BFI NETWORK England Early Development Fund

Eligibility and project requirements

The lead writer applies and is the BFI's main contact. You must be based in England, though producers on your project can be based anywhere in the UK, and proof of address is required in the form of a council tax bill, bank statement or utility bill from the past three months. You and any co-writers must be over 18 and not in full-time education. You need at least one produced work that has gained industry recognition evidenced by festival selections, screenings, broadcasts, written articles or reviews, and television, documentary, theatre, immersive and short film all count. You must not have received a commercial distribution deal in the last five years for any previous longform work unless you distributed it yourself, and must not have been attached to a project that received a development or production award from the BFI Filmmaking Fund or BFI NETWORK in the last two years. The project must be original to you and at pre-treatment stage with no complete draft. Fiction only, live action, immersive or animated, intended to run 70 minutes or more. Documentary is ineligible though hybrid documentary-fiction is accepted, as is anything intended primarily for broadcast television, any character based on a real individual, adaptations of work you did not write, and projects focused on another art form. One application per round.

Formats

Feature

Eligibility

UK residents18+Emerging writersEngland only

Open to

United Kingdom

Deadlines & fees

Dates and fees checked against the official site 19 Oct 2026. That is longer ago than we aim for; confirm on the official site before entering.

Prepare your entry

Prizes

Stage one awards of 3,000 to 5,000 pounds, comprising a writer allowance of up to 3,000, a producer allowance of up to 750 if you are working with one, plus visual materials costs, research costs with subsistence capped at 40 pounds a day, and access costs. Stage two awards of 8,000 to 12,500 pounds to around five projects a year. Money is cashflowed in stages with the final payment subject to delivery materials, any underspend is returned to the BFI, and the award is inclusive of all taxes. Legal fees are not covered, including reviewing the BFI grant agreement. ON REPAYMENT, and this one is worth reading carefully: the BFI describes it as a non-recoupable grant paid to the lead writer, so as against you it is not repayable. It converts to repayable only if the project subsequently obtains BFI Development Fund support, in which case the Early Development award is repaid by the production company out of the production budget, and only if the project proceeds to production. No premium and no profit participation is published. RIGHTS: unusually clean. The BFI states it will not ask for a share of copyright as a condition of Early Development funding, and you are not required to enter a standard writer agreement at this point; rights can be held by the writer throughout, including at stage two.

Judging

Every application is assessed by at least two people, an external reader plus a member of the regional BFI NETWORK talent team. The regional hub and central team set a longlist and shortlist, shortlisted applicants are interviewed, and final approval sits with the BFI Grant and Lottery Finance Committee. No individuals are named. Feedback is not generally offered given application volume, though it may be provided to those who reached the interview stage. Note the BFI's own pages disagree on scale: the guidelines set a KPI of 300 applications received while the fund landing page says it expects up to 1,000 applications and can fund around 20.

Frequently asked questions