Vol 1 | Issue 17 | ISSN 2979-8744 (online)

As ever, this is based on my own experience with the BFI, which has been consistent over the past four years or so. I have applied for Short Film Funding, Early Development Funding, Future Takes Funding, mentoring, specific regional labs, and applied as a reader. Some of these I have got into, most of them I have not.

But I have learned a few things.

I would say yes. But with a massive caveat. You should be aware that as a new writer, you are very unlikely to get this funding. And by new writer, I mean someone who hasn't any credits or hasn't worked on any productions at all, or someone who's been writing for years, knows the craft, or perhaps is looking at this as a stepping stone. Even though confusingly, the BFI state that this is for early writers, new writers, new career writers, etc, their definition of new writer is not the same as it is for us.

It is still worth applying for, however. The main reason is so you can understand the process and get familiar with the language and the parameters in which they work within.

It's not to say that it's a waste of your time even though you are very unlikely to get selected.

But trust me, when you have got to a point in your career where you are ready to apply for something like this, having the experience to know just exactly how complex, convoluted and intricate their application form is will do you a massive, massive favour. It's an incredibly lengthy process and allowing the right amount of time to complete it is key to success. You'll only know what that's like once you've done it.

The BFI are looking for people to invest in at a level where they have demonstrated they have invested in themselves. Sometimes this will look like schemes, short films, engagement with festivals, producers, directors and projects, or it could look like engagement with training.

I think one thing to say is you need to look at this with a pinch of salt. There are different regions where the bar is a different height. For example, places like the South, especially the South East, the barrier to entry is probably going to be higher. Whereas in more underrepresented areas the barrier for entry could be lower.

I’d I invite you to think about whether you are putting a barrier in your own way.

Now I can only speak from my own specific circumstances and of course there are additional barriers that other writers will face that will increase or decrease their opportunities.

Geography and circumstance absolutely create barriers. I know because I live hundreds of miles from London, work full time and have a family. But one thing I eventually realised is that "there's more than one route into the industry" isn't a platitude. It means finding the version of networking, collaboration and development that fits your life rather than waiting until your life looks like someone else's.

I have still managed to achieve that level of engagement with the industry.

It has not been easy at all, but I have managed it.

The thing that worked for me was to stop looking at barriers as dead ends and sitting there in protest waiting for the wall to move. Find a way around it. Find a new route.

If you're lucky to get shortlisted, you'll be invited to an interview. When I was last shortlisted for the Early Development Funding, a regional opportunity (statistically harder to get into than Harvard!) I was grateful for the effort I had made to get to know my regional BFI team over the years by attending virtual events, in-person events, applying for schemes, replying to emails, just being present, available, and appreciative.

It meant that my interview was not a scary intimidating place. It was lovely to demonstrate my passion for my script idea and my application with people who I knew understood me and appreciated it. I came away with a sense that it was the right time for me to access this funding, but the script idea specifically wasn't perhaps as strong as other's that they'd had in the pool. Which, in hindsight, I agree with and of course I still take as a win.

One question that really stuck out to me was they asked me how I engage with feedback. Can I demonstrate that?

I can demonstrate that because I am a script reader. I have a regular weekly feedback tank with four other writers that I've been doing for four years now. I teach feedback techniques to MA students, and I've completed a script editing course.

I have other various groups I engage with feedback with and have been part of schemes too. I've also received some one-to-one feedback with script editors like Lucy V Hay at Bang to Write, Justine Hart at the Script Factory, and Elizabeth Clegg at Euroscript through the London Screenwriters’ Festival. And having two shorts made, I can demonstrate how I've worked woth stakeholders on a production, which means I've engaged with feedback quite a bit.

Looking through previous funding rounds, a pattern starts to emerge. Many of the projects are formally ambitious, visually distinctive or tell stories that might struggle to find commercial backing elsewhere.

If there isn't that space for interpretation, experimentation, space for creativity, filmmaking, real visual storytelling in the way that the BFI like to work, it's going to be very difficult for you to break through. Not impossible. There are some brilliant very commercial stories on their slate but the BFI is for filmmakers or for stories that are not likely to be funded in any other typical way. Niche, I would say, is the word.

I've also completed a few short film fund applications with producers and production companies who have had successful funding bids with them before. It's very interesting to observe their process and the things that they study very, very carefully are not only the BFI's guidelines, which there is a huge amount of detail about on their website, but also the funding that they draw from, which is National Lottery funding. When you discover what they will fund and why, you start to realise how much narrower that corridor to entry really is.

You will need to be au fait with all of that and understand it intricately, for example, funding priorities centre around an environmental, social, governance (ESG) themes. When you really look into what those different things are, it's very clear that you need to be able to demonstrate that in your writing or in your pitch.

For example, one of them is environmental; so how would you do that as a writer? I would always look at the answers on the form and go, "How am I tackling this as a writer? I mean surely this is a question for the producer? Surely this is a question about sustainable production, something that comes later? How can I think about that as a writer?”

But of course, it comes into your story.

Can you role model? Can you replace just a car with an electric car? Can you show an alternative way your character fuels their home? Does your character grow food perhaps rather than just the go to the supermarket?

It might not be something that is integral to the story. It could be background noise, but it's there and it's subtly saying something and that is what I think that they would like to see more and more of.

Don't be intimidated. You're asking for a lot of money from one single source - akin to a business loan from the bank. You need to be thorough. And likewise, they wouldnt just hand out money blindly because you have a great idea.

Have you entered before? How did you get on? Let me know.

Helen

Next up… Why short films? Believe in the power of telling a story in less than ten minutes

© Helen Tompson 2026 | Feel free to share this newsletter with other writers. If you'd like to reproduce or quote larger sections, just drop me a message first.