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Film Independent at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Film Independent

To champion creative independence in visual storytelling in all its forms and to foster a culture of inclusion.

$713k
Granted FY2025still arriving
8
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$1.0MScience & Tech$90kReligion$90kFood & Nutrition$50kHousing & Shelter$50kEmployment$30kEducation$25kHealth$25kOther$0
02FY2025 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 8 grants below total $240,000, the rows itemized in this filing. The $712,957 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $472,957 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k6 grants · $140k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $100k
$30,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$9.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ONE RISING LLC$50,000
ARTEFACTO CINEMA INC$50,000
PROTOSTELLAR MEDIA LLC$30,000
NETTLES AND DIRT ROADS INC$30,000
BEHOLDEN FLILMS LLC$30,000
JM HARPER MEDIA LLC$30,000
ORQUIDEA LLC$10,000
THIRD COUSIN PICTURES INC$10,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 88% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%PERIODIC MEDIA LLC: $20k → 8%GAP MINDING PRODUCTIONS LLC: $25k → 10%ORQUIDEA LLC: $10k → 10%PLATE SPINNER PRODUCTIONS LLC: $20k → 17%JM HARPER MEDIA LLC: $30k → 20%BECOMING BOX FILMS LLC: $25k → 10%PROTOSTELLAR MEDIA LLC: $30k → 16%DESIRE PATHS LLC: $25k → 15%GENTLE FUZZ INC: $50k → 12%STORY FARM LLC: $25k → 12%BEHOLDEN FLILMS LLC: $30k → 11%FRITZ FORTUNE LLC: $30k → 11%HOUSE OF TOMORROW LLC: $50k → 12%GOOD DEED ENTERTAINMENT: $50k → 11%WORLD FAMOUS LLC: $25k → 9%OMINIRA STUDIOS LLC: $30k → 10%INFINITE WINGS LLC: $30k → 14%ASIA A LLC: $20k → 10%TUCKERGURL INC: $30k → 23%DONKEYBONE INC: $25k → 10%JOURNEY WEST PICTURES LLC: $29k → 14%PER CAPITA PRODUCTIONS: $50k → 17%STRAW HOUSE PRODUCTION: $25k → 20%ALL IS WELL: $25k → 9%STILL ROLLING PRODUCTIONS LLC: $50k → 17%WEIRD DOG PRODUCTIONS LLC: $25k → 9%TWIN PINES RANCH INC: $25k → 17%PPW FILMS LLC: $25k → 20%ARTEFACTO CINEMA INC: $50k → 14%E PIC FILM PRODUCTION: $25k → 20%ROSETORY INC: $25k → 20%AFRICAN COWBOY LLC: $30k → 14%AZUSPEAK PRODUCTIONS: $30k → 14%SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS LLC: $33k → 14%4 BROTHERS PICTURES: $30k → 14%SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS LLC: $17k → 14%MALPELO LLC: $30k → 14%ENGLE FILMS LLC: $20k → 14%PAWIKAN FILMS LLC: $25k → 14%WELTRIX LLC: $50k → 14%FLAMING CREATURES PRODUCTIONS LLC: $50k → 14%GIA RIGOLI FILMS LLC: $50k → 14%NETTLES AND DIRT ROADS INC: $30k → 14%3PAS STUDIOS: $50k → 14%BELL THE FILM LLC: $30k → 14%ONE RISING LLC: $50k → 14%LIFE LIFE LLC: $30k → 14%MEL JONES PRODUCTIONS LLC: $30k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
NY
OR
NV
OH
NJ
CA
CO
TN
LA
GA
TX
FL
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its field
04the grantee network

0 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 0 of the 57 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
0/0
Grantees still filing
0/0
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

+57 more: $1,654,391 · Other+57 more
Other$1,654,391

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%grantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Sundance Institute
Sundance InstituteUT15.1× affinity5 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Sundance Institute

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 57 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Film Independent’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home