The Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund
About the Fund
Made possible by the New York Community Trust, the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund supports feature-length documentary films that reflect the spirit and nature of Pare Lorentz's work, bringing to light and researching a social issue to inform democratic education. Pare Lorentz uses a creative and intentional visual style of storytelling to bring nuance into conversations that affect everyday people.
The Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund began in 2011, making it the International Documentary Association’s oldest fund, and has granted $1,360,000 to 72 projects. The fund provides production and post-production grants to be used in the creation of original, independent documentary films that illuminate urgent issues. Noteworthy Pare Lorentz grantees include Black Mothers, Hummingbirds, After Sherman, Crip Camp, Yintah, and Queer as Punk. A complete list of Pare Lorentz grantees can be found in our Grantee Database.
Every year, the Pare Lorentz fund selects projects based on one theme - sometimes a social issue, other times a type of film form. This year, the theme is migration in and to the Americas. We select the films through nominations from key film organizations throughout the Americas. (To read more information about the theme and the nominations, click here).
Below, you can find more information on the timeline, eligibility requirements, and grant information.
- 2025 Theme
Please see information about the theme and the nominations for 2025, click here.
- 2025 Nominating Organizations
- ChileDoc
- DocsMX
- DocsSP
- Femme Frontera
- Firelight Media
- Guadalajara Film Festival
- Hot Docs
- Latino Public Broadcasting
- Third Horizon Film Festival
- Undocumented Filmmakers Collective
- Selection Timeline 2025
- Beginning of June - Nominating Organizations recommend projects
- End of June - Short applications from nominated projects are due
- Mid-August - Top 20 Finalists apply with Core Application
- End of September - Grantees are selected
- October - Grantees onboarded
- Applicant Eligibility
- Applicant must be the director and/or a producer who shares creative and editorial oversight of the project. Co-producers and co-directors are allowed to apply but must have editorial oversight.
- The applicant must be 18 years of age or older.
- The applicant must be an independent filmmaker working on an original project. For the purposes of this grant, IDA defines an independent filmmaker as a content creator who both owns the copyright of his or her work and has full artistic, budgetary, and editorial control of the documentary project.
- Documentaries being produced for or under the direction of a third party, such as a broadcast entity, university, foundation or nonprofit organization are ineligible.
- Films owned by a production company are eligible, as long as the applicant is part of the production company and not just hired for the project.
- Applicants can apply from anywhere in the world.
- At least one director and/or producer on the project must have directed and/or produced at least one completed nonfiction feature-length film (40 minutes or longer).
- At the finalist stage, applicants will be required to have an IDA Membership.
- Project Eligibility
- Your project must be far enough into production that you have at least a 10-minute sample to show in the application. Work samples shorter than 10 minutes will not be considered.
- Your current work sample must have captions. They can be open captions, subtitles with audio descriptions, or closed captions.
- If you are a first-time director, a prior work sample is not required. If you do include a prior work sample, the sample cannot be behind a paywall.
- The project must address this year’s Pare Lorentz theme.
- The film budget must not exceed $1M USD.
- The project must be in production or post-production at the time of applying, having completed the bulk of research and development but still having substantial production and/or post-production-related work and expenses remaining.
- Access to major film participants must be secured.
- The film must be intended for an international and broad audience. A broadcast or distribution commitment is not required.
- Stories must be original, relevant to contemporary audiences, and urgent or critically important. Historical films will only be considered if they have a significant contemporary component or narrative.
- NOT eligible to apply: Biographies, branded content, student films, commissioned films, completed films, purely historical films, and short documentaries (under 40 minutes finished run time).
- Your project must be far enough into production that you have at least a 10-minute sample to show in the application. Work samples shorter than 10 minutes will not be considered.
- Supported Grant Activities
Grant funds may be used for production and post-production related expenses. Expenses may include line items such as principal photography, travel, equipment purchase or rental, insurance, rights and clearances, editing, and crew salaries (including deferred payments). The fund does not support expenses related to impact, fundraising, distribution, publicity, marketing, or outreach.
- Evaluation Criteria
Both IDA staff and a committee of distinguished filmmakers will review applications and accompanying materials. Some of the questions that staff and review committee members will use in evaluating applicants include:
- Does the applicant, application, and project, as presented, meet the grant goals and eligibility requirements for Pare Lorentz?
- Does the project tell a compelling story and substantially address the Pare Lorentz theme?
- Does the project take an innovative approach to the subject matter? If this story has been told before, does this project's approach bring something new to the story or is new information being revealed?
- Does the Project Director currently have the access necessary to tell the story in a compelling way?
- Is the filmmaker thinking deeply and critically about their own connection and impact on the community in their film? How will they engage and collaborate with the community?
- Is the work sample compelling and of high quality? Does it have a strong visual style? Does the artistic approach serve the story and the goals of the film?
- Does the application clearly illustrate the story, film structure, and the filmmakers’ vision, including their artistic approach?
- Does the filmmaker clearly articulate the story's contemporary relevance in the application?
- Would a reviewer of the LOI/application have enough trust in the team’s experience to complete the project as described?
- Does the application identify an audience and a realistic plan to reach that audience?
- Is the budget thorough and realistic? Are line items within industry norms and standards? Does the budget reflect what is written in the application?
- Period of Support
The official grant period of concentrated support is one year from the date of the grant award. Filmmakers are strongly encouraged to use their grant funds within that first year. After the first granting year, the project will continue to receive reduced IDA artist support until the film is complete. The grantee is expected to complete annual deliverables based on their grant contract.
- Grants Awarded
We will select three projects, and each will be awarded a grant of $25,000 USD. Each project will be afforded a $2000 consultation stipend to use for story, edit, or other catalytic support to help the project be successfully completed. One team member from each project will receive a free 1-year IDA Doc Maker Membership.
Past Partner Organizations
- Partner Organizations 2023
Partner Organizations 2023
Indie Memphis, at its core, envisions a vibrant global community of filmmakers, both young and adult, bound together by dedicated supporters, with Memphis serving as its beating heart. We are passionately dedicated to cultivating an inclusive and racially equitable independent film community, while actively nurturing the growth and development of filmmakers. Location: Memphis, Tennessee.
The Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity by showcasing films and filmmakers from around the world, highlighting the crucial role languages play in our daily lives. Through digital storytelling, the festival amplifies the work of diverse practitioners who explore the power of language to connect the past, present, and future. Location: Washington, DC.
From humble roots as a collective of emerging artists and curators living and working out of a 3-story walk-up in Brooklyn, UnionDocs has become an internationally recognized center for documentary art now headquartered in Ridgewood, Queens. Through presentation, productions, publishing, and educational programming, we bring together a diverse community of artists, dedicated journalists, big thinkers, and local partners on a search for urgent expressions of the human experience, practical perspectives on the world today, and compelling visions for the future. In doing so, we embrace the broad spectrum of documentary approaches and disciplines; from social-issue to experimental, from personal to archival, from essayistic to observational, all impulses towards "creative actuality" are given space and attention. Location: Ridgewood, New York.
- Partner Organizations 2022
Partner Organizations 2022
Recognizing the power of film to inspire, Working Films positions documentaries to increase civic engagement and shift culture at the local, state, and national level. We offer funding and in-kind support to underrepresented filmmakers. And, we share our learning and foster dialogue to further the field of documentary for change. We lead conversations and trainings with grassroots groups and nonprofits to ensure that nonfiction media is increasingly embraced as a critical resource in their strategies for social change. Location: Wilmington, North Carolina.
In the Chicago spirit of collaboration and solidarity, the newly formed Chicago BIPOC Media Coalition -- founded by Sisters in Cinema, Full Spectrum Features, Mezcla Media Collective, and OTV | Open Television -- is launching the Chicago BIPOC Media Fund to support general operations and strategic partnerships as a development & management commons. The Fund leverages the strengths of the Coalition, individually and collectively, to catalyze the most innovative investment towards a new media infrastructure that is representative of our country’s diversity. Location: Chicago, Illinois.
La Asociación de Documentalistas de Puerto Rico (AdocPR)
The Association of Documentalists of Puerto Rico (AdocPR) is a non-profit organization that brings together various generations of documentary filmmakers in the country with the aim of promoting the development of documentary filmmaking and improving our working conditions. We are currently around 40 documentary filmmakers associated with filmmakers, professors, students, and other members related to the work of documentary film. Location: San Juan, Puerto Rico.
La Asociación de Documentalistas de Puerto Rico (AdocPR) es una organización sin fines de lucro que agrupa diversas generaciones de documentalistas del país con el objetivo de promover el desarrollo del cine documental, y mejorar nuestras condiciones de trabajo. Actualmente somos alrededor de 40 documentalistas asociados entre cineastas, profesores y profesoras, estudiantes y otros miembros relacionados al quehacer del cine documental.