Skip Ahead - 2026

Skip Ahead is a joint initiative of Screen Australia and YouTube Australia. Since 2014, over the course of nine funding rounds, Skip Ahead has supported 47 YouTube content creators and their projects to develop their skills and support them to work towards sustainable careers.

Skip Ahead is open to both documentary and scripted narrative projects from Australian content creators where the producers and creators of the content maintain and retain control of self-distributing the work and taking it to audience on YouTube or YouTube Kids. 

Skip Ahead aims to:

• support a new generation of online/direct-to-audience storytellers and IP creators to expand their vision and ambition;

• cultivate original Australian documentary or scripted narrative content made specifically for local and global online audiences; and,

• ensure the storytellers and stories being told reflect the diversity of people and experiences from around Australia, and promoting their importance - culturally, creatively and economically.

Eligible Entities

Applicants can apply as a company or in certain circumstances, an individual* (either alone or as part of a team). To be eligible, the applicant must: 

• be an incorporated company carrying on business in Australia, with its central management and control in Australia;

• have an Australian Business Number (ABN);

• be registered for the purposes of GST if required by law;

• control the rights necessary to carry out the project, meaning that it must have clear chain of title and must generally be party to any underlying rights agreements;

• maintain and retain control of self-distributing the project and taking it to audience on YouTube or YouTube Kids; and

• be the original content creator or team responsible for one of the following:

• a current YouTube channel with at least 25,000 subscribers; OR

• a maximum of two current YouTube channels with a combined subscriber base of 40,000; OR

• a YouTube video which has achieved a minimum of 1 million views on a Youtube channel which has a subscriber base of at least 10,000.

Applicants must meet at least one of the requirements listed above to be eligible. 

*Applications will be accepted from eligible individuals (sole traders) that are Australian citizens or permanent residents (holding a permanent visa), who are over the age of 18 and have an ABN. However, if successful, the applicant must incorporate as a company before contracting with Screen Australia for production funding. 

Genuine collaborations between a YouTube content creator(s) and established producers, production companies and/or entertainment properties are encouraged and may strengthen an application.

Project Eligibility

The project that is the subject of the application must:

• be for a scripted narrative project of any genre or documentary;

• be intended to be uploaded to YouTube and/or YouTube Kids;

• not be a ‘How to...’ or lifestyle program (including travel and cooking) or reality;

• not have entered pre-production or production prior to the conclusion of the workshop dates; and,

• not be an advertorial or intended primarily as advertising or marketing material.