Deadline: Rolling
Award Amount: You can apply for a grant amount from $5,000 to $50,000. The amount you apply for should not exceed 50% of the overall marketing budget for the film or films.
Match: 50%
Eligible Entities: Be a for-profit or nonprofit  organization or entity that can demonstrate previous experience distributing and marketing independent feature films. We do not accept applications from individuals, or individual film LLCs at this time.
Description: We are a new program that promotes fresh strategies to grow audiences for independent film releases. We do this through awarding grants for bold experiments around distribution and marketing, and by providing educational resources for film teams to encourage a renewed focus on audiences. We will also release case studies and data publicly so that the field as a whole can learn from the successes and failures of our grantees. Our long term goals are simply larger audiences for independent cinema as well as audiences that are more representative of the U.S. population. In a challenging time for our field, our strategy is to offset the risk of testing new methodologies to strengthen the engagement with thought-provoking films in our culture. We are currently focused on U.S. theatrical and non-theatrical releases. One recent example is the theatrical “pay-it-forward” model used by Angel Studios which allowed viewers to purchase a ticket for others as a gift to see the film free in theaters. The model was aimed at expanding accessibility to audience members who could not afford a ticket.  This technique has now been launched in a new form by Gathr which added a feature to provide the purchaser with transparent real-time data as to when and how that ticket is being used.  This innovation is a particularly successful example in demonstrating how one experiment can be used as a model to benefit other releases and therefore has the potential to strengthen the entire distribution ecosystem.