How a budget works
Every cost, script to festival files, with a quantity and rate for each line. Funders read it to see if you understand what you're making.
- Start from the script. Break it down: how many shoot days, locations, cast, crew, costumes, props, night shoots, vehicles. The schedule drives the budget.
- Price every line. Quantity × unit × rate. Pay crew and cast at least the legal minimum, and base rates on the current Bectu rate cards and Equity agreements. Get real quotes for kit, locations and post, and keep them.
- Include the lines people forget. Insurance, music licences, captions and audio description, access costs, catering, deliverables, festival fees, accountancy.
- Show in-kind support at its real value. Free kit or a free location still has a value. Funders want the true cost of the film, then the cash you need.
- Add contingency if your funder asks for it, at the rate they set. It is for the unexpected, not a slush fund.
Budgets are often split into above the line (writer, director, producer, lead cast: the people who shape the film) and below the line (crew, kit, locations, post: what it costs to make). Our budget template is laid out that way. For the bigger picture, see how budgets and schedules work.
How a finance plan works
Where every pound comes from. Its total must equal the budget. A funder wants to see what is confirmed, what you have applied for, and what is still planned, with evidence: a letter, an email, a crowdfunding page.
On a short, a plan might mix a fund, a small crowdfund, in-kind kit from a rental house, a free location and your own money. On a feature it gets bigger: public funds, equity, pre-sales to distributors and a tax credit cash-flowed by a lender. The film business explains those pieces.
If there's a gap, say so and say how you'll close it. An honest gap beats a guess dressed up as confirmed.
Writing a strong application
- Read the guidelines twice. Highlight every "must". Most rejections are for eligibility or missing documents, not the idea.
- Answer the question asked, in the order asked. Use the funder's own words for their criteria, so the assessor can tick them off.
- Lead with the film. A logline that says who wants what and what stands in the way. Then why this story, why you, why now, said plainly and personally.
- Show you can make it. A director's sample that works, a realistic schedule, a budget that adds up, and a team with the right experience around a first-timer.
- Know your audience. Which festivals, which platforms, which communities. The festivals guide helps you plan the run.
- Get a cold read. Ask someone outside the project to tell you what the film is after one read. If they can't, rewrite.
- Submit early. Portals slow down near deadlines. Check every link and password.
Use our funding application checklist as you go. The BFI also publishes guidance with each fund; read it before you start.
Crowdfunding and in-kind help
Crowdfunding is a marketing campaign that raises money. It works when people already care: your community, your cast's followers, your documentary's subject. Plan it like a release: a short video, rewards you can afford to post, and a list of people to ask personally on day one. Check if the platform is all-or-nothing; its fees come off what you raise.
In-kind is help instead of cash: kit, a location, a spare post suite, catering, time. Ask specifically, offer a proper credit, look after what you borrow, and put its value in the budget and finance plan. Some rental houses do student or short-film rates: ask.
UK screen tax relief, in plain English
Since January 2024 films and TV made in the UK can claim the Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC). It is claimed by the production company on its Company Tax Return, and it pays back a share of the money spent in the UK. As set out on GOV.UK:
- The film or programme must be certified as British by the BFI, through the cultural test or an official co-production, and at least 10% of its core costs must relate to activity in the UK.
- A film must be intended for theatrical release. TV dramas, comedies and documentaries need average core costs of at least £1 million per hour, with slots over 20 minutes.
- The credit is 34% of qualifying spend for most films and TV, 39% for animation and children's TV, and 53% for independent films (the Independent Film Tax Credit). Qualifying spend is the lower of 80% of total core costs or the UK core costs.
- An independent film must be certified by the BFI as low budget: principal photography on or after 1 April 2024, a UK writer or director (or an official co-production), and core costs under £23.5 million. The 53% rate applies to up to £15 million of core costs.
- Visual effects costs on films and TV at the 34% rate can claim a further credit at 39%.
- The credit itself is taxed at the main rate of Corporation Tax, so what the company receives is less than the headline rate. Claims can be made up to two years after the end of the accounting period.
For a first short: usually nothing yet. The credit needs a company that can claim and a film intended for cinema release, and the paperwork costs. It matters on a feature or a commissioned series. Ask a film accountant before you plan around it.
Source: GOV.UK, Claiming Audio-Visual Expenditure Credits for Corporation Tax (updated 19 February 2026), checked 13 Nov 2026. Certification: BFI British certification.
Closed: next round to come
