Contents
1. About this fund
£345,000 has been allocated from BFI National Lottery Sustainable Screen over three years to support BFI National Lottery award recipients in reducing their negative impact and delivering net environmental benefits. This work will contribute to the sector’s transition towards achieving net zero carbon emissions.
The funded activities should focus on supporting BFI National Lottery award recipients to embed environmentally sustainable practices throughout their projects and organisations. This includes both film development and production, and screen sector activity beyond production such as film festivals and exhibition, distribution, screen archives, skills, education, training, international, research and innovation.
This is an open call for applications but applicants should know that we are inviting BAFTA albert and Julie’s Bicycle to submit applications to propose continued delivery of their current programmes. It’s not necessary for an application to be solicited for it to be successful and all applications, solicited and unsolicited, will be assessed equally on their merits against the assessment criteria set out below.
These guidelines relate only to funding allocated for activity designed to provide direct support to BFI National Lottery award recipients. Further opportunities for wider sector support may be announced during the 2026-29 funding period.
Fund aims and priorities
We want to future-proof the UK screen sector by embedding environmentally sustainable practices at every level. All funded activity should deliver against these outcomes:
- screen organisations have significantly reduced their carbon footprint
- vital skills for the sector that cannot be delivered by the commercial market are developed
- better support is available for small and medium-sized enterprises and independents to develop their businesses
- evidence-based insight and analysis of the screen sector is readily available to all, supporting organisations and driving policymaking
All proposed activity must deliver against our three principles for National Lottery funding: equity, diversity and inclusion, UK-wide and environmental sustainability.
All activity supported by our funding should address the BFI Diversity Standards. If your application is successful, you’ll need to report to us at the end of your activity, evaluating how you’ve delivered against the Diversity Standards in practice.
2. Check if you’re eligible
Your organisation must be:
- legally constituted and centrally managed in the UK, this includes:
- limited liability company or partnership registered at Companies House
- community interest company registered at Companies House
- combined or local authority or statutory body
- charity or trust registered with the Charity Commission (including UK universities and colleges)
- operating on a not-for-profit basis or delivering this activity on a not-for-profit basis
Your organisation must be able to demonstrate:
- expert knowledge of environmental sustainability, including carbon accounting, training, and resource development to embed best practice within organisations to minimise negative environmental impact
- evidence of delivering environmental support initiatives
- ability to deliver across the UK
- a track record of working effectively with a range of stakeholders
- knowledge of the screen sector and a track record of engaging with relevant screen organisations or the wider cultural sector
- expert knowledge of the end-to-end production process for film (if you’re applying to deliver development and production support)
3. What you can use funding for
The funding is divided across two categories of work over a three-year period:
- £160,000 allocated for development and production support (strand 1)
- £185,000 for “beyond production” support (strand 2)
Funding can only be used for direct support for BFI National Lottery award recipients and must contribute to the strategic outcomes listed above.
A full list of award programmes to be supported by each is provided below:
Strand 1 — Production-focussed funding
- Filmmaking and talent development
- Filmmaking Fund (Discovery, Impact, Development)
- Creative Challenge Fund
- NETWORK (Short Film Fund, Early Development Fund
- Documentary Delegation
- Skills and workforce development
- Film Academy
- Skills Clusters
- Careers and Progression
Strand 1 and 2 — Production-adjacent funding
- Skills and workforce development
- Good Work Programme for Screen
- Skills Fund (including Business Development)
Strand 2 — Beyond production funding
When we refer to ‘beyond production’ in these guidelines we mean support for any recipient of BFI National Lottery funding where their award is for a project or activity that is not audio-visual development or production.
- Filmmaking and international
- International Connections — Travel Grant Fund
- International
- International Connections – Group Attendance
- UK Focus Fund
- Audiences
- Audience Projects Fund
- Film Audience Network
- Open Cinemas
- Skills and workforce development
- Young Creatives
- Education and heritage
- Screen Heritage Fund (including Project and Resilience awards)
- Teaching with Film
Out of scope
Awards considered either too small to support effectively, or already covered through other award support:
- NETWORK UK-wide delivery partners
- Bursary Fund Delegation
- Research & Statistics Fund
- Innovation Challenge Fund
- BFI’s UK Global Screen Fund recipients (as this is not National Lottery funding)
Deliverables
In your application you will need to identify the specific activity you will deliver (your ‘deliverables’) using the funding. Your deliverables should include:
- carbon accounting (and certification where relevant) support for all projects and organisations in receipt of BFI National Lottery funds in your selected category
- reporting on certification outcomes for eligible BFI-funded productions OR aggregated environmental impact data for all eligible BFI National Lottery award recipients in the selected category
- development and delivery of bespoke training, resources and support for development, editorial, and production across film, TV, games, and other emerging formats (such as immersive and virtual production)
- development and delivery of bespoke training, resources and support for activity beyond production (such as distribution, exhibition, talent, skills, education, international, and screen heritage)
Eligible costs
You can use this funding for costs such as:
- activities needed to deliver the project, associated with the deliverables, e.g. training, events, consultant fees
- staff directly involved in activity delivery
- marketing and promotion of funded activity
- contribution to overheads related to the activity
- accessibility needs, for example subtitles, closed captions, audio description, BSL interpreted events
All costs should be at a level to maximise the public benefit and value for money of the fund.
Costs we cannot support
Funds should not substitute or replace existing funding or income that would otherwise be available, or to fund similar activity that can start without an award. National Lottery funds are only awarded to applicants that demonstrate need and a clear public benefit from the activity. BFI National Lottery Funding is project-based, time-limited funding, and you should not expect ongoing support beyond the term of any awards made.
Examples of common ineligible costs are:
- core costs for day to day running of your organisation not associated with the activity
- staffing costs which are covered by other sources of funding
- capital expenditure
- activity that is already specifically supported by another external source of funding
- cost incurred prior to an offer of funding from BFI
This list is not exhaustive, and we may tell you that other types of activity within your application cannot be supported by a BFI award or ask that you amend specific activities and associated budget allocations.
If you’re registered for VAT, your figures should not include VAT that you can claim back. If you’re not registered for VAT, or you’re registered for VAT but cannot fully recover the VAT you incur on costs, your figures should include irrecoverable VAT. Grants we make are ‘outside the scope’ of VAT and should be listed in your accounts as a grant and not, for example, as a fee for any services supplied to the BFI. You should get financial advice from your own accountant or the relevant tax office.
Cashflow
If you are successful, funding will be cashflowed in-line with spend over your proposed activity delivery timeline subject to:
- satisfactory performance — you are able to continue to deliver your activity in line with your funding agreement and these guidelines
- receipt and approval by BFI of routine reporting including progress against KPIs and costs to date
- receipt and approval by BFI of annual plans for 27/28 and 28/29
- demonstration that you can remain financially viable through to the end of the award term
The amount of funding that we can make available for 27/28 or 28/29 may be impacted by the ongoing availability of National Lottery funds at predicted levels. If we have to reduce funding, we will aim to provide sufficient notice and work with you to change plans accordingly.
Partnership funding
You can use National Lottery funding alongside partnership funding from other sources where appropriate to increase the impact and reach of your activity. Partnership contributions in the form of cash or in-kind support are an important demonstration that there is genuine support for your project from your community, stakeholders and other partners. In your application, you should outline where partnership funding potential or commitments exist and explain how you plan to secure additional funding where appropriate to deliver work more extensively than would be possible with this funding alone.
4. What your activity needs to achieve
Building on the BFI Sustainable Screen delivery and outcomes achieved during 2023-26, your activity should support the transition to a more sustainable screen sector. Activities should create opportunities for knowledge-sharing, capacity-building, and collaboration that help embed environmental sustainability across organisations and practices, and strengthen the UK screen sector’s environmental leadership.
You will need to propose KPI targets and impact measures against which we will measure the success of the programme during the funded period.
Key Performance Indicators
We will measure the success of the fund using the following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs are for the overall fund for all awards made:
- Sustainable Screen support offered to 100% of eligible BFI National Lottery award recipients each year (based on award recipients data supplied by the BFI)
- minimum 80% of eligible award recipients have calculated a carbon footprint using provided tools
- 100% of eligible BFI-funded productions applying for certification
- a minimum of 2,000 online engagements and 150 in-person engagements with bespoke activities and resources annually
Equity, diversity and inclusion
All activity supported by our funding should address the BFI Diversity Standards. If successful, you’ll need to report following the conclusion of your activity, evaluating how you’ve delivered against the aims of the Diversity Standards in practice.
Your activity will contribute towards achieving the BFI’s inclusion targets. You should also engage with how EDI intersects with climate and environmental issues, for example in relation to climate justice, environmental racism and issues of inclusion in relation to sustainability.
UK-wide
Our funding supports national, regional, and local activity to ensure that communities throughout the UK feel the benefit of the screen industries and culture. You’ll need to tell us where your proposed activity will be delivered and how this will support the BFI’s UK-wide principle.
Environmental sustainability
You’ll need to embed the principle of environmental sustainability throughout your funded activity.
5. How to apply
When you can apply
This fund is open from 19 November 2025 and closes on 21 January 2025.
Information you need to provide
In your main application you’ll need to provide:
- a brief overview of your organisation, including core activity and relevant experience in sustainability and the screen industries
- an outline of the activity you plan to deliver, including its purpose, scope, and how it supports the fund’s aims and strategic outcomes
- target KPIs and corresponding deliverables that align with the fund-level KPIs
- your approach to ensuring the activity you deliver is accessible
- how your proposal supports equity, diversity and inclusion, environmental sustainability and how you will ensure UK-wide provision
- how your proposal responds to the BFI’s Diversity Standards
- a full budget and resource schedule, including breakdown of key activities, time allocation, and any in-kind support
Documents you need to provide
You will need to attach the following to your application:
- full budget for the activity applied for
- we may request further financial information from you while we are assessing your application
- we’ve provided a budget template that you can use
- last set of independently certified or audited accounts
- if more than 12 months has passed since the year end covered in your last filed statutory accounts, please additionally provide draft accounts for the intervening auditable period as approved by your board (including both income and expenditure reporting and a balance sheet)
- if this is not possible for your organisation, contact bfisustainability@bfi.org.uk to discuss with the team
- your most recent budget and management accounts for the current financial year as approved by your board (including both income and expenditure reporting and a balance sheet), as well as any subsequent budget reforecast since board approval was provided
- budget or forecast for your organisation for financial years 2026 to 2029, accompanied by notes highlighting the assumptions made and key risks (for instance around renewal of funding from other sources)
- your organisational risk register
Equality monitoring form
You will be asked to provide equality monitoring data relating to your organisation’s leadership or project staff at the point of application or during your project. The data you submit on this form will be confidential, anonymous and not seen by the fund staff.
If you have any questions when completing the application form email us at bfisustainability@bfi.org.uk.
Submitting an application
To apply, you’ll need to create an account. You’ll then need to complete and submit the online application form. You can save your application and return to it when you need to.
Make sure you complete all the sections as incomplete forms will be automatically ineligible.
For guidance about how to use our new BFI applicant portal:
You can view a PDF preview of the application form to see the questions you will be asked in full:
Download the budget template
You don’t need to use this template, but you must submit a three-year budget with your application.
6. What happens after you apply
You’ll get confirmation we’ve received your application within one to two working days.
We’ll request any additional information we may need within four weeks.
We’ll aim to make a decision within 10 weeks.
Once submitted, we will review your application and may write to you or request to meet with you to obtain more information about your proposal. If we need additional information from you, it may take us longer to reach a decision on your application.
How your application is assessed
When assessing your application we consider:
- the relevance and feasibility of your proposed activity and delivery plan, including alignment with the fund’s aims
- your approach to evaluation and monitoring the outcomes of the activity
- your approach to equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility
- the value for money of your proposal, considering the scale and expected outcomes of the activity
- how you have managed any previous BFI awards or funding
- your demonstration of need for National Lottery funding
- whether there is a clear public benefit to the proposed activity.
We may share parts of your application with other BFI teams or external consultants to help us assess it.
Identity checks
We undertake due diligence assessments of the applications we are recommending to our decision-making committee for funding. As part of this, before applying to the committee, we may request the bank details of the lead applicant.
We will request the personal address and date of birth of the CEO or Managing Director of the organisation applying. We will use this data to run an identity check. Please note that our request for this information is not an indication or confirmation of funding and you will be informed separately of the funding decision on your application. Please note that this is not a credit check. We will be unable to submit your application to our decision-making committee until we have received your completed form.
Grant and Lottery Finance Committee Consideration
Following assessment of each application, funding recommendations will be made to the BFI Grant & Lottery Finance Committee. This is the final stage of the funding decision process. All applicants will be informed in writing of the decision on their application. If your application is declined, all supporting materials will be deleted from your submission in line with our record retention policy.
7. Getting a decision
If you’re successful
You’ll:
- receive a written offer of funding either by way of an extension of the existing funding agreement or on an updated version of our standard conditions of funding
- need to sign the offer of funding and return it to the BFI within 14 days.
Your offer of funding will set out details of how you’ll receive the funding, how to use it and how we expect you to report to us.
If you’re unsuccessful
We may have turned down your application because we determined that the proposal:
- did not fit the fund aims and priorities
- did not include a strong rationale for the activity
- did not represent value for money
- did not demonstrate a strong enough commitment to one or all of the following principles: equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); environmental sustainability; UK-wide
- was too ambitious for the budget
- did not demonstrate enough relevant experience
- was not yet developed enough
- did not demonstrate sufficient need for National Lottery support and should be financed by other means
- did not meet with the BFI Diversity Standards
8. Conditions of funding
If we offer you an award, in addition to the General Conditions of National Lottery Funding, the following conditions will apply:
- We’ll measure the progress of your project using quarterly reports which you will need to send to us on the dates specified in your funding agreement. We will cashflow payment of your award in line with the reporting dates.
- You’ll be required to work collaboratively with relevant BFI departments and partners.
- You’ll be required to share data insights, data reports and learning from your project and ensure their continued availability after expiry of the term of funding.
- Prior to each new financial year, we will review achievement of agreed deliverables to date, any updates to your plan, budget forecast (including income and other partnership funding) and risk register, and your ongoing ability to deliver the agreed activity (including in relation to your continuing financial stability).
- All resources or outputs funded under this award must include the BFI National Lottery logo, and any public-facing events or activities must clearly acknowledge BFI National Lottery support in communications and materials. You will be required to gain BFI approval for any marketing or related materials for your funded activity, in line with branding guidelines that the BFI will provide to you.
- Where you have included unsecured partnership funding within your budget, you will need to provide updates on securing this finance to the BFI (normally as part of your performance reporting but, where such partnership funding is intrinsic to delivery of the activity, as a pre-condition to the funding agreement). The BFI may elect to withhold or withdraw your award if you are unable to secure the level of partnership funding required to deliver the activity as planned, or require that you submit revised plans and budget showing how the activity could be delivered without the planned partnership funding.
- You will be required to take part in an evaluation of the Fund by the BFI (or its contracted party). You must retain all data relating to your programme, its participants and its impact until the end of the BFI Screen Culture Strategy in March 2033.
- The BFI National Lottery Funding Plan 2026-2029 has been developed based on predicted income from future National Lottery ticket sales that would fall due to BFI. In the event that receipts to BFI are lower than predicted we may have to make reductions across all funding plan programmes. The amount of funding that we can make available for the later years may therefore be impacted by the ongoing availability of National Lottery funds at predicted levels. If we have to reduce funding for any year, we will endeavour to ensure that we provide sufficient notice and work with you to modify plans accordingly.