Found in the crowd: how to crowdfund your film
by Rebecca Hughes | May 28, 2026 | Stories
Getting a film made in the UK has never been straightforward. But right now, it’s harder than it’s been in a long time.
Broadcaster budgets have contracted. Streaming deals that once felt like a reliable route to market have dried up or become harder to access without an established track record. Grant funding is competitive, slow, and increasingly scarce. And the traditional gatekeepers — commissioners, distributors, development executives — are working with less money and more caution than they were five years ago.
For independent filmmakers, this is the reality. It’s not a skills problem. It’s a structural one.
Which is exactly why more and more filmmakers are turning to crowdfunding as a genuinely powerful alternative that puts creative control back in the hands of the people making the work.
Crowdfunding gives you something the traditional routes don’t: your IP stays with you, your creative vision stays intact, and you build a community of people who are invested in your film before a single frame is shot. That community, when nurtured well, doesn’t just fund one project, it follows you from one film to the next.
But crowdfunding a film well takes knowledge. And that knowledge has historically been hard to come by unless you already know the right people.
That’s what Found in the Crowd is for.
Who wrote it — and why it matters
Found in the Crowd was written by Adam Gee: a six-time BAFTA and Emmy-winning producer and commissioning editor who has worked with Channel 4, CAA in Los Angeles, Red Bull Media House and Little Dot Studios, and now leads Documentary Campus Masterschool in Berlin, one of the world’s most prestigious documentary training programmes.
Adam has backed films that have gone to festivals, shifted public debate, and built lasting audiences. He has also watched talented filmmakers run out of road — not because their ideas weren’t good enough, but because they didn’t have the knowledge or the community to get their projects funded.
That’s why he wrote this guide.
It’s the kind of advice that usually costs a festival pass to hear. Now it’s free, and it lives online so it’s always up to date.
What’s inside
The guide covers the full journey from idea to funded project — and beyond. Here’s what you’ll find:
Before you launch
Most crowdfunding campaigns are won or lost before they go live. The guide walks you through how to define your goal clearly, work out a realistic budget (including the costs most filmmakers forget), identify where your backers are actually going to come from, and build momentum in your community before you’ve even set a target.
One of the most common mistakes Adam sees? Thinking about production costs but not distribution. Getting your film made is only half the story — getting it seen costs money too, and the time to plan for that is before you set your fundraising target, not after.
Creating your campaign
Your project page is your pitch deck, your shop window, and your first impression all at once. The guide covers how to write copy that converts, how to shoot a pitch video that doesn’t need to be polished (just honest), how to design a rewards ladder that feels generous without being a logistical nightmare, and how to make the top of your page do the work for people who are only giving it five seconds.
Running your campaign
A successful crowdfunding campaign is as much about communication as it is about filmmaking. The guide covers how to build early momentum, how to use social media without burning out, how to tap into communities beyond your own network, and, crucially, what to do when things go quiet in the middle. Because they probably will. And that’s normal.
After your campaign
The campaign ending is not the end. It’s the beginning of something. The guide covers how to fulfil rewards, how to keep talking to your backers, and how to turn the people who supported your first project into the community that powers your next one.
Real campaigns, real results
The guide includes a selection of crowdfunded films that have used Crowdfunder to get their work made and seen, from investigative documentaries to shorts to feature films. These aren’t cherry-picked outliers. They’re a cross-section of what’s possible when a filmmaker with a strong story connects with the right crowd.
Among them:
Derek vs Derek raised £19,062 to fund 600 community screenings of a feature documentary about biodiversity and farming — getting the film in front of the people best placed to act on it.
MOOSHI raised £127,000 from 235 supporters for the first drama short to shine a light on illegal border pushback operations.
The Independent Noah Donohoe Investigation raised £179,000 from 5,909 supporters to fund a full documentary investigation into an unsolved case in Belfast.
None of these started with a big name or a big network. They started with a story worth telling and a community of people who wanted to see it told.
How to get it
Found in the Crowd is completely free. Sign up below and you’ll get instant access to the full guide online.
We’ll also send you a short series of follow-up emails over the next few weeks — one idea at a time, pulling out the most useful bits of the guide alongside videos from Adam himself.
If you’ve got a film you want to make, this is where to start.
Found in the Crowd is part of Crowdfunder’s commitment to supporting the UK’s independent film community. Crowdfunder has no platform fees for creative projects, and over £10 million in match funding is available for projects that qualify.