In our commitment to supporting the professional growth and well-being of freelance talent, we’ve put together a selection of free training programs, grants, and other valuable opportunities that may interest you. We hope these resources help you develop new skills, advance your career, and navigate the challenges that come with freelancing.

Funding

• BFI NETWORK England short film funding: Producers can apply for between £5,000 and £25,000, for stand alone fiction short films in live action, animation or immersive/virtual reality, that have directors based in England. Deadline: 25 March 2025.
  
  
• Grierson DocLab: Development 2025: this development programme is run in partnership with Netflix and seeks to diversify talent within documentary development roles. Deadline: 3 April 2025.
  
  
• Sir Horace Ové Grant | The Film and TV Charity: Financial support of up to £500 to address immediate financial challenges or help you get back to work.
  
  
• Stop-Gap Grant | The Film and TV Charity: Grants typically range up to £500, but requests for up to £750 may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Designed to meet immediate financial needs for those with no other available sources of income or savings.
  
  
• Reel Impact round one grant partners | The Film and TV Charity for organisations and individuals.
  
  
• ScreenSkills bursaries: apply for funding to progress your career: A bursary is a cash grant to remove the obstacles to getting into the screen industries or progressing your career once you’re in.
  
  
• Unscripted TV Skills Fund: contestable Training Fund 2024-25 – ScreenSkills. This fund is intended to support third-party training programmes where the Unscripted TV Skills Fund would be a minority funder and amplify successful training in key shortage areas. ScreenSkills welcomes applications from individuals, partnerships or organisations.
  
  
• Development funding | BFI National Lottery: BFI awards money from the National Lottery to support formal development of original live action and animation feature filmmaking from treatments to production-ready screenplays. Deadline: 30 April 2025.
  
  
• UK Global Screen Fund: International Co-production strand | BFI: Supporting UK producers with demonstrable production experience to work as partners on international co-productions and help create new global projects.
  
  
• Apply for a Short / Feature Film / XR Festival Travel Grant: grants to help Short and Feature filmmakers, and XR creatives, travel to international events where their work is being screened. Applications can be made by a project’s director, producer or writer, who must be aged 18 or above.
  
  

Free training

• HETV VFX training programme 2025 – Training Course – ScreenSkills: Grand Scheme Media are running a training programme for 20+ Freelance Assistant Editors looking to become VFX editors within an offline editorial space in HETV. This course will be delivered by Milk VFX. 3 Mar, 00:00 – 4 Apr 2025.
  
  
• Understanding and managing stress with Lucy Adams – Training Course – ScreenSkills: This session will give participants a greater understanding of stress, the importance of being able to recognise it early and knowledge of how to implement healthy coping strategies. 20 Feb 2025, 10:00-11:00.
  
  
• Path to success: Self-promotion and CV advice for mid-level crew in HETV – Training Course – ScreenSkills: These sessions aim to empower individuals who wish to progress through the High-end TV industry, with the aim to position them in the best way possible when writing their CVs and approaching employers. This session is aimed at mid-level industry professionals with at least two HETV credits. 5 Mar 2025, 18:00-19:30.
  
  
• Mental Health Awareness: Managing Anxiety and Uncertainty – Training Course – ScreenSkills: The session will increase the awareness and understanding around mental health and will help individuals to recognise the signs and offer support to people suffering from mental distress in the workplace and in the community. This workshop was designed by Sarah McCaffrey psychotherapist (MBACP) and founder of Solas Mind. 10 Mar 2025, 19:00-20:30.
  
  

Other

• ACE 35 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Interested producers are asked to submit a feature film project in development that is suitable for co-production and aimed at the international market along with their application. Deadline: 30 April 2025.
  
  
• 1-2-1 Career coaching sessions – Pitch – ScreenSkills: One-off coaching sessions are intended to provide individuals with a safe, independent and completely confidential environment where they can refresh perspectives on both their professional aspirations and the demands of their career. Application deadline: 16 Feb 2025.
  
  
• Coaching with work and wellbeing | The Film and TV Charity: Register your interest for personalised wellbeing and work support.
  
  
• Neurodivergence and inclusion in the screen industries – Training Course – ScreenSkills: his course will focus on the role that screen industry professionals can play to ensure inclusion for people from neurodivergent communities. This course is for anyone who works in unscripted TV and HETV and wishes to practice more inclusive approaches for neurodivergent groups. 13 Feb 2025, 11:00-13:00.
  
  
• Legal advice | The Film and TV Charity: You can access free legal advice through our Film and TV Support Line.
  
  
• Free workspace in London | The Film and TV Charity: Your free, professional workspace in the heart of Soho, for anyone working in the film, TV, and cinema industry.
  
  

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We invite you to follow us on social media to stay informed about TCC events and industry news and opportunities.