Delivery by discipline
A work sample link for a grant application
that still plays in eight months.
The Sundance Institute Documentary Fund takes work samples as streaming links only, rejects file-transfer services, and asks that links and passwords stay valid for at least eight months after you submit. Most of the job is not the upload. It is keeping one link and one password unchanged for longer than you will be thinking about them.
Video hosting for filmmakers · 5 GB free · Paid plans from USD 9/month
By uncompressed.io · Updated September 2026
What the fund asks for
A streaming link, a password,
and a link that outlives the review.
The Sundance Documentary Fund page sets out the rules for visual material in a few lines. Every figure below is from that page, fetched 18 September 2026. Other funders write their own rules; check the call you are answering before you use these numbers.
8 months
Link and password
Valid for at least this long from the date you submit
30 min
Guaranteed watched
Sundance guarantees watching up to 30 minutes of material
10 min
Production sample
At least 10; 10 to 20 minutes encouraged
20 min
Post-production sample
At least 20 minutes
Source: Sundance Institute Documentary Fund page, fetched 18 September 2026. The page does not ask for a downloadable file.
The eight-month problem
Four things break a sample link,
and most of them are you.
A link rarely fails on the day you submit. It fails months later, after you have tidied an account, reused a password or moved on to the next edit. On uncompressed.io a watch link has no expiry date of its own. It keeps working until one of these happens.
You change the password
The gate checks every visit against the current code. Change it and everyone who used the old one is locked out on their next visit, reviewers included. Choose a code you will never need to change, and do not reuse it for anything else.
You make the film private or delete it
Private means only you can watch, so every reviewer is shut out until you switch it back. Deleting removes the film and its link for good.
You replace the file
Replacing keeps the same link and password, so it does not break access. But the panel should judge what you submitted, a reviewer halfway through comes back to a different cut, and the old file is deleted with no way back. Replace only to fix a genuine mistake, such as the wrong export.
The account is cleared
Free accounts are cleared after 90 days of inactivity, meaning no sign-in and no view on any of the account's films, with an email warning first. Eight months is far longer than that. See the note below.
Eight months is longer than the free plan's inactivity limit
The export
You will not know the panel’s machines,
so pick a file every reviewer can play.
The file you upload is the file the reviewer streams. There is no platform re-encode, and there is also no lower-quality copy for a slow connection: a slow link buffers instead of dropping resolution. For a sample that strangers will watch on unknown laptops and home connections, compatibility and a moderate bitrate matter more than the last bit of picture.
Films here play in the browser as H.264, HEVC (H.265) or AV1 in MP4 or MOV, where the viewer’s device decodes that codec. H.264 in an MP4 is the safest choice when you cannot see the viewer’s device. Our recommended 1080p range for H.264 at 24 or 30 fps is 24 to 48 Mbps; for a panel sample, stay at the low end. The table shows what that means in file size for the sample lengths the fund asks for.
Arithmetic: bitrate times duration, divided by eight, in decimal gigabytes, video stream only; audio adds a little. 24 Mbps is the low end of our H.264 1080p range and 16 Mbps the low end of our HEVC range (lib/export-bitrates.ts). The free plan's 5 GB is binary, about 5.37 decimal GB.
The workflow
Set it up once,
then leave it alone.
Export for the panel
H.264 MP4 at 1080p, low end of the range. Open with your strongest material, since only 30 minutes are guaranteed. Burn in captions if the dialogue is not in English, and consider it anyway: the fund highly recommends them.
Upload and set a password
Set the film's visibility to password and choose a code of up to 60 characters. Avoid characters that are easy to mistype, such as O and 0; the gate wants an exact match and allows 20 attempts an hour from one network address.
Test it like a stranger
Open the link in a private browser window, where you are not signed in. Type the password, play the opening, skip to the middle and the end. Then copy the link and password straight into the application, not from memory.
Write down the date
Note the submission date and the date eight months later, or the funder's decision date if it is later. Until then: no new password, no private switch, no replacement, no deletion, and on a free account a sign-in every month.
Downloads
When you do not need this
If a link already meets the rules,
keep the one you have.
The fund names Vimeo and YouTube as examples. If you already manage a link on either that will stay up with the same password for eight months, use it. A new host adds nothing to the application. What uncompressed.io changes is narrower: the reviewer sees the export you made, with no ads, no related videos and no player branding, on every plan. That matters most when the sample is judged partly on its picture.
If your team keeps working on the film during the review, keep the submitted sample as its own film and do the ongoing work elsewhere, for example in a review room as described in the documentary remote review workflow. The sample stays exactly as submitted.
Questions
Frequently asked
Can I send a Vimeo or YouTube link instead?
Yes. The Sundance fund page names Vimeo and YouTube as examples of acceptable streaming links. If you already have a link on either one that you know will stay up, with the same password, for eight months, it meets the stated requirement and you do not need another host.
Can I send a WeTransfer, Dropbox or Google Drive link?
Not to the Sundance Documentary Fund. Its page says it does not accept file-transfer services, and names WeTransfer, Dropbox and Google Drive. Other funders set their own rules, so read each call for applications.
Does a reviewer need an account to watch?
No. They open the link and type the password. The gate remembers the correct code in their browser for 30 days, so a reviewer who comes back later types it again. Put the password in the application where they will find it a second time.
Will I know whether the panel watched it?
Not by name. The view counts are anonymous daily visitors, with country, city, device and referring site where they are logged. You cannot tell which reviewer opened it, and a count of zero after a month tells you nothing about the decision.
Can I embed the sample on my own site as well?
Not the password-protected film. A password film does not play in an embed; the frame says the video is unavailable. Submit the watch link, not an embed address.
Keep the sample live for the whole review
Password links, the download switch and the review room are on every plan, the free Starter plan included. A paid plan keeps an account out of free-plan inactivity clearing, subject to the Terms, and lets you upload more than one film. Lite is $9 a month.
Sources
- 1.Sundance Institute, Documentary Fund: streaming links only, no file-transfer services, links and passwords valid for at least eight months, up to 30 minutes watched, sample lengths and captions (fetched 18 September 2026)
- 2.uncompressed.io Terms of Service: free plan storage, one film at a time and clearing after 90 days of inactivity (figures from lib/facts.ts) (checked in code 18 September 2026)
- 3.uncompressed.io pricing: current paid plans and storage (figures from lib/facts.ts CURRENT_PLANS) (checked in code 18 September 2026)