Screen NSW Strategic Opportunities Program

Screen NSW Strategic Opportunities Program/26

Supports New South Wales creative and screen organisations with capability and growth grants.

Eligibility · Australia · AU-NSW

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

The Screen NSW Strategic Opportunities Program 2025/26 is a capacity-building grants program administered by Screen NSW, an agency within the NSW Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport. The program funds projects that strengthen organisational capability, grow sustainable businesses, develop new audiences, or create screen and digital games stories within New South Wales. The current round opened on 13 October 2025 and closes on 5 June 2026 at 2:00 PM, offering individual grants between AUD 5,000 and AUD 50,000.

Assessment is non-competitive: each application is evaluated individually against alignment with the four strategic priorities of the NSW Screen and Digital Games Strategy 2025-2027, which are Creating Stories, Building Sustainable Growth, Improving Capacity and Capability, and Developing Audiences. There is no fixed pool cap, and projects are not ranked against one another. Applications are submitted through the SmartyGrants platform, with initial eligibility screening conducted within 14 days of submission. An assessment panel including Screen NSW staff and external industry evaluators reviews qualifying applications.

Eligibility is open to Australian organisations with an ABN, including companies, not-for-profits, cooperatives, trusts, local governments, and consortia. Individual practitioners cannot apply directly; an organisational entity is required. A mandatory pre-submission step requires all prospective applicants to discuss their proposed project with Screen NSW staff before lodging an application — failure to complete this consultation will result in an ineligible submission. Contact for pre-submission discussions is industry@screen.nsw.gov.au. Applicants whose projects are primarily focused on production financing rather than organisational capacity building are unlikely to be competitive under this program's stated priorities.