Currently 4 active prizes and awards open to applicants in the US, across AI, arts, film, journalism, research, tech and cross-disciplinary practice. Hand-curated and updated weekly. Almost every entry is funded; a few notable unpaid open calls and festival submissions are included as clearly flagged exceptions. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
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The Oregon Media Arts Fellowship, run by the Portland Art Museum's Center for an Untold Tomorrow with the Oregon Arts Commission, gives Oregon media artists money to create or complete new work. Eligible work is artist-driven moving image, sound, digital or time-based media: narrative, documentary and experimental film, animation, video art, artist-made television, audio and podcasts, immersive and interactive media, web-based and digital work, AR, VR and mixed reality, and emerging forms. Review criteria include sustained professional achievement and potential future contribution to the field. ELIGIBILITY: artists aged 18 or over who have lived in Oregon for at least one year as their fixed, permanent principal home, not enrolled in a creative degree programme, and who have not received a Media Arts Fellowship or any Oregon Arts Commission fellowship in the previous five years; one application per year, joint applications split a single award. DEADLINE: 15 November 2026 (no time stated; late applications are not guaranteed processing).
The Kennedy Center's Access/VSA Emerging Young Artists Program (2027 theme: Thrive) awards 15 young disabled visual artists a USD 3,000 stipend, an all-expenses-paid career development week in Washington DC (14 to 18 June 2027) and exhibition of one work. ELIGIBILITY: aged 16 to 25 on the deadline date; US-based with the right to work in the US; have a disability as defined by the ADA and be willing to disclose it publicly; submitted work made in the last three years and after the onset of disability; no generative-AI work; previous winners ineligible. OBLIGATIONS: attend three virtual workshops (April to June 2027) and the DC week to receive the stipend. APPLICATION: free, via CaFE (artist.callforentry.org); accommodation and alternative-format requests by 30 October 2026. Winners notified by 13 January 2027. Questions: vsainfo@kennedy-center.org. DEADLINE: 19 November 2026, 23:59 ET.
The Re:Paris Prize, run by Van Alen Institute, funds research into how design plays a transformative role in Africa and its diaspora. Each winner receives a USD 35,000 travel fellowship for field research that requires international travel to connect with experts and opportunities. Two Africa-based winners were chosen from the 2026 Pan-African Biennale; a third, US-based winner is selected through this open call. Proposals address one of five themes, including 'Data, algorithms, and the public realm', on how digital infrastructures reshape public space, civic life and spatial perception. Winners present their learnings at Van Alen Institute in Fall 2027 and at the second Pan-African Biennale in 2028. ELIGIBILITY: US-based applicants; further rules on the call page. APPLY via the Airtable form linked from the project page. DEADLINE: Sunday 22 November 2026.
The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Awards, given jointly by Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation at Harvard, are open for 2027 submissions. Two annual awards of USD 25,000 each help writers complete a book-length work of narrative nonfiction on a topic of American political or social concern; books on science, technology and media accountability have won in past years. Applicants need a fully executed contract with a US-based publisher for the book in progress. There is no entry fee for the Work-in-Progress awards; note that the Lukas Book Prize and the Mark Lynton History Prize run on the same portal with the same deadline but carry a USD 75 entry fee. TO APPLY: submit via the Columbia Journalism Awards Submittable portal. DEADLINE: 3 December 2026, 11:59 PM ET.