(4-page PDF)
(MS Excel format)
NEH, Office of Communications
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20506.
The Bridging Cultures through Film: International Topics program supports projects that examine international and transnational themes in the humanities through documentary films. These projects are meant to spark Americans’ engagement with the broader world by exploring one or more countries and cultures outside of the United States. Proposed documentaries must be analytical and deeply grounded in humanities scholarship.
The Division of Public Programs encourages the exploration of innovative nonfiction storytelling that presents multiple points of view in creative formats. The proposed film should range in length from a standard broadcast length of thirty minutes to a feature-length documentary.
We invite a wide range of approaches to international and transnational topics and themes, such as
- an examination of a critical issue in ethics, religion, or history, viewed through an international lens;
- an exploration of a topic that transcends a single nation-state, with the topic being explored across borders;
- a biography of a foreign leader, writer, artist, or historical figure; or
- an exploration of the history and culture(s) of a specific region, country, or community outside of the United States.
A two-hour documentary probed the life and teachings of a man from northern India who set out over two thousand years ago on a journey to comprehend human suffering and came to be known as the Buddha. The film creatively wove together ancient artwork, contemporary animation, poetry, and footage from modern-day India, to provide background on the rise of Buddhism—a religion whose rituals are still practiced today in much of the world by millions of followers. Scholars from a variety of disciplines and countries examined the key stages of the Buddha’s journey and reflected on the meanings of the Buddha for our lives today.
Projects are strongly encouraged to demonstrate international collaboration by enlisting scholars based both in the United States and abroad, and/or by working with an international media team. Such collaborations should bring broader cross-cultural perspectives to the proposed topics.
Bridging Cultures through Film: International Topics offers two levels of support for documentary films: development and production. Filmmakers can apply for either development or production funding but not for both simultaneously. Bridging Cultures through Film supports only documentary films and not ancillary materials, digital projects, or websites
Development funds support filmmakers for a wide range of activities that include but are not limited to collaboration with scholars to develop humanities content, research, preliminary interviews, travel, and the creation of partnerships for outreach activities (public engagement with the humanities). Applicants must have obtained the commitment of humanities scholars to serve as advisers to the project prior to applying for a development grant.
Projects receiving development funds should culminate in a script and must identify the producer, director, and writer for the production phase. Funds may also be applied to the production of a trailer.
Production funds support filmmakers in various stages of production and post-production. Applicants must submit a script for a production grant. This script should demonstrate a solid command of the humanities ideas and scholarship related to the subject matter. Applicants must have consulted with appropriate humanities scholars about the project and must have obtained their commitment to advise the project.
Development and production funds may not be used for the following:
- live action dramas (fiction) or dramatic adaptations of literary works;
- programs designed to persuade audiences of a particular political, religious, or ideological point of view;
- films that advocate a particular program of social or political action;
- projects intended primarily for students in a formal learning environment;
- creation of an ongoing series; or
- projects intended solely for theatrical release.
Acknowledgment of NEH support
NEH requires crediting on screen for any program based on or incorporating the materials created with these awards, including any works derived from those materials.
Providing access to grant products
As a taxpayer-supported federal agency, NEH endeavors to make the products of its awards available to the broadest possible audience. Our goal is for scholars, educators, students, and the American public to have ready and easy access to the wide range of NEH award products. For the Bridging Cultures through Film program, such products may include television programs. Detailed guidance on access and dissemination matters can be found in the “Distribution expectations and rights” section below.
Distribution expectations and rights
Once production is completed, NEH expects that projects will be offered for distribution to broad public audiences, so that the American public will have ready and easy access to the products of NEH awards. NEH must approve all distribution arrangements before they are finalized.
Program income
Production award recipients are required to report income earned from grant products during the grant period and for seven years following the end of the grant. In addition, a percentage of income earned during this period must be returned to NEH. The percentage is based upon the proportion of the total project costs that NEH supported. For further information, please see the NEH Program Income Policy.
Awards are for one to three years and for up to $75,000 (for development) and up to $800,000 (for production).
Successful applicants will be awarded a grant in outright funds, matching funds, or a combination of the two, depending on the applicant’s preference and the availability of funds.
Cost sharing includes cash contributions to a project by the applicant and third parties, as well as in-kind contributions, such as donated goods and services. Cost sharing also includes gift money raised to release federal matching funds. Although a specific amount or percentage of cost sharing is not required, NEH is rarely able to support the full costs of projects approved for funding. In most cases, film grants cover no more than 50-60 percent of project costs.
Funding commitments
Successful applicants for production grants will be required to have commitments for the full funding of a project before grant funds are released and production begins.
Other award information
A grant from NEH for one stage of a project does not commit NEH to continued support for the project. Applications for each stage of a project are evaluated independently.
Any U.S. nonprofit organization with IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status is eligible, as are state and local governmental agencies. Individuals are not eligible to apply. Independent producers who wish to apply for NEH funding must seek an eligible organization to sponsor the project and submit the application to NEH. Under this arrangement, the sponsoring organization is considered the grantee of record and assumes all attendant responsibilities of a grantee organization.
NEH generally does not award grants to other federal entities or to applicants whose projects are so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity’s own authorized activities. This does not preclude applicants from using grant funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in their projects.
If an application for a project is already under review, another application for the same project cannot be accepted by this or any other NEH grant opportunity. For example, while an application is under review in Bridging Cultures through Film, an application for the same project cannot be submitted to America’s Media Makers.
Applicants are encouraged to contact NEH program officers who will answer questions about the review process, supply samples of funded applications relevant to this grant program, and review preliminary drafts. NEH recommends that drafts be submitted at least six weeks before the deadline, so that staff will have adequate time to respond. A response cannot be guaranteed if drafts arrive after this date. Staff comments are not part of the formal review process and have no bearing on the final outcome of the application. Draft proposals should be sent as attachments to e-mail messages to publicpgms@neh.gov.
The following required elements of the proposal must be submitted through Grants.gov.
- Table of contents
List all parts of the application with corresponding page numbers.
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Narrative
The narrative should not exceed fifteen single-spaced pages, with one-inch margins. At least eleven-point type should be used. The narrative should provide a clear explanation of the story that the film will tell and the humanities ideas informing the film; it should demonstrate that the project’s themes and ideas are informed by relevant humanities scholarship; and it should explain the film’s narrative arc, points of view, structure, and cinematic style (e.g., reenactment, cinema verité, or animation). The narrative should begin with a one-paragraph synopsis of the project’s subject and the amount requested from NEH. The narrative should then discuss the following:
- The subject, plot, setting, characters, point of view, and structure;
- the humanities content (i.e., the significant humanities themes and the humanities scholarship that provides the foundation for the project);
- the visual approach of the film;
- the resources to be used, including interviews, archival materials, and audio and visual materials;
- the audience for the film (i.e., who will be interested in the film, how the audience will be reached, and what the audience will learn);
- the qualifications of the members of the media and humanities teams (see element 3 below), and the contributions that they will make to the project;
- the status of the film, the type of grant requested (development or production), and the anticipated distribution plans for the film;
- a bibliography of the humanities scholarship that informs the project;
- the ancillary activities and materials related to the project (even though these activities and materials will not be supported through this grant competition);
- the status of the film and of the work plan; and
- the profile of the applicant organization and, if different, the entity producing the documentary.
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Letters and CVs from the project teams
Each project must involve both a media team and a team of humanities advisers. At least one member of the media team must demonstrate previous film or television production experience in a principal role (such as director, co-director, producer, or co-producer) by submitting a previously completed work sample. (See below.)
NEH strongly encourages applicants to include participants from different countries on at least one of these two teams. Applicants must submit letters of commitment and CVs (of two pages or less) for both the members of the media team and the humanities advisers. Documents not written in English must be accompanied by English translations -
Treatment (for development applications) or script (for production applications)
- A development application must include a treatment. The treatment should not exceed a maximum of ten pages per hour of the proposed final documentary. (For example, a proposed two-hour documentary could include a treatment no longer than twenty pages.) The treatment should demonstrate the storyline and the main humanities themes.
- A production application must include a working script. The script should not exceed a maximum of thirty pages per hour of the proposed final documentary. (For example, a proposed three-hour documentary could include a script no longer than ninety pages.) The script should demonstrate how the program integrates the humanities content and analysis.
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Sample
All applicants must submit a sample of previously completed work. Additionally, a production application may (but need not) include a work-in-progress sample. Create an attachment section that briefly—in half a page or less—describes the sample, indicating the roles played by members of the current media team. This section might also discuss the ways in which the sample or samples resemble or differ from the proposed film, in terms of style, production quality, or incorporation of humanities content. Please see the “How to Submit Work Samples” section below for additional instructions.
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Budget
Using the instructions and the budget template (3-page PDF), complete the budget spreadsheet (MS Excel format). Applicants should submit their budgets in a font of at least eleven points. Applicants may use their own budget form or the standard industry budget format in place of sections 1-10 of the budget spreadsheet. However, applicants must also provide a budget summary similar to sections 11 and 12 of the NEH budget form (i.e., the budget spreadsheet).
- Compensation
Please identify all key project personnel by name on the budget form.
Indicate in the budget if any of these individuals will perform different and separately budgeted functions.Compensation for key project positions, such as the project director, producer, director, and scriptwriter, will be considered as fixed fees for service, even though the amount of compensation requested is calculated on the basis of the projected length of the project.
- Department of Labor regulations
U.S. Department of Labor regulations require that all professional performers, scriptwriters, and related or supporting professional personnel employed on projects or productions supported in whole or in part by NEH be paid not less than the minimum union or guild rates.
A copy of the applicable regulations, “Labor Standards on Projects or Productions Assisted by Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities; Final Rule,” may be accessed online or obtained from NEH’s Office of Grant Management, Room 311, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506 (202-606-8494).
- Equipment
NEH does not normally allow the purchase of equipment, but applicants may use their own equipment and include charges for this use, subject to the following:
- for equipment and facilities that are not fully depreciated, determine actual costs on the basis of the acquisition costs, divided by the useful life, times the period of use on the project; and
- for equipment and facilities that have been fully depreciated, charges to operate the asset, including the cost of maintenance, insurance, and other related expenses, are allowable.
For further information, please see Article 7 of the General Terms and Conditions for Awards.
- Foreign travel
All air transportation of persons or property that is paid in whole or in part with NEH funds must be performed on a U.S. flag air carrier. Please see Article 10 of the General Terms and Conditions for Awards for further details.
- Administrative fee in lieu of indirect costs for sponsoring organizations
Under certain circumstances, a nonprofit organization may sponsor an independent producer, filmmaker, or group that lacks tax-exempt status and is therefore not eligible to apply directly for a grant from NEH. The sponsoring organization, also called an “umbrella” organization, may provide the project with accounting services, office and editing facilities, fundraising assistance, and other administrative support, but may not carry out the project activities itself. Under this arrangement the umbrella organization is considered the grantee of record and assumes all attendant responsibilities of a grantee. For further information, please see Requirements for Grant Recipients that Serve as Sponsors of Projects (two-page PDF).
NEH will allow an umbrella organization to recover its costs for administering the award by charging an administrative fee of 5 percent of total project costs. This administrative fee may be charged instead of negotiating an indirect-cost rate with NEH.
Applicants that are umbrella organizations and wish to budget for the 5 percent administrative fee should do so in the “indirect costs” section of the NEH budget form (i.e., the budget spreadsheet).
| To submit your application, you will need to download the application package from the Grants.gov website. You can download the application package at any time. (You do not have to wait for your Grants.gov registration to be complete.) Click the button at the right to download the package. Save the application package to your computer’s hard drive. To open the application package, select the file and double click. You do not have to be online to work on it.
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- Application for Federal Domestic Assistance - Short Organizational (SF-424 Short)—this form asks for basic information about the project, the project director, and the institution.
- Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs—this form asks for additional information about the project director, the institution, and the budget.
- Project/Performance Site Location(s) Form—this form asks for information about the primary site(s) at which grant activities will take place.
- Attachments Form—this form allows you to attach your narrative, budget, and the other parts of your application.
- Name of Federal Agency: This will be filled in automatically with “National Endowment for the Humanities.”
- Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number: This will be filled in automatically with the CFDA number and title of the NEH program to which you are applying.
- Date Received: Please leave blank.
- Funding Opportunity Number: This will be filled in automatically.
- Applicant Information: In this section, please supply the name, address, employer/taxpayer identification number (EIN/TIN), DUNS number, website address, and congressional district of the institution. Also choose the “type” that best describes your institution (you only need to select one).
If your institution is located, for example, in the 5th Congressional District of your state, put a “5.” If your institution doesn’t have a congressional district (e.g., it is in a state or U.S. territory that doesn’t have districts or is in a foreign country), put a “0” (zero).All institutions applying to federal grant programs are required to provide a DUNS number, issued by Dun & Bradstreet, as part of their application. Project directors should contact their institution’s grants administrator or chief financial officer to obtain their institution’s DUNS number. Federal grant applicants can obtain a DUNS number free of charge by calling 1-866-705-5711. (Learn more about the requirement.)
- Project Information: Provide the title of your project. Your title should be brief (no more than 125 characters), descriptive, and substantive. It should also be informative to a nonspecialist audience. Provide a brief (no more than one thousand characters) description of your project. The description should be written for a nonspecialist audience and clearly state the importance of the proposed work and its relation to larger issues in the humanities. List the starting and ending dates for your project.
- Project Director: Provide the name, title, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone and fax numbers for the project director.
- Primary Contact/Grants Administrator: Provide the contact information for the official responsible for the administration of the grant (i.e., negotiating the project budget and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions of the award). This person is often a grants or research officer, or a sponsored programs official. Normally, the Primary Contact/Grants Administrator is not the same person as the Project Director. If the project director and the grants administrator are the same person, skip to Item 9.
- Authorized Representative: Provide the contact information for the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) who is submitting the application on behalf of the institution. This person, often called an “Authorizing Official,” is typically the president, vice president, executive director, provost, or chancellor. In order to become an AOR, the person must be designated by the institution’s E-Business Point of Contact. For more information, please consult the Grants.gov user guide, which is available at www.grants.gov/applicants/resources.jsp.
- Project Director: Use the pull-down menu to select the major field of study for the project director.
- Institution Information: Use the pull-down menu to select your type of institution.
- Project Funding: Enter your project funding information. Note that applicants for Challenge Grants should use the right column only; applicants to all other programs should use the left column only.
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Application Information: Indicate whether the application will be submitted to other NEH grant programs, government agencies, or private entities for funding. If so, please indicate where and when. NEH frequently cosponsors projects with other funding sources. Providing this information will not prejudice the review of your application.For Type of Application, check “new” if the application requests a new period of funding, whether for a new project or the next phase of a project previously funded by NEH. Check “supplement” if the application requests additional funding for a current NEH grant. Applicants requesting a supplement should provide the current grant number. Before submitting an application for a supplement, applicants should discuss their request with an NEH program officer.For Project Field Code, use the pull-down menu to select the humanities field of the project. If the project is multidisciplinary, choose the field that corresponds to the project’s predominant discipline.
ATTACHMENT 2: To this button, please attach your narrative. Name the file “narrative.pdf”.
ATTACHMENT 6: To this button, please attach your budget. Name the file “budget.pdf”.
Work samples may be submitted either as DVDs or through a URL embedded in the application. For all samples submitted as DVDs, label the spine and case of each copy with the project director’s name and the title of the program. DVD samples must arrive at NEH on or before the application deadline. Works not in English must be accompanied by English subtitles. Samples will not be retained by NEH, and they will not be returned to the applicant.
Send eight copies of the DVD samples to
Division of Public Programs
National Endowment for the Humanities
Room 426
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20506
202-606-8269
Applications must be received by Grants.gov on or before Wednesday June 29, 2011. Grants.gov will date- and time-stamp your application after it is fully uploaded. Applications submitted after that date will not be accepted.
The required work samples must also arrive at NEH on or before June 29, 2011, to be considered as part of the application.
- Intellectual content and format
The significance of the subject and the humanities ideas, and the likelihood that the film will increase understanding of one or more countries or cultures outside of the United States; the extent to which the project offers an analytical perspective; and the likelihood that the chosen format will effectively convey the humanities content to an audience.
- International collaboration
The extent to which the project demonstrates international collaboration through the involvement of scholars who offer multiple perspectives—informed by relevant scholarship—on the subject, and/or members of the media team.
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Audience
The appeal of the subject to a general audience, the accessibility of the ideas, and the quality of the project’s plan to reach a broad audience.
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Project teams (humanities scholars and media team)
The experience and demonstrated technical skills of the media team, the quality of the team’s previous work, and the qualifications and potential contributions of the advising scholars.
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Status of film and budget
The likelihood that the applicant will achieve the project’s goals in a timely and efficient manner, and the appropriateness of the project’s costs.
Applicants will be notified by e-mail of the decision in December 2011. Institutional grants administrators and project directors of successful applications will receive the award documents by e-mail by December 31, 2011. Applicants may obtain the evaluations of their applications by sending an e-mail message to publicpgms@neh.gov.
The requirements for awards are contained in the General Terms and Conditions for Awards, the Addendum to it, any specific terms and conditions contained in the award document, and the applicable OMB circulars governing federal grants management.
Division of Public Programs
National Endowment for the Humanities
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20506
202-606-8269
publicpgms@neh.gov
Grants.gov help desk: support@grants.gov
Grants.gov customer support tutorials and manuals : www.grants.gov/applicants/resources.jsp
Grant.gov support line: 1-800-518-GRANTS (4726)
Grants.gov troubleshooting tips.
