI Film Audience Network.

The Short Film Fund is managed through the English Film Hubs, and live action and animation are eligible. See below for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Short Film Funding programme is for projects with directors based in England and for new/emergent talent, defined as “a director who hasn’t yet had a fiction feature film produced and distributed. Applicants might be making their first professional short film, have made previous shorts or have experience in other areas such as documentary features, television or theatre.”

Key things:

• it’s a rolling programme
• for projects with directors based in England
• run in partnership with the BFI NETWORK Talent Executives who work with filmmakers on the delivery of funded projects
• production costs of fiction shorts, in both live action and animation
• doesn’t support adaptations of existing material
• films up to 15 minutes
• up to £15,000
• projects need to have a writer, director and producer attached; a minimum of two individuals across the three creative roles; teams that do not have a producer attached can only apply with the specific agreement of their regional Talent Executive
• check out labs and sessions on making an application that the Film Hubs run on a regular basis

Guidelines here.

Early Development Funding
Support for “new writers” who have not yet written a feature film script that has been produced and distributed and for producers and directors working with new writers.

“This fund is the first step in the BFI’s development support for live action and animated fiction projects from new feature writers. It supports people at the very beginning of their development process to produce an initial treatment and related materials.”

More information here.

ENGLAND
Arts Council England
Animation is eligible for support through two general arts funding schemes:

Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants
You can apply for up to 100k, but for an individual production, you’re more likely to succeed if you go for under £15k. You will usually need a minimum of 10% cash match, which can be your own money, but this rule is currently waived because of the impact of COVID-19.

It’s a rolling deadline. You’ll usually get a decision within six weeks of submission, but ACE is currently taking longer than usual to process and reach decisions on some applications, so it can be up to 10 weeks.

Until 31 August 2021, they are prioritising independent organisations, creative practitioners and freelancers.

Whilst ACE guidance is that they do not support “traditional narrative films and films primarily intended for commercial distribution”, they have told us that “though animation might historically have been associated primarily with Visual Arts, our current Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants guidelines recognise that boundaries and definitions are today more fluid and that animation practice could occur in relation to any of the artforms or disciplines that we support.”

They have also said “we will support narrative work but it is unlikely that we will support animation activity where the outcome is primarily intended for commercial film, commercial games or mass-market media distribution…[we] will prioritise support for innovative artistic practice in this area – for example where artists using animation as a medium (either alone or in collaboration) show a commitment to experimentation and creative risk.”

ACE takes into account the public engagement and benefit elements of an application. This includes the ways you’ll ensure that your work reaches an audience in England, and as well as screenings and exhibition is can include workshops or discussion events, online activity, etc.

AAUK has discussed with ACE how the need to evidence that a film will reach and engage an audience is challenging, because the distribution model is that you make the film first, and then set about getting it to an audience. ACE acknowledged this, and agreed that a way of addressing this would be for an applicant to outline their strategy for getting their work to an audience, along with evidence of previous exhibition/public engagement.

Note that ACE is primarily interested in audiences in England. An international festival strategy is fine, but not as important as engaging the public in England.

The fund is very competitive, and it is not uncommon for people to get rejected initially, adjust an application, and resubmit, successfully.

Find Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants information here.
Read the ACE Creative Media and Digital Activity information sheet here.

Developing Your Creative Practice
The fund supports creative practitioners thinking of taking their practice to the next stage to research, have time to create new work, travel, training, develop ideas, network or find mentoring.

Eligibility criteria are as for National Lottery Project Grants ie ACE won’t support activity relate to commercial film, commercial games or mass-market media distribution.

It offers £2,000 – £10,000 for activity up to one year in length.

Examples of things you can apply for are: building new networks for future development/presentation of work; creating new work; experimenting with new collaborators;  international travel to explore other practice or work with mentors; professional development activities; research and development time to explore practice and take risks.

“We would like to see applications for development activities from practitioners working in any of our supported disciplines.”

It’s not a rolling programme. Current deadline is 2 September 2021 – but you need to have registered for the online application system – and that can take 10 days…  Information here.

WALES
Ffilm Cymru Wales‘ short film programme, Beacons, prioritises “projects from Wales-born or based talent, particularly directorial voices, however, we would encourage applications from teams comprising Welsh talent working with other nations and regions on projects they are leading on.”

Up to £15,000, any genre or technique, including animation, documentary, Virtual Reality and 360° filmmaking, and may be in English, Welsh or a mix of languages reflecting the rich heritage and cultural diversity of Wales.

Currently closed for applications. More here.

SCOTLAND
Scottish Film Talent Network
A development and production programme for new filmmaking talent.

An annual scheme. In 2019-2020, 12 projects were taken into a development process; one of the 12 shortlisted projects is animation. Six of the 12 will be commissioned (in August 2019), with individual budgets of £15,000.

Check here for the latest.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Northern Ireland Screen
The Creative Animation Scheme was “designed to develop Northern Ireland resident junior creators/animators through the production of animated short films.”

Open to Northern Ireland based animation companies which have identified emerging talent that could be supported through this funding to develop and create animated short films.”

Not currently open. Check here for the latest.