2026-27 INDIE GRANTS PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

South Carolina’s Indie Grants program announced its selections for the 2026–27 program year. The selected short film projects will receive production funding and professional industry support, creating opportunities for professional South Carolina filmmakers to bring original stories to the screen while helping develop the state’s film and television industry and workforce.

The program helps cultivate creative entrepreneurs, strengthen South Carolina’s production infrastructure, and demonstrate the state’s capacity to support high-caliber film and television projects.

“We’re helping filmmakers build their businesses here in our state, while developing the skilled workforce that makes it possible for more productions to come to South Carolina to spend money,” said Matt Storm, Director of the South Carolina Film Commission. “This program brings those goals together in an innovative way.”

Each Indie Grants production is mounted as a fully professional film, staffed by experienced industry department heads and professional personnel throughout. Trident Technical College film students work under these professionals as hands-on experience, which also creates networking and bridges to employment.

This year’s projects include a fully improvised jazz short film, a down-and-out crime comedy, and a tense performance-based thriller. According to Glenn Seale, Dean of Film, Media, and Visual Arts at Trident Technical College, Indie Grants thrives by supporting these types of distinct voices and ideas, showing why South Carolina is such a compelling setting for storytelling.

“Our state has such an extraordinary culture, and these films reflect the people, places and creative spirit that make it so unique,” said Seale. “Indie Grants helps get this remarkable range of stories made so they can be seen and heard at top international film festivals and other major platforms.”  

The 2026-27 short films selected for funding and production are:

DUO
Ben Beeker, Hollyann Clevenger, Destiny Macon, Chris White, Emily Reach White
Greenville, SC
Writer-Director Chris White's completely improvised jazz film featuring acclaimed musicians Georgia Heers and Phillip Howe as estranged lovers who re-spark when they get together to write one last song.

MOBILE BANKING
Camille Lowman, Sharon Graci, Henry Riggs
Charleston, SC
A couple exhausted by the impossibility of capturing the American Dream sees their opportunity and takes it...literally.

ANY PORT IN A STORM
Julia Walpole and Cameron McCormack
Johns Island, SC
When his teenage daughter's best friend goes missing on prom night, a family man asks his ex-convict brother to take the fall for the murder he committed to hide his adultery.

Indie Grants is part of a series of training and grant initiatives from the South Carolina Film Commission and Trident Technical College, designed to bolster the state's professional production workforce and support independent filmmakers and production professionals at all levels of education and experience. Learn more here.