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SHIFT, makers of industry-leading video collaboration and media management platform SHIFT, MediaSilo, Wiredrive, and Screeners.com, are pleased to announce that after a successful inaugural grant program for narrative short films in 2018, the SHIFT Creative Fund returns for a second year. 

From a pool of more than 500 applicants last year, a jury of industry leaders chose four filmmakers to receive funding from SHIFT’s grant program, which provided a combined $100,000 to produce their films. In February 2019, Bad Assistant, Cosmic Fling, Father Figurine, and Pioneers premiered in Los Angeles at the South Park Center to an audience of nearly 300 people.

Now in its second year, the SHIFT Creative Fund for narrative short films returns to support emerging and independent filmmakers from a wide range of backgrounds and creative pedigrees. Applications are open to anyone from creative directors and copywriters looking to dust off the script that’s been sitting in the bottom of their desk drawers (or in a folder on their desktops) to aspiring young filmmakers already making waves across the festival circuit or commercial industry. And this time, SHIFT is looking to award grants to even more filmmakers.

“SHIFT the platform is a workflow solution for filmmakers and content creators, so it helps them facilitate their creative work. We wanted to take that idea a step further and apply it to the very beginning of that creative process rather than only supporting filmmakers in their post-production process. The SHIFT Creative Fund was born of our desire to see creative projects exist in the world and that otherwise might not have a chance to be made.” – Grace Amodeo, SHIFT Creative Fund program manager

"Films are expensive; production is expensive. The SHIFT grant has allowed us to create our vision and create our art." – Christian Hall, producer, Cosmic Fling

The 2019 application window is open from September 1, 2019, through September 30, 2019 (applications close at midnight PST). Grants are awarded on an as-needed basis. Filmmakers are asked to submit a top-line budget along with their application. Although there is technically no budget limit, SHIFT highly recommends submitting budgets between $5,000 - $40,000. Submitted applications will then go through a read/review process by the SHIFT team, a group of semifinalists will be posted on social media for a community voting window, and finalists will then be sent to a judging panel of industry leaders for the final decision. Grant recipients will be selected before the end of 2019. In addition to grant money, more than twenty sponsors and counting have donated in-kind services, such as free music licensing, discounted location rentals, licenses to popular screenwriting software, and complimentary legal consultations. More information can be found at https://shift.io/creativefund/ while answers to FAQs can be found here: https://info.shift.io/creative-fund-faqs. 

"We are very excited to be able to support a new group of talented filmmakers with our 2019 grant. SHIFT is all about empowering creators at all levels to deliver exceptional work. The SHIFT Creative Fund allows us to connect directly to the creative community wherever they may be and support the craft of storytelling.” – Kai Pradel, SHIFT CEO

About SHIFT
At SHIFT, we believe in simplifying and supporting the creative process. For us, that means offering seamless workflow solutions for video collaboration and providing enterprise-level functionality and security to the world’s most influential content creators.

For two decades, creators from Hollywood to Madison Avenue have relied on MediaSilo and Wiredrive to tell stories that change the world. More recently, they’ve safeguarded their content like never before with SafeStream’s on-demand watermarking technology. And thousands of press reviewers have screened those secured, pre-release stories on Screeners.com. Now, after decades of listening and learning from our customers, we’re solving the most pressing workflow challenges, and redefining the future of video post-production with the SHIFT platform.