Netflix Aligns with Chicken & Egg for Doc Initiative

Chicken & Egg Pictures, which provides support and funding to women and non-binary documentary filmmakers, is teaming up with Netflix to launch a research and development grant.

The Chicken & Egg Pictures Research & Development Grant is a new fund for seasoned filmmakers working on their next feature-length film. These grants will offer funding to up to 30 filmmaking teams for research or development of their projects, in addition to opportunities for peer support, mentorship and relationship-building within the documentary filmmaking community.

Eligible projects must be a feature-length film that is either in the research or the development stage. Additionally, the project must be directed or co-directed by an experienced woman or non-binary filmmaker who has directed at least two feature-length documentary films.

Filmmakers will receive a $10,000 grant for research or a $20,000 grant for the development of a feature-length documentary project and
access to Chicken & Egg Pictures’ AlumNest community of supported filmmakers for further peer support, mentorship opportunities and deeper connections in the documentary film industry.

The deadline for submission is April 24. Projects will be evaluated according to their feasibility and the director’s body of work and connection to the story. Artistic approaches are welcome—personal, experimental, animated and more.

“The unfortunate reality is that it’s incredibly hard for women and non-binary filmmakers to make a living in documentary film, and one major reason for that is difficulty securing funding for new projects,” said Jenni Wolfson, CEO of Chicken & Egg Pictures. “Filmmakers face funding challenges when in the research and development phase of new projects and often end up investing their own resources. We are grateful to Netflix for their support of this important, new initiative that supports experienced directors while they ideate, think, plan, and write their next feature-length film, providing financial support during a filmmaking stage that has too often gone unpaid and unsupported.”