Supporting Documentary Excellence

Film and TV Funding Award

The Film & TV Funding Award is awarded annually to an emerging filmmaker from anywhere in the world with the most promising pitch for a director-led documentary. The main award is £120,000 with a runner up development grant worth £25,000.

Applications are now closed.

The Podcast Pitch

The Podcast Pitch is a joint initiative with Sheffield DocFest now in its third year. This year The Whickers are giving a £15,000 production award to the winner and £5,000 to a runner up.

Applications are now open.

Bursary Schemes

We have teamed up with four established documentary development forums in parts of the world where funding is limited due to economic or socio-political reasons. Through them we are awarding a £3,000 bursary each year.

See our partners’ websites for application deadlines.

Business Doc Europe reports results of The Cost of Docs 2025 / 2026

Business Doc Europe news article published Wednesday 28th January 2026 ‘Jane Ray, Artistic Director of The Whickers, presented January 28…

Announcing the winner, The Whickers 2025 Chile Conecta Bursary Winner

In the fourth year of our wonderful collaboration with Chile Conecta, The Whickers has announced Endless Movie 1995 (Pelicula fin…

A Short Film Packing a Big Punch: The Whickers First Short Film Award is Announced at Folkestone Film Festival

The English seaside resort and fishing port of Folkestone is home to one of the most vibrant new documentary festivals…

Who We Are

The Whickers were established in 2015 to fund and recognise original and innovative documentary. We seek to use the generous legacy of our namesake, pioneering broadcaster Alan Whicker, to support emerging film and audio documentary-makers in the funding and production of director led programmes.