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
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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Pacific Mother
Having fought hard to get the birth she dreamed of, freediver Sachiko Fukumoto connects with ocean women battling for a world where all people are supported in their birth choices.
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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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Jinwar
Jinwar is a feature documentary about a Syrian mother’s complex relationship with her children, one of which she had to abandon in order to save the other one.
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Joonam
Spurred by a provocative family memory and a lifetime of separation from the country her mother left behind, a young filmmaker delves into her mother and grandmother's complicated pasts, and her own fractured Iranian identity.
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Taking Venice
TAKING VENICE uncovers the true story behind rumors that the U.S. government and a team of high-placed insiders rigged the 1964 Venice Biennale – the Olympics of art – so their chosen artist, Robert Rauschenberg, could win the Grand Prize.
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We Are Volcanoes
Undisclosed project. Please contact filmmaking team for more information.
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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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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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Myself When I Am Real
Set in the year 2000, MYSELF WHEN I AM REAL is an experimental short film about a working mother and her teenage daughter who struggle to make friends and find belonging in a small Wisconsin town. It explores otherness, identity, and assimilation from the contrasting perspectives of childhood and adulthood.
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Girl Island
How does a nice, quiet Jewish boy born in New Jersey in 1936 become a sound engineer for Jimi Hendrix, a lesbian separatist, founder of Trans Studies, and the Goddess of Cyberspace? Girl Island tells the rollercoaster life story of Sandy Stone, America's most modest rebel!
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Jennifer, 42
Based on a real case, JENNIFER, 42 tells the harrowing true story of the life and murder of Jennifer Magnano. Voiced by her three children, and told through animation, JENNIFER, 42 reveals the true nature of domestic violence and a woman's life and death battle for freedom.
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The Boy and the Suit of Lights
Hoping to rescue his family from poverty, young Borja is torn between tradition, controversy, and identity as he aspires to fulfill his family's dream of becoming a bullfighter.
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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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Impossible Town
When her father dies unexpectedly, Dr. Ayne Amjad is thrust to the helm of a decades-long struggle to aid a southern West Virginia town beset by cancer-causing chemicals.
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Dis-Ease
For centuries, the “war on disease” has been a metaphor we live and die by. But what if it weren’t a war?
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Gregory & Veronique: From Paris to Hollywood
Gregory & Veronique: From Paris to Hollywood is an intimate look at Gregory Peck’s legendary life and career, exploring his challenges and triumphs, and the impact that he and his wife Veronique made on Hollywood, told through personal archives: letters, home movies, and stories from those who knew them best.
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