If there’s one thing every film has in common, it’s that somewhere, somehow, there was money involved, but the road to getting a film financed is more varied and complex than ever. Fortunately, our guests on this episode are three of the brightest in the business, and each of them works with an organization that helps finance and support low-budget independent films.


Hayley Pappas is the Head of RYOT Films, the film and TV development division of the media brand RYOT, where she runs all content and creative strategy and has produced both VR projects and documentaries, including two Oscar-nominated shorts. Caroline von Kühn is also a film producer, and Director of Artist Development at SFFILM (formerly called the San Francisco Film Society), which has re-granted over one million dollars this year alone to independent filmmakers. Leah Giblin is the Head of Grants at Cinereach, which develops, produces, and finances several projects each year as well as offering grants totaling over one million dollars annually.

We spoke at the Camden International Film Festival about the many ways fiction and nonfiction independent films are being funded today, and how you can access these various funding sources for your own work. 

Listen to the episode by streaming or downloading from the embedded player above, or find it on iTunes here.

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Featured image from Boots Riley's 'Sorry to Bother You,' which was co-financed by Cinereach and supported by SFFILM.  This episode was produced by Liz Nord and edited by Jon Fusco.