1000 Ways to Finance Your Movie

Film Financing for independent filmmakers comes in dozens of forms and is spread across the entire production cycle of a film. Film financing methods include tax credits, pre sales, distribution deals, profit participation, product placement, soft and hard money, film grants, private film investors, studio financing, location incentives, debt financing, gap financing, bridge loans, donations, crowdfunding, slate financing and multiple other film financing sources.

Film Producer Financing Options: Film Financing for Independent Filmmakers

Learning how the best independent films were funded is a part of the process many filmmakers miss when reading stories of other successful films. Finding funding for your independent movie is time-consuming, mentally exhausting, and an overall challenging task to accomplish.

However, we take a look at some of the Best Independent Films and discover how they were funded.

Get inspired and learn from these Film Financing Lessons by famous producers, such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, "The Daniels," Lee Daniels, Kevin Smith, Richard Linklater and how they got their film financing. Film financing is a never-ending process...no matter how famous and successful they are, successful filmmakers see film financing as an innate part of film production throughout their careers.

The best way to find film investors is to have a solid understanding of your film FROM a film investor's perspective. If you are ready to ASK for something...STOP. RIGHT. NOW! You've got it ALL WRONG.

Filmproposals is here to help you turn your ASK upside down into what you OFFER!!! Learn to prepare for, find, pitch, work with and get Independent Film Investors

Looking for the best list of free film templates? Here we list all the great downloads, templates, samples, spreadsheets, contracts, agreements and much more so you can get started on your film financing right away. Do you know how many free film tools and samples exist across the internet? Hundreds, and here is a great starter list of free budgets, guides, books and more for the Independent Filmmaker. Grab your Film Making Action Guide, Film Festival Report, Film Business Plan Checklist, Cash Flow Report, Movie Budgets, Film Investment Memorandum, Sample Contracts and more today!

More Info: Free Film Templates, Tools, Downloads and Samples

Television and film grants, which collectively add to millions of dollars in film money available to you, offer a HUGE advantage...you do not have to reimburse the funds or calculate any type of return on investment. However, you will likey have to complete an intricate proposal.

Check out the 100s of movie and documentary grants available to filmmakers:

• List of Film Grants
• Top Film Grant Tips for Writing and Winning a Grant

• Documentary Business Plan Template - this new template is completely redone to focus only on documentary films. Recent successes, emerging documentary trends, streaming and studio deals, distribution patterns, audience statistics, revenue generated for sample films and much more. When did Docs become profitable and start selling for $5M or $10M at festivals? We lay it all out for you...
• Documentary Pitch Deck - while our pitch deck template can be used for any type of film, you will use your business plan research to ensure the deck showcases your documentary as a worthy investment opportunity
• Financial Projections/ Comparable Films - our custom database and custom financial projections flow seamlessly for both documentaries and narrative films

The new Documentary Business Plan Template is included in ALL of our Film Financing Toolkits and Bundles, so you can purchase any of them and be well on your way to funding any part of your documentary with private investments.

Do you have some great indie filmmaker tips to share with other aspiring or current filmmakers? Do you want to promote your latest film or service to a huge global network of filmmakers, producers, directors, potential investors and distributors? Here is a great opportunity to first pay it forward, and then promote your projects, products and services. From which gear to use, specific templates to email to investors, to crew deals, check out all these amazing Indie Filmmaker Tips and then submit your own!

No doubt, documentary funding is tough work. But here's the good news...You CAN raise documentary capital and it may not be as hard as you think.

Get the best Fundraising advice, from the Emmy-winning creator of Desktop Documentaries, at Documentary Funding Tips and check out the industry's best fundraising tools.

There are thousands of film festivals worldwide catering to every niche such as horror, short, documentary and, of course, independent film festivals. Now, you do need some funding to get your movie this far, but once you are able to showcase your film, there is lots of prize money and distribution offers to move your film to the next level, which is why festivals are a great way to finance your movie.

Film financing contests with money as the prize are a great way to get money to make a movie. What could be better than FREE money, free publicity, no payback, a sure sign your movie has potential at the box office, a built-in audience and possibly collaborating with a global brand?? One great way to find money to make a movie, is to enter contests and win them! There is money to make a movie sponsored by equipment companies, brands, advertising, festivals and many more. Film contests with film financing as the prize are a great way to get money to make a movie. Check our guide to Film and Screenwriting Prizes - free Money to Make a Movie.