Awards and Grants

The new Firelight Fund will provide grants up to $50,000 to support Black, Brown and Indigenous filmmakers for stories from development through distribution, with a focus on those who are telling urgent stories and using their craft to advance social justice. Deadline: Sep 18, 2025.

Submit your four-minute (or less) documentary shot in a city of 1,000,000+ and showing social and/or environmental challenges and potential solutions. Enter by Jan 18, 2026 for a chance to win awards and prizes including cash and a trip to the Cannes Film Festival. 

This National Wildlife Federation contest celebrates the power of photography to communicate the importance of supporting wildlife where people live. Open to photographers worldwide; must be at least 13 years old. Cash prizes. Deadline is Sep 19, 2025.

To attend ScienceWriters2025, taking place Nov 7-9 in Chicago, the National Association of Science Writers is offering Indigenous journalists and communicators grants up to $2,000 for travel costs, accommodations, caregiving and more, plus complimentary registration and one-year NASW Membership. Apply by Sep 3.

The National Association of Science Writers is providing grants up to $1200 to attend ScienceWriters2025 in Chicago, Nov 7-9, in person, or up to $200 to attend virtually. Appy by Aug 28.

The Society of Environmental Journalists' annual awards honor the best environmental journalism in 10 categories. $500 for first-place winners; $250 for second-place winners in all categories. Includes a Student Reporting category and $10,000 for the "best of the best." 2025 Deadlines: Sep 1 (regular); Sep 16 (late).

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ short fiction contest will be judged by renowned American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson. No entry fee. Cash prizes. Deadline is Sep 30, 2025.

This grant of up to £20k, a collaboration between One World Media, Pulitzer Centre and the Financial Times, is for an experienced filmmaker who wants to explore, through a short documentary, underreported stories about health in the global south. Deadline: Aug 20, 2025.

The Center for Cooperative Media offers 10 awards up to $15,000 each for short-term civic science media projects in the U.S. that can bridge the gap between scientists, media and communities. Includes hands-on coaching. Deadline: Aug 31, 2025.

The Global Heat Health Information Network, in partnership with Internews’ Earth Journalism Network, is launching a global photography competition to showcase the real impacts of extreme heat, and the ways communities around the world are responding to it. Deadline: Aug 29, 2025.