JustFilms Grant

The Ford Foundation seeks to reduce inequality in all of its forms, and artist-driven documentary and emerging media projects are crucial to this effort. As part of the Creativity and Free Expression program, JustFilms funds social justice storytelling and the 21st-century arts infrastructure that supports it. The projects and people we support inspire imaginations, disrupt stereotypes, and help transform the conditions that perpetuate injustice and inequality.

JustFilms supports ideas, individuals, institutions, and networks that work to reduce inequality through film, video, and emerging media platforms, with a special focus on documentary practices. We strive to increase resources in the field, develop artists as leaders, and connect storytellers with the tools and talent they need to do their best work, amplify their message, and extend the impact of their projects.

JustFilms projects are inspired by courageous individuals and undaunted communities seeking justice. These powerful stories expand opportunities for civic engagement and affirm the central role of cultural strategies in social transformation. Our strategy is informed by the foundation’s long history of supporting independent documentary film, public media institutions, artists, and freedom of expression—all of which have had a profound effect on the public consciousness.

They support independent, documentary film, video, and emerging media projects that explore timely social justice issues, with a focus on reducing inequality. We also fund organizations, individuals, and networks that raise the quality and extend the impact of these projects.

JustFilms supports independent film and emerging media projects that explore urgent social justice issues and seek to challenge inequality in all its forms. We also support the organizations and networks that help further these projects. Funds are distributed in two areas, social justice storytelling and 21st-century infrastructure, which together aim to transform pervasive narratives that produce and maintain inequality, and attract more resources for artist-driven creative visual storytelling around the world.
All projects submitted for JustFilms grants will be judged on the basis of

• Artistic excellence
• Contemporary relevance
• Potential for strategic impact
• Alignment with Ford priorities
• Potential to transform stereotypes, beliefs, and value systems
• Creativity and innovation in form
• Focus on vulnerable population