The Phoebe Frances Brown Film Fund is a £1000 grant that Mister Tibbs awards to a female filmmaker with a comedy idea they want to produce.

The 2026 fund is now OPEN FOR APPLICATIONS so if you’re a writer, director, producer, performer, animator, or some combination of those disciplines, if you identify as female, and if you make comedy, then we want to hear from you.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply there are THREE things we need from you.

YOUR STATEMENT - give us a sense of your filmmaking experience to date, what you aim to achieve in your career and how this grant might help move you towards those goals. Introduce the project you want to make and how £1000 would help you produce it. Please keep your statement to 500 words maximum (or you can send us a link to a 3 minute video/audio clip if you find that easier).

YOUR WORK SAMPLE - can be whatever you like. A sketch, a short film, an unproduced script or a live show excerpt. Show us something that you’ve created which gives us a sense of your voice and your tone. Please send links not large attachments, please send ONE LINK only and try not to exceed 10 pages/10 minutes. Excerpting longer work is totally fine.

YOUR PROJECT - send us a link to your script or pitch deck. Be bold. Make yours an original idea that will stand out from the crowd.

THE DEADLINE for applications is Friday May 29th (please submit before midnight).

We’ll arrange follow up conversations with five shortlisted applicants. Those chats will happen in July.

THE WINNER will be announced on Friday July 31st.

Mister Tibbs will screen your work to industry professionals in London and Manchester in January 2027 but we can only do so if you deliver your finished film on or before December 31st 2026.

The APPLICATION FORM is at the bottom of this page.

We look forward to hearing from you!

PLEASE NOTE

• This grant is only available to applicants who identify as female.

• You must be based in the UK and aged 18 or over to apply.

• You can apply as a pair or a team if that is your preference.

• This fund is for someone to MAKE something. We can’t support development, training or writing time.

• It is useful to give us a sense of your total budget. If you intend to spend more than £1000 it will strengthen your application if you tell us where the rest of your budget is coming from.

• We get a lot of entries so can’t give feedback on everyone’s application. Sorry.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE: Hampstead Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse run a very similar scheme for new playwrights called “The Phoebe Frances Brown Award”. So if you write for stage you might be better served by their scheme than by ours, which is strictly for screen.