For a documentary film to make a difference , a solid strategy for audience engagement and strong partnerships are key. Filmmakers often lack time to do this work themselves or the expertise and resources to make an impact campaign happen. Emerging filmmakers and underrepresented filmmakers can face the biggest hurdles, despite the immense potential of their projects. Working Films’ response to this challenge is the Impact Kickstart, a program offering partnership and strategy development support to underrepresented filmmakers with feature-length films that hold great promise to catalyze action to address critical and current social issues.

Now in its eight year, we are inviting our community of filmmakers to apply to Impact Kickstart. We will select and support a cohort of filmmakers with impact campaign funds in the range of $10,000 - $20,000, with an anticipated announcement in late 2025 and disbursement in early 2026. In addition to funding, awardees will have access to mentorship and impact strategy support from the Working Films team and the cohort of grantees.

The deadline to apply for Impact Kickstart applications is Friday, October 3, 2025 at 11:59 pm ET.