While fiscal sponsorship is a component of the program, unlike other sponsoring organizations, we also provide a suite of support services such as tailored consultations, discounts to our workshops and webinars with leading industry professionals, and other essential resources.
In the last 5 years, WMM’s Production Assistance Program has helped 194 films reach completion and assisted filmmakers in raising more than $46,000,000 from government, foundation, corporate or individual, and crowd-funded sources. Since its inception, the program has been a part of raising more than $100,000,000 and helping more than 1,000 films to completion.
Films and filmmakers we have supported have been nominated for or won Academy Awards for the last 22 years, including Oscar-winning documentary CITIZENFOUR by Laura Poitras, STRONG ISLAND by Yance Ford, SUGARCANE by Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat, TO KILL A TIGER by Nisha Pahuja, THE ETERNAL MEMORY by Maite Alberdi and THE BARBER OF LITTLE ROCK by John Hoffman and Christine Turner, the last two of which were directed by PA alum. The program has also supported critically acclaimed fiction features like FAMILIAR TOUCH (dir. Sarah Friedland), Dee Rees’ PARIAH, I CARRY YOU WITH ME (dir. Heidi Ewing, prod. Mynette Louie), FAREWELL AMOR (dir. Ekwa Msangi, prod. Huriyyah Muhammad, Sam Bisbee, Josh Penn), and THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL (dir. Marielle Heller). We’re thrilled to continue to have a large presence at the Sundance Film Festival, including GOING TO MARS: THE NIKKI GIOVANNI PROJECT (Dir Michèle Stephenson), LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING (dir. Lisa Cortés), Sandi Tan’s SHIRKERS, which won the World Cinema Documentary Competition Award for Best Directing, and most recently SEEDS (dir. Brittany Shyne, prod. Danielle Varga), which won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. In addition to Sundance, films supported by our program premiere at major festivals like Berlin, Tribeca, CPH:DOX, and SXSW.
FIND PROJECTS AND FILMMAKERS TO SUPPORT
And Then One Day… (formerly SOMETHING REMAINS)
After uncovering her Jewish family’s names in a German novel, a filmmaker returns to her ancestral rural town. Immersed with contemporary high school students, she discovers how Nazi-era laws erased lives who thrived there for generations—exposing how nations collapse not always in chaos, but through silence and compliance.
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MAILIN
Mailin tells her daughter a bedtime story, a metaphor unfolding the protagonists’ search to recover the memory of her past. Through a collage of archive and childhood drawings, emerges the story of a girl, who for 15 years suffered the abuses of a priest that Justice has just set free.
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A Double Life
The filmmaker goes on a journey of discovery to unravel the mystery of her uncle’s past as a civil rights activist lawyer and political fugitive and his alleged involvement in an alleged prison escape attempt which left six people dead, his 13 years as a political fugitive and his return in 1984 to stand trial and gain his acquittal in 1986, returning to his legal aid work after 15 years. The film presents a multi-layered portrait of a turbulent era and the role of one individual seeking justice for others and later for himself.
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The Milky Sea
A feature documentary film about the hunt for a rare glowing ocean phenomenon that has captivated mariners for centuries.
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Cancer: A Love Story (Working Title)
Cancer: A Love Story is an autobiographical documentary about my battle with cancer, confronting sexual assault, and the crazy things I did to heal myself. It’s a survival story, but also a story of mothers and daughters, and the intimacies of women’s bodies.
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The Gas Station Attendant
Telephone conversations the filmmaker recorded with her father while he worked nights at a gas station reveal a remarkable journey, from living on the streets of India to a chance encounter that would bring him to the United States.
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Flood
Katy returns to her childhood home to attempt to reconnect to her evangelical father, years after leaving the Christian faith. What could possibly go wrong?
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See the Women
The daughter of an influential Native American activist raised in the center of the indigenous, political movement of the 70s, reclaims her identity as an activist and Indigenous woman by addressing the trauma that many women and children face, the one blind spot in her father’s own activism.
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It's Not Who I Am
Women are going to jail and prison at rates that have increased by 700% since 1980, a rate 50% higher than men. When they are released, they have expectations of starting life anew, however, in their re-entry journey, they are often confronted with an unforgiving society.
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AKA Doris Wishman
In a world dominated by male filmmakers, delve into the enigmatic journey of a trailblazing American woman who redefined cinema through her groundbreaking contributions to the realm of sexploitation films.
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Confessions of a Female Gamer
An actress, reluctantly cast as the voice of the main character (a powerful warrior queen) in a smash-hit video game, becomes an unlikely heroine for female gamers around the world – and uncovers the battles unfolding in their lives.
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Untitled Indigenous vs. White Supremacy Ideology Film
There is an EPIDEMIC occurring in the United States and no one knows about it. From 2016 through 2019, over 19,000 Native American women and teenage girls have vanished and/or were murdered. Most of these crimes are never solved.
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Untitled Women and Mushrooms Film
Lis and Juli are unlikely heroes: instead of weapons or shields, they carry baskets to collect mushrooms. These indigenous foragers and scientists lead this immersive docu-sci fi journey through Mexico’s forests to unveil secrets from the Queendom — the world of fungi and those whose lives intertwine with it.
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Unlocked aka Kings Park: Stories from an American Mental Institution
"Unlocked" is a groundbreaking digital learning site created for people going into healthcare and professionals already working in the field. Building on the success of the "Kings Park" documentary, "Unlocked" features a wealth of personal stories with individuals who have experienced the U.S. mental healthcare system firsthand.
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Karuara, People of the River
A film about spiritual beings that live in the Amazons’ rivers, and an indigenous community’s struggle to save these sacred water guardians.
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Hear, Eat, Home
A lyric portrait of how—through art, friendship, music, and food—New York immigrant musicians and artists understand the upheavals they faced in their home countries and answer new challenges that emerge as they make the US their home.
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