Audio
We support original audio formats—from podcasts and radio plays to documentaries and features—from development through to release.
Types of Funding: What stage is the project in?
From research and conception through manuscript development and production to distribution
Five Facts About Audio Funding
From Concept to Release
We support original audio formats from research and conception through script development and production to distribution.
More than just a traditional radio play
Our audio funding program covers radio plays, audio series, and podcasts—ranging from fictional stories to documentary and journalistic formats.
Space for relevant stories
The focus is on original audio formats that address socially and culturally relevant topics, open up new perspectives, and reach a broad audience.
New listening experiences and narrative forms
Funding is also provided for innovative projects that experiment with the medium’s possibilities, create unique listening experiences, or rethink audio in new and cross-media ways.
Strengthening Audio Culture in North Rhine-Westphalia
Through this funding, we support authors, podcasters, journalists, and producers, and strengthen North Rhine-Westphalia as a hub for independent and innovative audio storytelling.
Application Portal
Submit a Funding Application Online
Have you found the right grant and checked all the requirements? You can submit your grant application digitally through our application portal.
News: Audio News
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Four projects, four perspectives: The Film and Media Foundation NRW is funding additional new audio projects with a total of 22,500 euros.
September 15, 2026
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In its current funding round, the Film and Media Foundation NRW is supporting two documentary audio formats with a total of 10,000 euros
May 21, 2026
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The Film and Media Foundation NRW is funding 11 creative audio projects with a total of 70,000 euros
December 4, 2025
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FMS-Funded Audio Projects
Examples
The Green Wall – How the Sahel Is Fighting the Climate Crisis
Production Grant
15,000 €- Author:
- Bettina Rühl
- Director:
- Anna Panknin
- Editor:
- Wolfgang Schiller
- Production:
- Deutschlandfunk, 2024
- Format:
- Five-part documentary feature series
- Achievement:
- The project, supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, resulted in a five-part Deutschlandfunk series for which Bettina Rühl traveled through five countries in the Sahel region. The series aired in the summer of 2024 and remains available digitally as an audio program. The FMS supported the project with 15,000 euros.
Vom Erdboden
Work Grant / Manuscript Support
€3,000- Author:
- Leonie Below
- Director:
- Eva Solloch
- Dramaturgy:
- Natalie Szallies
- Production:
- WDR / 1LIVE, 2022
- Format:
- Four-part fictional radio drama series for teenagers and young adults
- Cast:
- Marlene Tanczik, Tyrell Otoo, Linda Belinda Podszus, Leandra Fili, Jonas Friedrich Leonhardi, and others
- Success:
- The project, which received a writing grant for the script from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, was produced by WDR as a four-part 1LIVE radio drama series and aired in November 2022. The series was subsequently made available digitally via the WDR Hörspielspeicher and various streaming platforms.
Ruhe 1
Grant for the radio play adaptation
7,000 €- Written and directed by:
- Paul Plamper
- Production:
- WDR / Museum Ludwig
- Format:
- Radio play and walk-through multichannel audio installation
- Cast:
- Irm Hermann, Cristin König, Caroline Peters, Bastian Pastewka, Fabian Hinrichs, Margarita Broich, Matthias Matschke, and Martin Wuttke, among others
- Sound design:
- Nils Kacirek
- Success:
- “Ruhe 1” is one of the most successful examples of the FMS’s radio drama funding program. The Film Foundation provided 7,000 euros in support of adapting the audio sculpture—originally developed for the Museum Ludwig—into a radio version. The work subsequently won the 2009 War Blinds Radio Play Award, was named Radio Play of the Month for December 2008, and received the German Audiobook Prize in 2012.