Making and Funding Documentary Films: An Artist Talk with Anna Snowball

A one-hour artist talk from documentary filmmaker Anna Snowball, reflecting on how her filmmaking practice has evolved over time. She will share clips from her previous short films alongside extracts from her feature documentary currently in development. The talk will also cover how she has funded her work, and where those starting out in documentary filmmaking might begin looking for support today.

Anna Snowball is a documentary filmmaker based in Berkshire who tells stories about underdogs chasing and achieving impossible dreams. Her work focuses on character-driven nonfiction, shaped over long periods of time and made in creative collaboration with her subjects. Her films have screened internationally at festivals including BFI London, Big Sky and AFI Fest. Her latest short, Iranian Yellow Pages, won the Netflix Documentary Talent Fund and was nominated for both a Grierson Award and a Critics’ Circle Award. Anna has over a decade’s experience making short nonfiction films through her company Snow Films, with projects for Netflix, BBC, Arte, Radio 4 and Channel 4. She was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2025 and recently served as a juror for the International Emmy Awards. She is currently developing her first feature documentary, a creative film about late-diagnosed neurodiversity in women, which she is working on during her residency. Anna is an alumna of the National Film and Television School Documentary MA, where she now teaches as a visiting tutor. Passionate about widening access to the screen industries, she is also the co-founder of Gatecrash Films, a non-profit organisation bringing practical filmmaking workshops to young people outside mainstream education.

Website: www.annasnowball.co.uk