2026 RE:Focus Post-Production Grants

2026 RE:Focus Post-Production Grants is sponsored by Inside Out. This fund aims to address industry inequities by providing direct financial support to women, non-binary, and/or trans filmmakers telling 2SLGBTQ+ stories, specifically for post-production expenses.

RE:Focus Fund - Inside Out RE:Focus Fund - Inside Out Providing financial support to women, non-binary, and trans filmmakers telling 2SLGBTQ+ stories. Established in 2018, Inside Out’s RE:Focus Fund aims to address industry inequities through providing direct financial support to women, non-binary, and/or trans filmmakers telling 2SLGBTQ+ stories.

Founded through a lead gift from Martha McCain, the fund has distributed more than $300,000 in festival travel grants and professional development programs for filmmakers since its creation. In 2019, Inside Out expanded the fund with the launch of the RE:Focus Fund Post-Production Grants to support post-production and promotion of short and feature films. Submissions for the 2026 RE:Focus post-production grants will open June 29, 2026.

RE:Focus Residency Program Grants are given only to projects in the post-production stage. Applicants are required to submit a rough cut when applying. Projects will be automatically disqualified if a rough cut is not provided.

Projects in development, script development, pre-production, or production will NOT be considered. Films must be written AND directed by women, non-binary, and/or trans creators and feature 2SLGBTQ+ content. Projects that show a commitment to centering QTBIPOC stories and inclusion in the hiring of their cast and crew will be given priority.

Grants will be given to narrative, documentary, and experimental films of any length or genre. Canadian and International films are eligible; however, please be aware that funds will be dispersed in Canadian dollars. Selected films are required to include the RE:Focus logo in the credits.

All completed films should be submitted for consideration for the 2026 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival. Please complete the application form , submit a rough cut of your project, and upload a PDF version of your budget (top sheet only). You are welcome to include a pitch deck, but this is not required.

Please note: Your application will be automatically disqualified if any of the required documents or information are missing. Submissions Open: June 29, 2026 Submissions Close: July 22, 2026 Notification Date: August 15, 2026 For any questions related to RE:Focus Fund grants and programs, please see our FAQ below, visit our Eventival page , or email industry@insideout. ca .

Please submit your rough cut and written application via our Eventival page (See above for written application requirements). Can international projects apply? Yes, we welcome and encourage international applicants.

However, the proposal must be submitted in English. Please note that as a Canadian festival, our funds are in Canadian dollars. How much funding can I request?

Films with a runtime of 59 minutes or less will be eligible for up to $2,000 CAD. Films with a runtime of 60 minutes or more will be eligible for up to $3,000 CAD. If my project is not selected, can you provide feedback?

Unfortunately, due to the high volume of submissions, Inside Out does not provide feedback. If my project is not selected, can I reapply next year? We do not recommend re-submitting the same film for consideration unless significant changes to the project have been made.

Visit our Eventival page for more details and to apply. Support the voices of 2SLGBTQ+ women and non-binary filmmakers “I applaud the initiative of Inside Out to create a future of greater inclusion and representation for the 2SLGBTQ+ community in film. With the Re:Focus Fund, Inside Out is helping more 2SLGBTQ+ voices to be heard.

I’m very proud to support their efforts. I hope you’ll join me.

” —Martha McCain, lead donor Previous RE:Focus Fund Post-Production Grant Recipients Short Film | Director: Brandy Marien Anatomy of a F-Boy (U.S.) Short Film | Director: Fatimah Asghar Short Film | Director: Michal Heuston Short Film | Director: Alyssa Lerner Short Film | Director: Jonelle Belcourt Feature Film | Director: Pailin Wedel I Used To Be A Woman, But I Gave It Up For Christ (U.S.) Feature Film | Director: Nyala Moon Short Film | Director: King Dawit Feature Film | Director: Andrew Moir, Luis De Filippis Q-POP (United States, Peru, South Korea) Feature Film | Director: Adri Murguia Short Film | Director: Yi Shi The Weight of Change (New Zealand) Feature Film | Director: Charlotte Evans The Archivist: Sur Rodney (Sur) (Canada) Documentary Feature | Director: Tricia Hagoriles Narrative Short | Director: Iris Kim Documentary Short | Directors: Gaia Caramazza, Kira Boden-Gologorsky Narrative Short | Director: Eva Grant Narrative Short | Director: Ash Goh Hua Documentary Short | Directors: Aurora Brachman, LaTajh Weaver Narrative Short | Director: Halen King Narrative Short | Director: Brittany Alexia Young Documentary Feature | Director: Khaula Malik Phranc: The Butch Closet (Canada) Documentary Short | Director: Paige Gratland Understanding Myself as an Amphibian (Canada) Documentary Short | Director: Maxwell Matchim All The Words But The One (U.S.) Narrative Short | Director: Nava Mau Maya and Santiago haven’t seen each other since their explosive relationship ended years ago, so neither is expecting to be sitting across from each other at a professional dinner with their new partners.

Documentary Short | Director: Gael Jara, Martín André A non-binary person watches the handover of the first non-binary ID in the history of Chile. As they try to do the paperwork, they will face the bureaucracy of the legal proceedings. Narrative Short | Director: Mo Matton Rhys, a non-binary transmasculine queer, attends their boss’s gender reveal party with their two trans partners.

They soon realize that they might not have to get involved at all to instigate the chaos they were dreaming of. Narrative Short | Director: Natalie Jasmine Harris Sixteen-year-old Grace prepares for her baptism in the rural 1950s South. When she learns she must repent before the ritual, she begins to question the budding romantic feelings she has towards her best friend Louise.

Narrative Short | Director: Emilie Azevedo Candance and Sierra bond over their shared love of plants until an Instagram Story threatens their connection.

Love Bound: A Queer Chinese Story ( UK) Documentary Feature | Director: Shanshan Chen Qiuyan Chen, a prominent Chinese queer activist and feminist who moved to London after facing increasing scrutiny in China, tries to continue her activism in the UK despite racism while fighting the bureaucracy to reunite with her long-distance girlfriend.

Really Good Driver (U.S.) Narrative Short | Director: Alex Song-Xia Really Good Driver is a comedic short about an Asian American mom teaching her Asian American adult child how to drive, forcing both to confront parts of the car, and themselves, they never have before. Documentary Feature | Director: MyNa Do, Farah Yusuf Two lifelong friends fight an anti-racist battle in Sweden with art as a boundless force.

Tens Across The Borders (Singapore) Documentary Feature | Director: Sze-Wei Chan This film follows the stories of three trailblazers of the underground ballroom scenes in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. We witness their journeys to hold on to their ballroom and birth families, their dreams of connection with ballroom’s source in New York City, and the growth of a flourishing community across Southeast Asia.

Documentary Feature | Director: Adriana Yañez The documentary presents the life of a group of women who live in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, are close to the 60s and share a common past: they were the base of the first women’s soccer team in Brazil.

Narrative Short | Director: Éri Sarmet, Jocimar Dias Jr. In a post-apocalyptic future where the Earth has long been uninhabited, an explorer from a distant galaxy lands on an abandoned museum in Brazil, searching for traces of long-lost queer ancestors. Narrative Short | Director: Beth Warrian Luci, a queer Peruvian-Canadian woman, gives her beloved nephew the Christmas gift of his dreams: a beautiful sequined dress.

But when he tries to show the rest of the family, Luci finds herself enacting the same restrictions and shaming she hoped to protect him from. Narrative Short | Director: Eileen Tracey When Father Matthew discovers an intimacy between two of the other priests at a remote conversion-therapy center in Northern Ireland, his attempt to do the right thing leads to a crisis of faith and feeling.

Narrative Short | Director: Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller A closeted Arab wholesale perfume seller, attempting to mask his identity with excessive amounts of Polo-Sport-Adjacent cologne, is knocked off center when a charming customer sees through his act.

Narrative Short | Director: Dash Donato Honey & Milk follows Alice & Grayson, two soulmates who have been in love for 13 years, as they share their final weekend as a couple at their quaint farmhouse in Austin, Texas. Mal De Amores (Lovesick) (USA) Episodic | Director: Fiorella Vescovi Garcia Nat discovers that her ex-girlfriend is engaged and goes to her friends for support but they’ve had enough of her pity party.

Reluctantly, she knows exactly what will help: A recovery meeting for other love-addicts like her. Lost Kid Wanderer (Malta) Experimental Short | Director: Chelsea Muscat A lone wanderer must decide her future whilst life is coming to an end. Narrative Feature | Director: Susie Yankou Best friends Lou and Esther are each other’s “chosen sisters”.

But when Lou discovers she has a long-lost actual sister, it threatens to drive a wedge between them. Experimental Short | Directors: Maria Jose Mariscal, Pamela Simeone After breaking up due to long distance, Camila calls Javiera for her birthday with the intentions to see if they can restart their relationship. In a distant future, an artificial intelligence named Aero is inaugurated as the world’s first AI leader.

However, she soon finds that important worldviews are missing from her databank, including the stories of the historically marginalized and oppressed. Life for Fede, a high school student living in Nun-run housing in Italy, is reliably routine until a new visitor arrives, inspiring her to go out of her way to make a connection.

Inspired by the sacred and ancient relationship between Chaac, the Mayan deity of Rain, and Yum, the Mayan deity of corn, this short erotic drama tells a story about two queer, Mayan-descended Two Spirits who meet at a queer San Francisco bar.

Child of Polycritus (United Kingdom) A humorous, effervescent historiography in which a mythological baby, a nail salon, and cinematic portraits combine to show both timely and atemporal tales of gender nonconformity. Dear Friend: The Sarah Hegazi Documentary (Lebanon/USA) Sarah Hegazi was an Egyptian-Canadian LGBTQ, feminist, and political activist.

At a Cairo concert in 2017 she was among the first ever to publicly raise the rainbow flag in Egypt but the act cost her imprisonment, torture, exile, and ultimately her life. Dear Friend is a documentary told through animation, interviews, archival news, video and photos, and Sarah’s journal entries in prison through death in exile.

A young writer is excited to start a staff writing job at a cutthroat media company until she discovers their terrifying secret to success: they’re eating people. I Was A Ghost Myself (Turkey) I was a ghost myself is a film following a ghost’s footsteps, psychogeographically trailing through a city where the ancient intertwines with the modern.

Two Asian-American teenagers meet in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant while having dinner with their families. After coming out as non-binary to their parents, Grace materialises at their future selves’ birthday party and realises everything they want to be is inside of them, right here. Four friends are reunited to have a picnic on the beach, a break from the chaos of the city.

The plan to have a day at Hanlan’s Point, a gay nude beach on Toronto Island, has each character addressing their own personal complicated relationship to the beach and to the party culture that surrounds it. Simón Was Born (Puerto Rico/USA) Lis is a single mother of two during the day and drag king Simón at night.

When the COVID-19 pandemic eliminates every possibility of having drag shows, we are left with the question, where does Simón exist during the quarantine? Chris McNabb, Beck Kitsis With gender and identity in flux, Corey and Mia struggle to redefine their relationship.

Unable to move on from a breakup, Gabi, a queer Latina editor, impulsively drops into an old job at an underground lap dance party, where she unexpectedly runs into a friend from her past. Support 2SLGBTQ+ women and non-binary filmmakers through Inside Out by supporting the RE:Focus Fund. RE:Focus Program Sponsors