Stowe Story Labs $50,000 Short Film Production Grant
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About
The Stowe Story Labs $50,000 Short Film Production Grant, developed in partnership with the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, and working with partners including ARRI, the Galway Film Fleadh, Seed&Spark, the Sidewalk Film Festival, Portrait, Film Pittsburgh, Seattle International Film Festival, and WeShort, will award a grant of $50,000 to support the development, production, and distribution of a short film with a total run time of approximately 10 minutes.
We are proud to offer this grant to develop and produce a wonderful short film, and through this work to help screenwriters, filmmakers, and creative producers get work made and seen.
Application Review Process
In the first stage of the process, applicants will be asked only to submit a properly formatted narrative short film script of 15 pages or less for consideration. Knowing such things are deeply subjective and hard to define, we are looking for a great story well told containing notes of hope and uplift. We are agnostic on genre.
Initial script reviews will be conducted by the team at the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards. Top applicants will be asked to submit additional information about the project, including a statement of intent, any attachments or developed materials, other works, and applicant bio. PLEASE NOTE: prior production work or experience is not required (but is welcome) to be selected. As with all of our programs, we look for people demonstrating the capacity to do the work and to work collaboratively, regardless of film or TV experience.
The Stowe Team will select the finalists for consideration.
The Jury (listed below) will select the project to be awarded the $50,000 grant.
Stowe Mentor Liz Cardenas will serve as Executive Producer on the project to administer the grant and to be available to provide mentoring.
Please note scripts of 15 pages or less are eligible to apply. At the same time and as noted below, although not a hard and fast rule, we are looking for projects that can result in a film with a total run time of 10 minutes or less. Knowing the rule of thumb is one minute per page, please keep this in mind as you consider applying with a script longer than 10 pages.
If the applicant does not have a team assembled to make the film, the Stowe team will inquire about how to build the team to make the film.
International applicants are welcome (scripts must be submitted in English).
The winning project will be:
- A well-presented and written short film script with
- Ideally, a total run time of approximately 10 minutes or less and
- Few characters and locations, and
- No serious stunt, animation, or effects needed.
Applicants (and teams) must demonstrate a collaborative nature and capacity to do the work.
Benefits
A $50,000 curated grant to support the production of a short film with a total run time of approximately 10 minutes. Mentoring will be available to support the winning project through all aspects of its development and production, including:
- Development, Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, and Festival Submission mentoring by Stowe alum and mentor Liz Cardenas (bio below), who also will manage the grant with the filmmakers
- Option to receive festival submission support, advice, and post-festival run distribution on groundbreaking short film distribution platform WeShort
- Option to consult with Seed&Spark on crowdfunding, pitching, and distribution
- Option to receive discounted ARRI camera package
- Festival fee submission waiver and automatic admission to the 2025 or 2026 Sidewalk Film Festival (based on needs/value to the project)
- Festival fee submission waiver for the 2025 Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Competition for the top finalists of the grant and free entry for Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Film Competition for the produced film resulting from the winning script in the 2024 Short Film Production Grant.
- Festival fee submission waiver for the winning project for the Seattle International Film Festival for their 2025 or 2026 Festival.
- Festival fee submission waiver to enter the 2025 Galway Film Fleadh
- Invitation to join the Portrait community, a networking platform connecting filmmakers, department heads, funders, distributors, and more
Jurors
Tom Berkeley & Ross White
Oscar-winning filmmakers of “An Irish Goodbye”
Tom and Ross, co-writers and directors, founded Floodlight Pictures in 2020. Their inaugural project, ROY, was longlisted for Best British Short at the 75th BAFTA Awards. Their second short film, AN IRISH GOODBYE, played at over 60 international film festivals and went on to win the 2023 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short, BAFTA Award for Best British Short Film, and the IFTA Award for Best Short Film.
Ellie Foumbi
Writer and Director of award-winning OUR FATHER, THE DEVIL
Ellie Foumbi is a Cameroonian-American filmmaker whose debut film, Our Father, the Devil (2021), premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It went on to win 27 prizes at international film festivals and was nominated for Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. She's a Berlinale Talents Alum, BAFTA Breakthrough USA Fellow, and was named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. She holds an MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts in Directing.
Alex Boden
Creative Producer
Pistachio Pictures
Alex is a board member and former Chair of the Production Guild of Great Britain (PGGB) and is a voting member of BAFTA, the European Film Academy (EFA) and the Producers Guild of America (PGA), and is a member of the German-French Academy. Alex’s recent credits include TOKYO VICE, Netflix’s CURSED, Netflix’s SENSE8, and CLOUD ATLAS (starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry).
Ali Doyle
Head of Development
Yellow Film & TV
Ali has led the Wild Atlantic Pictures (Fastnet Films) development slate across film & TV which includes the upcoming feature from Kate Dolan, SILENT CALLER. Before that, she was based in Los Angeles as Sales Coordinator and Development Executive at Voltage Pictures working across projects including THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN; EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL, AND VILE; and I FEEL PRETTY. Ali has most recently joined Newgrange Pictures, a Yellow Film & TV Company as their Head of Development and Development Producer across their English language feature and TV slate.
Melody Cooper
Screenwriter and NYX Horror Collective Founder
Founder of NYX Horror Collective, Melody Cooper was recently selected for Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center Residency in Italy to develop a sci-fi novel about climate change. Her screenwriting credits include a feature and TV show for Netflix, CW’s Two Sentence Horror Stories, and Law & Order: SVU. Melody is a Stowe Story Labs alum, mentor, and board member.
Corey Trent Ackerman
Manager
The Cartel
Corey was the driving force behind FreshMaker Media, a literary management and production company, before joining The Cartel in the fall of 2016 as a manager/producer. He represents TV writers, screenwriters, and filmmakers in all media.
Shari Lynette Carpenter
Writer and Director
Shari Lynette Carpenter, an award winning writer/director, made her episodic television directing debut as part of Ava DuVernay’s groundbreaking all female directing staff on season six of OWN’s Queen Sugar. Her latest movie, Single Black Female, starring Amber Riley and Raven Goodwin, aired on Lifetime.
David Rocchio
Founder & Director
Stowe Story Labs
David Rocchio is an attorney, writer, filmmaker and Founder/Director of Stowe Story Labs. David conceived and co-produced “The Gun Shop”, an Emmy-nominated glowingly reviewed single-episode documentary which premiered primetime on UK Channel 4’s Cutting Edge series, and then played worldwide. David’s award-winning short films have played internationally, including Cannes Short Film Corner, Italy’s Capalbio International Short Film Festival (Best of Capalbio), and 2015 Los Angeles Independent Film Awards (finalist best screenplay).
David Pope
Co-founder
Stowe Story Labs
David Pope is a script consultant, screenwriter, and Co-founder of Stowe Story Labs. He has worked as a script consultant on projects around the globe including work with Academy Awards, BAFTA and European Film Award nominated producers and screenwriters and multiple national film funds. Previous script development and training clients include Creative Europe, BFI, BBC, BAFTA, and Cannes Film Festival.
Kristin Overn
Executive Director
PAGE International Screenwriting Awards
Kristin began her film career as a producer’s assistant and script reader at companies like Davis Entertainment, Bonneville Worldwide, and 20th Century Fox, and since that time, she has consulted, collaborated, and developed screenplays with dozens of writers, producers, and production companies. Kristin also has extensive experience in production, and she has served as a Producer, Line Producer, and UPM on various independent features, original sitcom pilots, several award-winning short films, TV commercials, and videos. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America.
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