Listening Pitch 2026 .
Aesthetica Film Festival teams up with Audible, offering two grants of up to £10,000 to fund new documentaries.
Submit Your Application | Deadline 20 April
Radical Listening
This year's theme is Radical Listening, responding to how listening is taking on a renewed significance amid the pace of contemporary life. Surrounded by constant information and competing voices, listening offers a way to slow down, connect and pay attention. The Listening Pitch 2026 invites storytellers to explore listening as both subject and method – an attentive creative practice that shapes how stories are made and how audiences engage with them. Two grants of up to £10,000 are available. Winning filmmakers will work with Aesthetica and Audible to create a festival-ready film, with regular check-in points throughout the process. The emphasis is on thoughtful storytelling with strong public and industry visibility. Free to enter. Deadline 20 April 2026.
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What We’re Looking For
We encourage submissions of projects that consider how sound, attention and presence shape storytelling. We welcome ideas that embrace the wide constellation of human experience, moving from the personal to the collective and the universal. Works may draw from everyday moments, poetic or abstract reflections, cultural memory, emotional states, or responses to social, environmental and technological change. Give us unique points of view that bring unexpected insights. We want stories that challenge, inspire and connect us. All documentary styles are welcome. Whether your story is observational, personal, experimental, or investigative, we encourage you to think boldly and break boundaries. Sound must take centre stage.
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What Do Winners Receive?
Commissioned films will premiere at Aesthetica 2026, providing a high-profile launch platform. Beyond the premiere, Listening Pitch offers festival and distribution support, guiding participants through strategy, submissions, and wider audience engagement to ensure the work continues to reach audiences beyond its first screening. By foregrounding listening, as a radical act, the Listening Pitch fosters meaningful engagement between filmmakers, audiences and the world we inhabit. Over the past five years, the Aesthetica x Audible Listening Pitch has brought 10 extraordinary films to life. They all have premiered at Aesthetica Film Festival, with some going on to screen at SXSW and Sundance, or gain distribution through leading platforms like The Guardian.
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What is the Listening Pitch?
The Listening Pitch is a Documentary Film Grant. Two grants of up to £10,000 per project are delivered in partnership between Aesthetica and Audible. We are committed to telling stories with impact that have listening at the forefront. Since 2021, we have funded and produced ten films. 2025's winners were Carin Leong, with ‘Untitled Fetal Heartbeat’, and Roberto Duque, who showcased ‘Voice Shift’. In 2024, we celebrated ‘Greensound’ by Liberty Smith and Ornella Mutoni's ‘The Things We Don't Say’, since acquired by Guardian Documentaries. Other projects include ‘Banana’, dir. Matthew Herbert; ‘Old Lesbians’ by Meghan McDonough; ‘Birdsong’ by Sparsh Ahuja and Omi Gupta; ‘Speed of Sound’ by Jade Ang Jackman; ‘Echo’ by Ross McClean; and ‘Blind as a Beat’ by Jessi Gutch and Liz Jackson.
2025 Winners .
2025's recipients are Carin Leong, with 'Untitled Fetal Heartbeat', and Roberto Duque, with 'Voice Shift'. Leong's film explores how the Doppler ultrasound technology converts electrical signals from a developing fetus into the sound of a heartbeat, and examines how this shapes our collective and cultural understandings of pregnancy and birth. 'Voice Shift' follows trans femme individuals as they seek a voice that reflects their gender identity. Guided by a trans vocal coach, the film weaves together stories from different stages of their journeys. Both films premiered at Aesthetica Film Festival 2025.
2024 Winners .
2024's awards were given to two stand-out documentaries, both of which premiered at Aesthetica Film Festival 2024. Liberty Smith’s 'Greensound' follows a group of men who begin taking forest walks after the closure of a steel plant in Wales, and 'The Things We Don't Say', by Ornella Mutoni, navigates intergenerational trauma and healing in the wake of the Rwanda genocide. Mutoni's powerful film has since been picked up by Guardian Documentaries, and is available to watch via its online platform.
2023 Winners .
Two outstanding films were produced in 2023. Meghan McDonough’s 'Old Lesbians', since picked up by Guardian Documentaries, asks: How do we communicate a history of a population that is rapidly disappearing? Her moving project continues the work of activist Arden Eversmeyer, who travelled the USA to record stories from a fading community. Matthew Herbert’s film looks at the environmental cost of growing and exporting bananas, 250 million of which are eaten daily. 'Banana' invites us to hear what the fruit hears, following the pickers, packers, machines and fridges involved in bringing us a food that is now part of our everyday.
2022 Winners .
2022's awards were given to three films: 'Birdsong' (Sparsh Ahuja, Omi Gupta), 'Speed of Sound' (Jade Ang Jackman) and 'Echo' (Ross McClean). The selected films approach the subject of sound from different angles – from the dying whistling traditions of the Hmong people of northern Laos to a portrait of self-professed adrenaline junkie, Carina Edlinger, and the story of a man who communicates via an intricate system of radios. The winning films premiered at Aesthetica Film Festival 2022, with one being picked up by Guardian Documentaries.
2021 Winners .
2021's recipients are Jessi Gutch and Liz Jackson, with 'Blind as Beat'. Jackson was an in-house documentary director at the BBC for 10 years. The film portrays her journey: from ex-documentary filmmaker who used sight as a primary sense, to someone who is visually impaired and using hearing predominately. ``There is a growing movement for film to become more accessible. People are starting to see that the disabled audience is a big one – they should be thought of in the production process. In this script, we’ve tried to take the idea of audio description but elevate it to something visually evocative.``
The Films .
Watch a selection of fantastic projects made possible through The Listening Pitch.
Submission Information .
- Five filmmakers will be selected to present their idea at a live virtual pitch in May 2026.
- A panel will review the pitches and two grants of up to £10,000 per project will be awarded.
- The film will premiere at the ASFF in November 2026 and also be shared on Audible and Aesthetica platforms after a festival run.
- Filmmakers from across the world are invited to apply for this grant.
- We will also require the film to have subtitles available to meet accessibility requirements. Please supply two versions: one burnt on and one without.
- We welcome submissions from first-time filmmakers and those underrepresented in the industry.
- This is a documentary film grant only.
- Mid-February – 20 April 2026: Call for Entries
- 20 April 2026: Deadline
- 1 May: Shortlist Announcement
- 6 May 2026: Live Pitch
- 8 May 2026: Winner Announced
- 5 November 2026: ASFF Premiere and Live Q&A