Image description: White text reads "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" with a white LEF logo over faintly out-of-focus winterberry branches and a dark blue background. | |
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LEF will be closed for the holidays from
Monday, DECEMBER 23 until Monday, JANUARY 6
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Greetings from LEF New England,
We hope the holiday season provides ample opportunities for reflecting and recharging, and we're wishing you all a heartening 2025. We face many unknowns in the year ahead. Deepening connections and working together in community anchors us and helps sustain the values we seek to realize in the world.
The LEF team is gratified to have committed another year to broadening support for New England's ever-growing network of filmmakers. This work would not be possible without our dedicated peer reviewers and partners, and of course all of the dynamic filmmakers who continue to inspire us. At the end of this year and looking ahead to the next, we remain rooted in the vitality of independent filmmaking, and stirred by the joys that its collaborative spirit and enduring community can bring about.
We look forward to greeting with intention what the next year will hold.
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In 2024, the LEF Moving Image Fund grant program awarded $302,500 in funding to 24 feature nonfiction projects by New England-based directors and producers:
Through LEF New England's ongoing collaborations with the Flaherty, Points North Institute, and the Harvard Film Study Center, we supported 8 New England-based filmmaking teams with cohort-based film fellowships in 2024:
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In the new year, our newsletter will continue to be a place for us to share exciting updates about MIF grantees and fellows, and to notify New England's growing community of filmmakers about other support opportunities. Please share it far and wide! |
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Image Description: Over a deep blue-green background with a pattern of tangled ripples, white and aquamarine text reads: Production and Post-production Letters of Inquiry Deadline January 17. | |
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And as a reminder, all letters of inquiry for projects in production and post-production are due on Friday, January 17 at 11:59pm.
You can find more information and watch a recording of our latest virtual info session on the How to Apply page of LEF's website. Learn more about eligibility on our Guidelines and FAQ pages.
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Moving Image Fund Grantee News
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Image description: In this still from Jenifer McShane's THE QUILTERS, several men in gray uniforms are seen through a hallway window into a sewing room, lit with bright fluorescents. | | |
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LEF-supported project THE QUILTERS (dir. Jenifer McShane) has been shortlisted for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Film category. The film, which follows the daily lives of several incarcerated men as they create quilts in the maximum security prison sewing room, premiered at DC/DOX in June. You can read more about the film in a recent interview with Jenifer McShane in Deadline.
LEF-supported project KIM'S VIDEO (dirs. Ashley Sabin, David Redmon; prod. Rebecca Tabasky) is streaming on MUBI, as well as on Kanopy. Also on MUBI is a new short from prior LEF grantee Angelo Madsen Minax (A BODY TO LIVE IN), ONE NIGHT AT BABES.
LEF-supported project THE GENIUS OF MARIAN (dirs./prods. Banker White, Anna Fitch) is now available to watch for free on its new website.
Firelight Media's newest cohort of Documentary Lab Fellows for 2024–2026 includes prior LEF grantees Rachael DeCruz (NINE), Gabriela Díaz Arp (SOMEBODY'S FATHER), and Milton Guillén (MY SKIN AND I). The Lab is an 18-month fellowship designed to nurture underrepresented nonfiction storytellers working on their first or second feature film.
LEF-supported project THE RIVER (dir. Caitlyn Greene; prods. Sara Archambault, Claire Haley) was one of this year's grantees of the Sundance Institute | Sandbox Fund. The Sandbox fund provides grants to projects in any stage from development to post-production, affording filmmakers the opportunity to explore the link between science and culture through nonfiction storytelling.
Prior LEF grantee and 2023 LEF/CIFF Fellow Sofian Khan (WE WANT TO NEGOTIATE) is part of the latest cohort of the Sundance Institute | One House Filmmakers Fund. The fund provides unrestricted financing, educational support, and amplification for filmmakers from historically underrepresented communities.
Prior LEF grantee Luis Arnías (TONADA MENGUANTE) will be part of a short films program from BlackStar Projects, "Lose Your Mother", presented in partnership Boston Ujima Project at the ICA Boston on Thursday, January 16. The event is free and open to the public, and will include a post-screening discussion.
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Are you a LEF grantee or fellow with news to share about your film? | | | |
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Upcoming Film Opportunities
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Register for the grassroots Film in Vermont Database
The Vermont Production Collective is sponsoring the launch of a cast, crew, and locations database for Vermont productions in early 2025.
You can read more in the VPC's latest newsletter, and register for the database here.
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Image Description: Film Independent Logo | |
Film Independent Documentary Story Lab (Member Extended Deadline: January 6)
Over the period of one week, directors with projects in late production/early post-production attend multiple workshops and sessions with guest speakers, established documentary directors, institutional funders, legal professionals, and distributors. Fellows are paired with an experienced Creative Advisor and Editing Advisor who provide one-on-one support. The Lab culminates in a final pitch event that offers further opportunity for individualized feedback and discussion with industry executives.
Learn more
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Image Description: Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation Logo | |
Switzer Fellowship (Deadline: January 6)
The Switzer Fellowship is a one-year fellowship for graduate students from diverse academic and personal backgrounds in New England and California whose career goals focus on environmental improvement. The fellowship includes a $17,000 cash award, leadership training, and opportunities for professional development and grants throughout fellows’ careers
Learn more
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Hot Docs Conference and Market (Deadline: January 13)
The 2025 Hot Docs Industry Conference will include an expanded Works-in-Progress screening series, which will showcase up to 20 projects from Canada and around the world, and the return of the popular Deal Maker program, which facilitates over 900 one-on-one pitch meetings between producers and international funders, distributors, and sales agents.
Learn more
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2025 Cucalorus Works in Progress Lab (Deadline: January 15)
The Cucalorus Works-in-Progress (WiP) Lab supports social justice documentaries with a focus on Black storytelling. Co-designed and coordinated by Working Films, participating artists receive feedback on their work-in-progress and explore audience engagement strategies through workshops, consultations, and community screenings during a weeklong residency at Cucalorus’ campus. This year’s Lab takes place from April 22- April 29.
Learn more
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Jewish Story Partners Open Call (Deadline: January 17)
The open call considers U.S. feature-length independently produced film projects at any stage of production that explore some aspect of the Jewish experience. Filmmakers need not be Jewish to apply.
Learn more
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Vermont Artist Development Grants (Deadline: January 28)
Artist Development Grants support Vermont artists at all stages of their careers. Grants can fund activities that enhance mastery of an artist’s craft or skills or that increase the viability of an artist’s business. Funding may also support aspects of the creation of new work when the activity allows the grantee to accept a rare and important opportunity.
Learn more
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Chicken & Egg Research & Development Grant (Deadline: February 4)
The Chicken & Egg Films Research & Development Grant provides financial support to directors during research and development, filmmaking phases that are too often unpaid and unsupported. A total of $450,000 USD is awarded in the following grant amounts: $10,000 for Research; $20,000 for Development.
An informational webinar will be held on January 9, 2025 at 11am.
Learn more
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MacDowell Fellowship (Deadline: February 10)
About 300 artists in seven disciplines are awarded Fellowships each year and the sole criterion for acceptance is artistic excellence. There are no residency fees, and need-based stipends and travel reimbursement grants are available to open the residency to the broadest possible community of artists.
Learn more
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Image Description: Sundance Institute Logo | |
Sundance Documentary Producers Track (Deadline: February 12)
The Documentary Film Program is seeking their next class of fellows for the 2025 Producers Track. The program supports emerging independent nonfiction producers with works-in-progress features to be considered for the Producers Lab and Fellowship.
Opportunities for the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship and the Native Lab Fellowship are also open.
Learn more
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Indigo Arts Alliance Mentorship Residency Program (Deadline: Rolling)
The Indigo Arts Alliance studio located in Portland, Maine. The Mentorship Residency Program is a pioneering residency concept that serves as an arts incubator with generous workspace and modern facilities enabling the creative work of visual artists across disciplines. We foster mentorship by pairing two artists from diverse backgrounds of the African Diaspora together during a residency period to cultivate rich conversation, collaboration, and exchange experiences, knowledge, art industry information and technical skills.
IAA is currently accepting rolling applications from the North Eastern region (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island).
Learn more
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Perspective Fund (Deadline: Rolling)
The Perspective Fund supports filmmakers and strategists for whom entrenched forces and systems are most apparent in their lives and communities, who can most acutely construct films and campaigns to respond. Areas of funding include production, impact planning and campaigns, and participant compensation.
Learn more
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Image Description: Assets for Artists Logo and Maine Arts Commission logo | |
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Assets for Artists FREE Professional Development Workshops (Through January 2025)
The Assets for Artists program is a key resource for Maine artists, offering a range of free, artist-tailored professional development workshops. The upcoming Fall 2024 workshops include online and in-person sessions covering various topics such as personal finances, project planning, wellness, marketing, and more. These workshops aim to address the unique challenges and needs of artists, helping them thrive in their careers.
(Workshops are available to artists of all disciplines in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and now also available to artists in Vermont and Maine.)
Learn more
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Thanks for reading,
The LEF New England team
Lyda, Gen, & Matthew
LEF Foundation
PO Box 382066
Cambridge, MA 02238
617.492.5333
lef-foundation.org
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A private family foundation dedicated to the support of contemporary arts, LEF was established in 1985 with offices in Massachusetts and California. The Moving Image Fund was launched in 2001 through the LEF office in Cambridge, MA to support independent film and video artists. Since its inception, the Moving Image Fund has awarded nearly 500 grants to New England-based independent filmmakers with over $5 million in funding. The goal of LEF New England is to fund the work of independent documentary film and video artists in the region and to broaden recognition and support for their work locally and nationally. It also supports programs that highlight the rich history and ongoing legacy of innovation within New England's independent film community. The overarching goal of LEF New England's philanthropic investment is to help build a sustainable and strong community of support for artists and their work.
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