The Princess Grace Foundation-USA is dedicated to upholding the legacy of Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco, (née Grace Kelly). Her commitment to advance the arts in the United States is sustained by the Princess Grace Awards which supports and elevates extraordinary early career artists in theater, dance and film through game-changing grants; and nurtures and supports Princess Grace Award winners throughout their careers.
Pictured: Princess Grace Award winner Zhen Li (Film 2023)
Applicants must be nominated in order to apply. In the application process, the nominated artist will begin the application and asked to fill out their nominator information, including an email. Once the email is completed, the nominator will be notified via email to submit their nomination.
Nomination can come from:
The Princess Grace Awards recognize both creative generators (including but not limited to theater directors, designers, choreographers, film directors, etc.) and performance-based creatives (including but not limited to actors, dancers, etc.). A Playwriting Fellowship* is offered through a partnership with New Dramatists.
Applicants self-identify the discipline(s) in which their work lives, and also self-identify in which discipline(s) they would like their work reviewed. Applicants self-identifying as multidisciplinary select a primary discipline and then any secondary disciplines.
Multidisciplinary artists: It is strongly advised for applicants that identify as multidisciplinary and would like to be reviewed in multiple disciplines ONLY select disciplines in which they have work samples that reflect those disciplines. i.e., if you are a director who works in theater and film, but you only have samples of your film work, you should not ask to be reviewed by the theater panel.
*The Playwriting Fellowship is administered by our partners, New Dramatists.
**For information on how the grant is paid please visit our FAQ.
Pictured: Princess Grace Award winner Tiler Peck (Dance 2004)
The Princess Grace Awards are for emerging artists, or artists at the onset of their careers. The Foundation looks to be a pivotal part of an artist’s trajectory. As part of the selection panel’s evaluation they may consider how the Princess Grace Award may help provide an opportunity and/or propel the artist’s career forward.
Evaluation of emerging in the application: The selection panel expects there to be enough of a body of work that the “promise of extraordinary” is evident but the artist is still at the beginning stages of their career. In its evaluation the selection panel considers the aggregate of the applicant’s work, including any shifts or recent momentum.
Evaluation of extraordinary in application: In its consideration of the mission during the evaluation of Princess Grace Award applicants, the selection panel considers the promise and potential of the applicant to be extraordinary; evaluating “extraordinary” with a multi-prong definition: artistic intentionality, demonstration of technique in artistic practice, potential for innovation or impact of the artist on their field. Applicants are not expected to already be extraordinary but demonstrate the promise of extraordinary.
Pictured: Princess Grace Award winner Paul Tazewell (Theater 1993)
The Princess Grace Awards is a 2-part application process.
Artists are nominated and together with their nominator submit their nominator’s letter of recommendation, artist statement, and a short work sample.
Applicants invited to continue in the application process submit additional written material and work samples.
Pictured: Princess Grace Award winners Patrick Page (Theater 1988) as Hades in Hadestown, Oscar Isaac (Theater 2004) as Marc Spector in Marvel’s Moon Knight, and Moses Ingram (Theater 2018) as Inquisitor Reva in Disney’s Obi-Wan
Your application will be completed using our grants software, Submittable. You will need to make an account.
Your C.V. should include all relevant experience and include dates. Unlike when you apply for a job and select key pieces of your CV/resume to best market yourself for the opportunity, the selection panel wishes to see the entirety of your experience.
Please tell us why you consider your nominee to be deserving of a Princess Grace Award. The recommendation should include how the artist has demonstrated their promise of extraordinary talent based on the Princess Grace Foundation’s multi-prong definition of artistic intentionality, demonstration of technique in artistic practice and potential for innovation or impact of the artist on their field.
Not to exceed one page; minimum font 12pt; 1″ margins.
This may be written or video. Please describe your current artistic work, career trajectory, and the ambitions and aspirations you hold for your artistry.
Written: Not to exceed one page; minimum font 12pt; 1″ margins.
Video: Not to exceed 3 minutes. If you select video format, applicants should still address the prompt above. The video should not include a presentation of your work or be highly edited in any way, and the applicant should speak directly to the camera.
Submit 1 work sample. You are encouraged to submit your best work. Please review the guidelines carefully below.
Panelists will still have access to Round 1 materials.
You will use the same Submittable account for Round 2.
Submit a statement describing your process or approach to the creation (Creative Generators) or performance (Performance-based creatives) of one of your work samples included in your application. The statement should help the panel understand how you approached the work and your process to achieve your vision. Not to exceed one page; minimum font: 12pt; 1” margins.
Performance based creatives: Address your process to bring a role to life, and how your artistry helped you connect with the role and achieve your desired performance.
Creative Generators: It is helpful to include a brief description of the work, and collaboration with any key collaborators/project partners to achieve your vision.
Applicants must submit 1 additional letter of recommendation from a teacher, mentor or peer in their field.
Not to exceed one page; minimum font 12pt; 1″ margins.
In Round 2, you may submit up to 3 work samples. The cumulative time of the work samples is 10 minutes. If the total length of time for all samples exceeds 10-minutes, they will not be viewed. Please review the guidelines carefully below.
There is an option to submit a full work (film, choreographic piece, etc) as supplemental viewing material. Supplemental material can be a complete version of one of your work samples or a different work samples, and does not count toward your 10-minute sample limit. The full work may not exceed 20 minutes.
Pictured: Princess Grace Award winners Camille A. Brown (Choreography 2006), director Jon M. Chu (Film 2001) on the set of Crazy Rich Asians, and American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Isabella Boylston (Dance 2009)
The work sample should be a continuous selection from 1 work sample.
Performance-based creatives, in particular dancers: It is highly recommended that your work sample be a solo. This can be performance footage or filmed in a studio with or without costume.
For performance-based creatives: The Adjudicators will not view media-enhanced, highly edited, or promotional-type submissions. Please do not use works edited with jumpcuts, dissolves, etc.
For creative generators: You should describe how your work was originally viewed and how it is intended to be seen by the audience. This will allow the Review Panel to envision the work as it is intended to be seen. Space will be provided in the work sample component of the application.
Pictured: Princess Grace Award winners Leslie Odom Jr. (Theater 2002) as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, director Chinonye Chukwu (Film 2009) on the set of Till, and Stephen Hillenburg (Film 1991), creator of SpongeBob SquarePants
Work samples are a significant component of your application and we urge you to use care in selecting the samples you submit.
It is strongly recommended that the applicant submit contrasting work samples (in round 2) in terms of genre and style and work samples that highlight their range of artistic abilities. Competitive applicants, in general, do the following:
Acting:
Dance:
Optional Full Work:
In round 2, there is an option to submit a full work as supplemental viewing material that is optional for the Adjudicators to view. The full work may be up to 20 minutes max and can be a complete version of one of your work samples or a different work. The Adjudicators have limited time to review your full length work and it is helpful to indicate your preferred viewing sections of the supplemental material.