Inside Out RE:Focus Fund
Canadian grants for women, non-binary, and trans filmmakers telling 2SLGBTQ+ stories, providing festival travel grants, post-production support, and professional development funding.
Overview
The Inside Out RE:Focus Fund is administered by Inside Out, the organisation behind Toronto's 2SLGBTQ+ International Film Festival. The fund was established to address industry inequities by providing direct financial support to women, non-binary, and trans filmmakers telling 2SLGBTQ+ stories. Since its founding, the fund has distributed more than $300,000 in filmmaker grants across festival travel support, post-production assistance, and professional development funding.
Inside Out is one of the world's leading LGBTQ+ film festivals, and the RE:Focus Fund draws on the organisation's deep connections within the queer filmmaking community and its relationships with Canadian and international broadcasters, distributors, and industry partners.
What It Funds
The RE:Focus Fund operates across several grant categories, each targeting a different stage of a filmmaker's work and career.
Festival Travel Grants provide financial support for women, non-binary, and trans filmmakers to attend film festivals with their completed work, addressing the financial barrier that prevents many filmmakers from representing their films at international events.
Post-Production Grants support the completion phase of films in the final stages of post-production. These grants cover costs such as colour grading, sound mix, subtitling, and the preparation of festival and distribution deliverables.
Professional Development Grants support filmmakers in accessing training, workshops, and professional development opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach financially.
Eligibility
The fund is specifically for women, non-binary, and trans filmmakers telling 2SLGBTQ+ stories. Canadian filmmakers are the primary audience, though some fund categories have been open to international applicants depending on the cycle. Films must centre 2SLGBTQ+ stories -- the queer content requirement is substantive, not peripheral.
Inside Out reviews applications annually and distributes grants across its various categories based on available funds and application strength.
Who Should Apply
Women, non-binary, and trans filmmakers in Canada with a 2SLGBTQ+ film in post-production or a completed film they want to bring to festivals. The post-production and festival travel categories are the most directly useful for filmmakers with projects at the finishing or distribution stage. Filmmakers seeking professional development support should look at the development funding category.
See Also
For LGBTQ+ filmmakers seeking completion funding in the US, see the Frameline Completion Fund entry. For Canadian filmmakers building a broader financing strategy, see Documentary Financing: Building Your Stack.
