BAVC Mediamaker Fellows
BAVC Media has been a community hub and resource for media makers in the Bay Area and across the country since 1976, serving several thousand freelancers, filmmakers, activists and archivists every year. The BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship is a 10-month collaborative, community-driven intensive that provides first-time documentary feature directors with travel, mentorship, critical feedback, education, unrestricted funding, and the opportunity to form lasting and supportive peer relationships. Our flagship artist development program is devoted to taking risks on documentary filmmakers using bold cinematic language and innovative impact strategies to grapple with critical issues of our time. 

BFI Doc Society / FWD-Doc Filmmakers

BFI Doc Society, in partnership with FWD-Doc, is hosting a virtual delegation of six UK filmmakers, producers, and editors who identify as disabled, D/deaf, and/or neurodivergent. The cohort will comprise emerging and experienced filmmakers for whom access to Getting Real ’24 will provide crucial opportunities for international exposure and engagement with the global documentary community. 

Documentary Organization of Canada

The Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) is the collective voice of Canada’s independent documentary creators. DOC’s new Business Leap program is designed to help production companies “leap” to the next level. Six Canadian documentary producers are supported in growing their production companies and their slate of projects through regular one-on-one consultations in the key areas of legal, accounting, producing, and mental health. Each company is owned by a producer whose community has historically been under-represented and under-served by Canada’s production sector. Over the course of one year, the cohort benefits from sessions that serve to strengthen each company’s production accounting systems and provide them with tailored legal consultations, regular sessions with a producer-mentor, and subsidized therapy.

Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellows

Firelight Media’s Documentary Lab is an 18-month fellowship designed to nurture underrepresented nonfiction storytellers working on their first or second feature film. The Lab provides holistic support for fellows’ projects and careers through professional development retreats, customized mentorship, and a project grant. The 14 2022-2024 fellows have projects that include stories of transgender and nonbinary protagonists in search of supportive communities, profiles of politicians and activists seeking to reform racially biased policies and practices in housing and policing, an exploration of the legacy and contributions of disabled visual artists, and an investigation into the disproportionately high rate of breast cancer deaths among Black women.

Getting Real ’24 Fellows

International Documentary Association (IDA) seeks to deepen the discourse at Getting Real through our Getting Real Fellowship program, which spotlights emerging and mid-career documentary professionals who have inspired visions that will benefit their communities and the field at large. The purpose of IDA’s Getting Real Fellowship is to create community among nonfiction writers, makers, and workers who would not normally have connected in such an intimate way. The second cohort of the fellowship comprises 16 fellows—eight filmmakers and eight industry professionals from the U.S. and around the world—who are burgeoning creative leaders in documentary film. After the conclusion of the conference, fellows will co-program a yearlong series of public and private panels and workshops, building a robust, global, and peer-to-peer network.