Win £10,000 to Fund Your Next Project, applications are now open for The Listening Pitch.
@asffestival and @audible_uk have teamed up to fund documentaries that celebrate the transformative power of storytelling through sound.
Radical Listening is this year’s theme: a call to notice, connect, and truly hear amid the constant noise of contemporary life.
It is free to apply and two grants of up to £10,000 are on offer to fund ambitious new documentaries exploring the transformative power of listening and storytelling through sound.
Now in its 6th year, the initiative has commissioned 10 films and backed filmmakers who have gone on to screen at SXSW and Sundance, with projects acquired by Guardian Documentaries and other major platforms.
The Listening Pitch is designed to take projects from pitch to premiere. Selected filmmakers will work closely with Aesthetica and Audible to develop their projects into fully realised, festival-ready films, which will premiere at Aesthetica Film Festival 2026.
This year’s theme is Radical Listening, invites filmmakers to explore listening as both subject and method with original documentary proposals across all forms – observational, personal, investigative or experimental – with sound taking centre stage.
Key Information
- Free to enter
- All documentary styles are welcome
- Two grants of up to £10,000
- Premiere at Aesthetica Film Festival 2026
- Deadline: 20 April 2026
- Find Out More & Submit Here: asff.co.uk/listening-pitch/