Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship program opens the door to nonprofit funding for independent filmmakers and media artists.

Logline

The SHIFT Creative Fund is a grant program designed to support up-and-coming independent filmmakers by bringing their creative visions to life. SHIFT developed the Creative Fund to allow filmmakers to take their narrative short film projects from script to screen.

Synopsis

Film grants come in all shapes and sizes—supporting filmmakers of many different backgrounds. When looking at the landscape of grants available to filmmakers, there’s a gap around one particular format: narrative short films. However, that format is an important stepping stone in a filmmaker’s journey, which is why the SHIFT Creative Fund is dedicated to filmmakers specifically seeking funding for such projects. We rely on the contributions of sponsors across all industries to help support as many filmmakers as possible. The larger we grow our grant pool, the more films we can support!
 

Meet the Team

Grace Amodeo – Program Manager, SHIFT
Grace is a filmmaker by trade, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Visual Media Arts from Emerson College in Boston. Her career experience lies primarily in producing, and the successful execution of a director and creative team’s vision for any given film project. Across her 8+ years of filmmaking experience, she has helmed productions from short films, to features, to music videos and a wide array of digital branded content for companies like Spotify, Kellogg’s, Oral-B, and Lucasfilm. Before leaving Boston for Los Angeles, she worked as an event coordinator for high-end weddings and social events in Boston’s elite event market. The combination of film production and event production allows Grace to bring a truly unique set of skills to the management and operation of the SHIFT Creative Fund. Grace has been managing the Fund since its inception — having built the program from the ground up in early 2018 and continuing to oversee its successful execution each year.

Taylor Corrado – Director of Marketing, SHIFT
Taylor started her career marketing online fundraising software to nonprofits at FirstGiving and HubSpot, as well as educating organizations how to fundraise online through digital channels and peer to peer fundraising. She is the co-author of Transform Your Nonprofit with Inbound Marketing . She is not just an experienced marketer with over a decade of experience, but an active philanthropist, supporting organizations like Habitat for Humanity, charity: water and the ACLU. She has always wanted to incorporate giving back into the for-profit world and sees this as an amazing opportunity to bring up and coming filmmaker’s dreams to life. Taylor has been involved in the SHIFT Creative Fund throughout its second cycle (2019) and provides direct support and guidance to Grace in all areas.

Kai Pradel – CEO, SHIFT
Kai Pradel is the Founder and CEO of SHIFT, which he initially created as a homegrown solution in response to the file sharing issues he encountered as the owner of a video production agency. Over the years, SHIFT has grown to support more than 100,000 media creators around the globe and our toolset has grown from a few features to a comprehensive video sharing and management platform. In addition to his main responsibilities in running the company and setting overall product strategy, he remains actively involved in the engineering, design, and product teams within the organization. Kai holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Communications from Emerson College. Kai offers leadership to the entire SHIFT team, and ensures the SHIFT Creative Fund stays true to our company values and brand identity.

Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.