Apply now: Connections through Culture Grants 2026

Our new round of Connections Through Culture grants, supporting artistic collaboration between the UK and participating countries around the world is now open for applications until 12 August 2026.

Connections Through Culture (CTC) grants are designed to enable meaningful partnerships, cross-cultural exchange and long-term collaboration between the UK and participating countries.

Grants of between £5,000 and £15,000 are available to support creative practitioners, cultural professionals, artists, organisations, festivals, biennials, hubs and collectives to develop and deliver projects across a range of themes and art forms including Film and Creative Technology (including immersive/XR, digital arts and gaming).

Applications must involve collaboration between at least one UK-based partner and at least one partner based in an eligible participating country.

Each partner must be legally based in the country they are applying from at the time of application and throughout the project activity period. There is a new expanded list of eligible countries for our 2026 from around the world:

Albania, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Mainland China, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, UK, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam.

For guidelines, FAQ's and to make an application, visit Connections Through Culture 2026.

If you have queries about eligible Creative Technology projects, including digital arts, XR/immersive, and games, there is a dedicated slot for information as part of the global information session on Wednesday 1 July, 3pm-4:30pm BST. Register here.

Previous CTC projects have seen Film and Creative Technology projects nurturing fresh cultural partnerships between the UK and participating countries around the world. You can read about previous successful projects here, and below are just a few of the Film or Creative Technology projects that have been successful:

Reclaim the Frame X Ankara

UK: Reclaim the Frame - London, England

Türkiye: Flying Broom Foundation - Ankara

This project will unfold across several interconnected activities bringing together shared expertise, mission & passion for championing women’s perspectives in cinema of both partners. From presenting features at festivals, to producing a professional training day & screening female-led productions, this project’s activities will strengthen cross-cultural dialogue & the visibility of women filmmakers on both sides.

Echoes of Deaf History: Deaffest Short Film Screening and Criticism Seminar

UK: Deaffest

China: Garrison Gou, Alice Hu

Deaf films reflect the history of the Deaf community and promote accessibility, yet they often lack effective academic attention. Our project aims to re-screen several historically significant short films from Deaffest with sign languages and hold corresponding film criticism seminars. Our goal is to establish a new discourse system in the field of film criticism—Deaf cultural criticism—to help the public understand and discern genuine Deaf films.

Star Nhà Ease:

Understanding the archive with community curatorial workshops and open source digital archive

UK: Tuyet Van Huynh

Vietnam: The Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents (TPD)

Building on the success of its 2024 pilot, Star Nhà Ease will research Vietnamese cinema, music, and poetry from the 1990s to the 2020s through interviews and archive visits to Viet Nam. This includes workshops, panel discussions, and a five-week curatorial programme, culminating in hybrid showcases and an open-source digital archive launch.

Bali-Glasgow Filmmaker and Programme Exchange

UK: Glasgow Short Film Festival

Indonesia: Yayasan Kino Media (Minikino)

Through short films and filmmaker residencies, workshops, and festivals, Minikino and GSFF hope to open a creative dialogue in Scotland and Indonesia around environmental sustainability, social change, and empowerment. This collaboration will seek to find common ground on each organisation’s community challenges in driving social change, facilitating greater inclusion, and developing plans for longer-term partnerships.

A Shared Journey of Learning and Creation: XR skill sharing, building collaborations

UK: Thomas Buckley / Play Office

A collaborative exchange between artists in the UK and Bangladesh, ‘A Shared Journey of Learning and Creation’ used XR, immersive storytelling, and oral history to explore memory, diaspora and identity.

Charged Steps - Pace of Earth: A Disabled-Led, Solar-Powered Journey Across Cultures

Nepal: Kala Yatra

UK: Northern Light Project

This project proposes a unique, disabled-led artistic collaboration between Kala Yatra (Nepal), rooted in Nepal's profound Buddhist walking culture, and Northern Lights Project (Northern Ireland), situated near the mythic Giant's Causeway – a legendary pathway across the sea. It centres on the artist's use of a cyber exoskeleton, transforming mobility limitations into a creative framework exploring pace, accessibility, and environmental harmony.

Destination Earth

UK: Cellule Studio Ltd

New Zealand: Victoria University of Wellington

Destination Earth is a real-time immersive experience, enabling audiences to experience the connections that tie the atmosphere, human motions and ocean together. The artwork uses interactive visuals and a responsive soundscape to invite audiences to dive into the complex dance of flows across oceans, ice cycles, and atmosphere.