NYWIFT Women's Film Preservation Fund
Grants from New York Women in Film & Television supporting the preservation and restoration of films made by women that are at risk of being permanently lost.
Overview
The NYWIFT Women's Film Preservation Fund is a grant program administered by New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) that supports the preservation and restoration of films made by women that are at risk of deterioration or permanent loss. Administered in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the fund represents one of the few dedicated sources of grant funding in the United States specifically for the preservation of women's filmmaking history.
Film preservation is an area of the industry that most working filmmakers rarely encounter, but its cultural stakes are significant. A large proportion of films made before the digital era -- particularly those made by women, filmmakers of color, and independent practitioners without major studio backing -- survive on deteriorating formats that will become unplayable without active preservation intervention. The NYWIFT Women's Film Preservation Fund directly addresses this loss.
What It Funds
Grants of up to $10,000 support the preservation and restoration of specific film works made by women. Funded activities include:
- Film-to-digital transfer and digitization of prints, negatives, or original camera materials
- Physical preservation of film elements through cold storage, cleaning, and repair
- Restoration work including scratch removal, color correction from deteriorated elements, and audio restoration
- Creation of archival preservation masters and access copies for educational and exhibition use
- Documentation of preservation work for institutional archive records
The fund supports works at significant risk of loss -- films where deterioration is already advanced or where the original materials are held in conditions that threaten their survival.
Eligibility
Applicants must be women filmmakers or the estates, archives, or institutional custodians of films made by women. The film being preserved must have been made by a woman director. Projects are evaluated based on the historical and cultural significance of the work and the urgency of the preservation need.
Applications are reviewed annually in partnership with MoMA. The MoMA relationship means that selected preservation projects benefit from the institutional expertise and conservation infrastructure of one of the world's leading film archives.
Why Film Preservation Matters for Living Filmmakers
For filmmakers currently in production, the Women's Film Preservation Fund is a reminder that the long-term survival of their own work requires active planning. Digital files stored on hard drives without multiple redundant backups deteriorate over time; formats become unreadable as technology changes; original camera materials left in non-climate-controlled storage degrade within years. The preservation challenges faced by films from earlier decades are now beginning to affect works made in the digital era as well.
Who Should Apply
Women filmmakers whose earlier work exists on deteriorating physical film elements, or custodians and estates holding films made by women that are at risk of loss, who need financial support to fund preservation and digitization work.
See Also
For broader support programs from NYWIFT, see the NYWIFT Fund for Women Filmmakers listing. For understanding post-production and delivery standards, see the Post-Production Timeline Calculator.
