The Global Health Film Grant is for an experienced filmmaker who wants to explore, through a short documentary, underreported stories about health in the Global South. We’re interested in ambitious projects about systemic barriers to all sorts of care, as well as promising research, treatment advances, or emerging health threats that merit investigation. We want to amplify new perspectives, stories and voices on global health with a particular focus on solution oriented reporting.
This grant is offered as a collaboration between One World Media, Pulitzer Center and the Financial Times, and the selected grantee will be a part of the 2025 One World Media Fellowship.
Selected film will receive up to £20k funding, and is supported by a mentor and an Executive Producer. The film needs to be under 25 minutes and completed by June 2026. Final film is made publicly available on Financial Times’ platforms, and promoted globally by all partners and associated screenings.
KEY DATES
- Application Deadline: 20 August 2025
- Grantee Announced: November 2025
- Final Delivery: June 2026
Selected Project
FILMMAKER | Monica Jha | India
Monica Jha is an award-winning independent journalist and filmmaker based in India, specialising in investigative reporting and longform storytelling. She reports on marginalisation, organised crime, and ecology. Monica’s work has appeared in Rest of World, Daily Beast, Coda Story, South China Morning Post, Scroll, The Wire, and received awards from Stop Slavery Media, the Fetisov Journalism, and the SEJ Investigative Reporting and One World Media. See Monica’s work here. Her recent multimedia series “Breaking the Nets” won awards from One World Media, SOPA, Online Journalism Awards, and the Asian American Journalists Association.
STORY | Busting Myths, Mending Minds
Busting Myths, Mending Minds follows communities in India who are working to bridge the gap between science and spirituality in order to change how mental illness is understood and treated. Across the country, religious beliefs and practices continue to lead to the mistreatment of people with mental illnesses. At some shrines they are chained, harmed and some have even died after being labeled possessed or spiritually weak. A homegrown movement is challenging these practices by making psychiatric care more accessible. It exposes fraudulent healers and files complaints against abusive shrines. It trains priests to act as mental health support workers rather than excluding them. It also builds community capacity by training citizens in psychiatric and clinical social work. India has only 9,000 psychiatrists serving an estimated 197 million people with mental health disorders. Greater awareness and resources are urgently needed to address this underreported public health crisis.
What kind of stories?
Through the Pulitzer Center’s Global Health initiative, journalists have reported on many of the systemic, interconnected health inequities around the world — such as pandemic preparedness, vaccine access and trust, and rising maternal mortality. The initiative supports accountability reporting that deepens understanding and informs public debate.
We’re especially keen to receive creative, newsworthy proposals that spotlight underreported global health stories across a range of topics — from health inequalities and barriers to basic healthcare, to food insecurity and its far-reaching consequences. We welcome stories that examine systemic failures in mental health treatment, explore scientific advances with the potential to prevent disease, reduce maternal mortality, or prepare for future outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics — particularly in overlooked or underrepresented contexts.
The proposed film needs to be under 25 minutes, and be completed by June 2026.
Who is it for?
This grant is for storytellers with 5+ years of experience from the global south and working in the global south. We’re particularly keen to hear creative proposals, ideas that are newsworthy, cover an underreported story, or hear from people who are often unheard and offer unexpected or rare access.
What does the filmmaker receive?
- Up to £20k funding for their film
- An industry mentor, an Executive Director and production support
- A commission from the Financial Times with the film freely available on the FT’s platforms
- Global promotion of the film by all three partners and associated screenings
- Workshops and peer support as part of the one year One World Media Fellowship programme
- Membership of the One World Media global alumni network