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
The Last Guardian
An 86-year-old man living alone on a sinking island at the edge of New York City is the first and possibly last guardian of one of the world’s most critical waterways.
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Wikipediology
Wikipediology is a documentary YouTube series that uncovers the hidden stories behind Wikipedia’s most contested science pages -revealing the messy, human process by which we collectively decide what counts as truth.
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Acting Like Women
In 1973, women artists flocked to the Woman’s Building in L.A. – a birthplace for innovative, fearless, and still-relevant feminist performance art that laid a foundation for today’s art and social justice movements. ACTING LIKE WOMEN is a journey into art, activism, and gender told by those who lived it.
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No Human Involved
NO HUMAN INVOLVED: a woman is destroyed by a 27-month prison sentence for prostitution in Arizona, the tenacity of those who fight for justice in her name.
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A Photographic Memory
A daughter attempts to piece together a portrait of her mother, a daring journalist, and a woman she never knew. Uncovering the vast archive Sheila Turner-Seed produced, including lost interviews with iconic photographers, the film explores memory, legacy and stories left untold.
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Flashing
How women around the world experience and address menopause - a critical and understudied realm of women's sexual health and reproduction.
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The Hammer
Disabling a military aircraft with a hammer is madness. Doing it twice is divine.
This film is a project of Documentary Australia and is sponsored by Women Make Movies as part of our ongoing partnership in support of independent filmmakers.
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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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I Love Bed-Stuy
Like many American neighborhoods, Bedford-Stuyvesant is quickly gentrifying, losing access to its own culture, history and residents. In this vibrant hybrid documentary, a budding fictional love story is the silver lining, as real-life residents’ fight to save a historical building becomes a microcosm for a deeper look into 3rd wave
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NO ACCIDENT Impact Campaign
An Unprecedented Case Against Hate
Our campaign will support a nationwide, grassroots screening campaign featuring in person conversations with leaders in the movement, virtual talks and screening guides to help different groups frame their own events. We will also develop educational guides for law schools and other institutions.
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As Slow As Possible
From the unhurried movements of Icelandic glaciers to a 639 year-long musical performance in Germany, stories of geological, human, and cosmic time intersect in a cinematic exploration of time and timelessness.
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Being BeBe | The BeBe Zahara Benet Documentary
An ambitious immigrant from homophobic Cameroon struggles to build a successful career as a drag performer in the US after winning the First Season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
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As Prescribed
“Benzo warriors” fight a grassroots battle to save others from the devastating consequences of the little pill they took as prescribed.
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Peace For Nina
Peace for Nina follows the journey of a Ukrainian mother as she seeks justice for the unlawful killing of her son by a Russian mercenary. A survivor’s tale of grief, courage and hope.
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In Balanchine's Classroom
Balanchine’s former dancers reveal startling new facets of the legendary choreographer as they open the door to his private classroom - his laboratory, set against their present-day efforts to keep his legacy alive.
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Somewhere Over the Rainbow
When an Indian filmmaker turns the camera on her fragmented family and her childhood mentor, a white British man, she uncovers the complex legacies of love and colonisation. Set between inherited duty and chosen identity, the film is an absurd excavation of what it means to belong.
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Grassland
Exploring the failures of the criminal justice system from a unique angle, GRASSLAND follows a young Latino boy who puts his single mother's illegal marijuana business at risk when he befriends the new neighbors.
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Work While You Have the Light
Work While You Have the Light is a feature documentary by a multi-generational directing team that examines professional women who are over seventy-years-old and still working.
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