Application Period for 2012 Grants is now CLOSED

For the second consecutive year, the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival and Whole Foods Market accepted applications from filmmakers who were looking for grant money towards the development or completion of original green-themed documentary feature film projects.

We looked for well thought out feature film projects in development, in production or post-production that focus on environmental themes. Projects considered address “green” topics — large or small — that relate in a significant way to the environment. Examples include (but are not limited to) food, farming, water, pollution, waste, land preservation, climate change, natural disasters, energy conservation, and alternative fuel sources. Each film tells a compelling cinematic story that has the power to inform, motivate and/or inspire positive action.

In addition to subject matter, we expect that filmmakers who submitted proposals have had a minimum amount of preexisting filmmaking experience. Applicants met one or more of the following criteria:

Previous short or feature film that has played as an “official selection” of an established film festival; Previous short or feature released in theaters or sold for other distribution; Graduate level film student with recommendation by professor.

We are excited to announced the 2012 GREEN GRANT winners this September.

Please refer to the Filmmaking Grant FAQ to learn more about AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Festival/Whole Foods Market “GREEN GRANT.”

Past Grant Recipients

In 2011, the inaugural Whole Foods Market and AFI-Silverdocs Grant for Works in Progress went to two filmmakers who were each awarded cash grants of $25,000:

Ian Cheney

for Bluespace, which explores the degradation and renewal of urban waterways. With more than half the world's population now crammed into cities, the way we use water — as a place to grow food, as a method of transportation, as a source of renewable energy — will plunge viewers into the midst of the struggle to rethink this most overlooked resource.

Margaret Brown

for The Great Invisible, which explores the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its impact on her hometown of Mobile, Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico. The film looks at the global oil economy through the lens of characters who work in the oil and fishing industries on the Gulf Coast.