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
Next Generation Sex
What begins as a few local parental rights groups resisting sex education erupts into a national firestorm – revealing deeply personal stories and a larger cultural reckoning. At stake is the critical question: “Do kids have a fundamental right to knowledge about their own bodies and sexuality?”
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The Rabbis' Intifada
Why is a group of Orthodox rabbis supporting Palestinians and calling for Israel's dismantlement? An American Jewish woman struggles to unravel the mystery of their activism.
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Presente!
Five years after the assassination of Marielle Franco, a young community leader born in the favela of Rocinha, Magda Gomes, follows the journeys of Black women in Brazilian politics as she contemplates which path to take toward her future.
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The Art of Survival
The Art of Survival will follow a collection of artists around the globe, in their quest to come to terms with a history of sexual abuse, serving as an intimate study of the relation between art and catharsis in survivors of childhood trauma.
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Sitting Still
Artist, scholar, architect, landscape architect, professor, author, urban visionary, and unparalleled designer of cities, Laurie Olin is a true Renaissance man who, along with world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, takes us on a visual, eye-opening journey through natural and built environments, revealing the connective tissue for creating healthy and humane societies.
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First We Bombed New Mexico
75 years after the world's first nuclear bomb - codename Trinity - is secretly detonated in southern New Mexico, a Latina cancer survivor catalyzes a movement demanding justice for a legacy of lethal radiation.
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Anything You Lose
Realities of Assisted Reproduction test the strength of Eddie & Irina’s marriage, when the optimistic newlyweds set out to become new parents.
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The Endless Frontier
THE ENDLESS FRONTIER follows four passionate researchers hunting for cures and protecting the planet from disaster, when they unexpectedly find themselves on the frontlines in the fight for the future of science itself.
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Family Treasures Lost and Found
Journalist Karen A. Frenkel is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Her mother spoke of her wartime ordeal, but her father was silent. Karen embarked on a five-year quest to fill in the gaps, honor her parents and lost relatives, and ensure that memories would endure. This became an exciting detective story as she searched online and real-world archives and visited cities to better understand silence and loss.
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9-Month Contract
For an orphan Jana, motherhood has always been priceless. When she has to raise a kid single and homeless, Jana becomes a surrogate mother to offer her daughter the life she’s never had. Nine months and 14.000 USD - is it as simple and priceless as it sounds?
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The Portal
A documentary and book with a global vision to shift humanity out of a state of crisis. The Portal follows six real-life stories that all overcome trauma, anxiety, depression and PTSD using a simple yet powerful technique. What does the planet look like if we all did this?
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1946: THE MISTRANSLATION THAT SHIFTED CULTURE
A journey which unveils the mystery of how theology, history, culture, and politics led to a Biblical mistranslation, the man who tried to stop it, and the impassioned academic crusade of the LGBTQIA+ Christian community-driven to discover the truth.
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Erica Deuso: The Good Neighbor Mayor
When a trans mayor is elected in a swing state, the first 30 days in office reveal how quickly progress can be challenged—and defended.
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Milisuthando
‘Milisuthando’ is a coming-of-age personal essay film on love and what it means to be human in the context of race, explored through the memories of Milisuthando – who grew up during apartheid but didn’t know it was happening until it was over.
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The Kids Are Not Alright
The Kids Are Not Alright is an intimate portrait of trauma following three families’ journeys as they work to shed light on the devastating impacts of the Troubled Teen Industry, pursue healing in the absence of justice, and fight to hold abusers accountable.
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Paper City
Paper City tells the story of three survivors of the 1945 fire-bombing of Tokyo as they launch one final campaign to leave behind a record of this forgotten tragedy—before the last of them passes away.
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JIMMY & THE DEMONS (formerly JIMMY)
JIMMY (w.t.) is a magical escape into the life and mind of celebrated sculptor, James Grashow, as he creates his magnum opus. The intricately carved work contrasts writhing demons with images of salvation, and mirrors Jimmy’s paradoxical struggle to reckon with the fragility of life and his zest for it.
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Barbara Forever
BARBARA FOREVER is an exclusive look at the iconic life, work, & legacy of pioneering lesbian experimental filmmaker, Barbara Hammer, tracing her prolific canon alongside never-before-seen documentations of her life and body, to reveal Hammer's unconventional attempts to live on forever.
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