The British Council has relaunched the Travel Grant Fund with £623,000 to support filmmakers with work selected for international film festivals, labs and co-production forums.
It will run for three years from 2026 to 2029.
The Fund is managed by the British Council, with money coming from the BFI International Fund for features and BFI National Lottery funding from BFI Network for shorts. The grants distributed by the Fund contribute towards travel and accommodation costs, participant fees for labs, training and co-production forums, and enhanced travel costs related to showcasing XR works.
It will run separately from the UK Global Screen Fund’s (UKGSF) Festival Launch Support Fund, which helps sales agents and producers with the cost of an international festival launch.
The two funds cover separate events. The Travel Grant Fund supports feature filmmakers attending events not covered by the UKGSF, as well as shorts filmmakers and XR creatives, neither of which are eligible for UKGSF support.
The Travel Grant Fund is separated into five grant strands:
- Short film festival grants – for writer-directors who have yet to have a feature film produced and distributed in the UK, and for producers of any experience level to support a short film screening at an eligible festival, supported by BFI Network
- Feature film festival grants – for producers, at eligible festivals
- Interactive/immersive/XR grants – for XR creatives, at eligible events
- Lab grants – for producers, writers or directors working on feature projects attending an eligible creative development lab
- Co-production forum grants – for producers with feature projects attending an eligible market or co-production forum
The lists of eligible events are available on the British Council website. The feature film list includes over 40 festivals, including San Sebastian, New York, Locarno, Tallinn, Tokyo, Busan, Rome, Sarajevo, Goteborg and Sydney.
The relaunch replaces the previous funding round, which supported the participation of over 600 filmmakers and XR creatives in events in 27 countries from 2023 to 2026.
The British Council has provided travel grants since 2012, supported by the BFI, and has been an official delegate partner since 2023.
“Filmmakers and talent being able to physically attend and present their projects at festivals and forums raises the profile of their projects,” said Denitsa Yordanova, director of the UKGSF and of international funds at the BFI, with the Travel Grant Fund covered by the latter role. “This in turn can help boost exports, while also providing opportunities for UK filmmakers to build connections so they can co-produce and collaborate with current and future international partners.”
“As the fund has developed over the last three years, we have really witnessed just how valuable it is for filmmakers and XR creatives to be able to travel to show their work and meet collaborators,” said Briony Hansen, the British Council’s director of film.
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