Nouns Fest: Second Round of Funding for Animated Shorts

Since Nouns Fest announced its $1 million grant fund for animated shorts in mid-January, the response has been tremendous. To date, more than 200 animators and creators from around the globe have submitted ideas for consideration in the sub-3-minute runtime “Short Shorts” category. Those selected to create “Short Shorts” will receive $7,500 to bring their concepts to life.

This initial round of submissions for funding closes Feb. 29.

Then, on March 1, Nouns Fest will open submissions for a second round of funding, offering grants of $20,000 each to fund “Tall Shorts” — films with a three-minute running time.

Ideas for shorts can be submitted at https://nounsfest.tv/apply/, and the second “Tall Shorts” round of funding, for longer projects, will be open through March 30.

“The creativity, imagination and wit on display in the initial submissions has been tremendous,” says Chris Waters, a co-founder of Nouns Fest, which is the world’s largest single source of funding for independent animated shorts. Ideas submitted for Nouns Fest must incorporate one or more of the “Nouns,” digital art characters created by Nouns. “It’s going to be incredibly exciting to see the ideas generated by our first-ever call for ideas for longer shorts, which approach the running time of traditional animated shorts, offering a world of possibility.”

Upon announcing the accepted submissions in April, Nouns Fest will transfer funds to participants, who can begin production immediately. Final submissions—along with three new animated shorts from Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, which helped conceive the idea of Nouns Fest—will be screened at a special Nouns Fest event to be held later in 2024. Details of that event will be announced this spring.

Read our interview with the producers of the Nouns Fest here.