Meet the Inaugural Hulu/Firelight Kindling Fund Recipients

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The Hulu/Firelight Kindling Fund will resource three filmmakers with a $25,000 award to develop an original, non-fiction documentary feature film for a first look by Firelight Films and the Hulu streaming service. The Fund is open to filmmakers who are alumni of Firelight Media artist programs, including the Documentary Lab, Groundwork Regional Lab, William Greaves Research & Development Fund, PBS/Firelight William Greaves Production Fund, Impact Campaign Fund, Spark Fund (NEH), FRONTLINE/Firelight Fellowship, In the Making documentary short film series, and the HINDSIGHT or HOMEGROWN: Future Visions documentary short film series. Additional filmmakers may apply by invitation only from Firelight leadership.

Three (3) projects will be selected for the Hulu/Firelight Kindling Fund. Each filmmaker will receive $25,000 in addition to one-on-one professional development sessions on producing for Hulu with Hulu’s documentary division. Awardees will be expected to develop their documentary project into a robust treatment, pitch deck, budget and schedule for a first look by Firelight Films and Hulu. Project pitches considered for additional development or greenlight from Hulu will, if selected, be co-produced with Firelight Films, executive produced by Stanley Nelson, for streaming on Hulu.

• Open to alumni of Firelight Media filmmaker programs including the Documentary Lab, Groundwork Regional Lab, Spark Fund (NEH), William Greaves Research & Development Fund, PBS/Firelight William Greaves Production Fund, Impact Campaign Fund, FRONTLINE/Firelight Fellowship, In the Making, HOMEGROWN: Future Visions or HINDSIGHT, or by invitation only from Firelight.
• Project must be an original non-fiction feature created by the filmmaker applicant for first look by Firelight Films and Hulu.
• Filmmaker applicant holds the Copyright to the project.
• Filmmaker applicant must be the director of the documentary project.
• Applicants cannot be a staff member, administrator, or board member (or family member of any of the preceding) of Hulu and/or Firelight Films, Firelight Media or the selection committee.

• Firelight will perform an internal review to select up to 12 finalists from the submissions for scheduled pitch sessions.
• Submissions will be evaluated based on the strength of the project’s affinity with Firelight’s mission as well as Hulu’s content priorities.
• Each selected filmmaker will receive $25,000 plus one-on-one professional development sessions with Hulu’s documentary division on producing for Hulu. Awardees will be expected to develop their documentary project into a robust treatment, pitch deck, budget and schedule for a first look by Firelight Films and Hulu.
• Project pitches considered for additional development or greenlight from Hulu will, if selected, be co-produced with Firelight Films and executive produced by Stanley Nelson for streaming on Hulu.

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For more information, please write to kindling@firelightmedia.org.