New Music USA has long served as a critical infrastructure for the commissioning and development of contemporary music in the United States. Its funding programs are designed to support artists and organizations at pivotal moments in the creative process, from initial conception through public presentation. For filmmakers, this call represents a rare institutional acknowledgment that sound and music are not ancillary to the moving image but constitutive of it—a premise that aligns with the most rigorous traditions of experimental and independent cinema. The grant encompasses both financial support and developmental resources, though the specific parameters of the award are determined by the organization's current programmatic cycle. What is verifiable is the scope: New Music USA's mandate covers individuals and organizations working in new music, and its disciplinary reach explicitly includes film. This suggests an openness to projects that may not fit neatly into either a music-only or film-only funding stream—works of expanded cinema, sound-driven documentary, or narrative films in which the score functions as a structural element rather than accompaniment. Artists should approach this opportunity with an understanding that New Music USA's curatorial history favors projects that demonstrate a substantive engagement with the language of new music, whether through collaboration with composers, the use of experimental sound practices, or the integration of live performance elements. The organization's imprimatur carries weight within both contemporary music and artist-film communities, and its support often signals a project's seriousness to subsequent funders and presenters.