We are thrilled to congratulate ABORTION & WOMEN’S RIGHTS 1970s (dir. Catha Maslow, Jane Pincus, Mary Summers & Karen Weinstein) for winning the Best Creative Documentary Short at this year’s Women’s Voices Now Film Festival. This groundbreaking film, originally released in 1970, is the first ever made about the struggle for abortion rights in the U.S. Directed by a group of passionate women activists before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, this powerful archival piece documents women’s voices from a pre-Roe v. Wade era. It allows women to share their stories about illegal ..read more

Making It Work: Success and Sustainability Conversations with Award-Winning Filmmakers Thursdays, June 6 – June 27 | ZOOM This winter, in one of our most successful webinar series ever, we talked with and celebrated WMM filmmakers who were nominated for documentary Academy Awards. This Summer we will continue the conversation with a series of immersive masterclass webinars delving into the professional journeys of four award-winning, critically acclaimed directors and producers, all of whom are members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences: Nancy Schwartzman, Susan Margolin, Chr ..read more

Sheffield International Documentary Festival, the UK’s leading documentary festival, just announced its lineup, and 6 films from WMM filmmakers are screening. Five films made with the support of WMM’s Production Assistance Program are screening: AN ARMY OF WOMEN – Directed by Julie Lunde Lillesæter. Produced by Natalya Sarch, Arne Dahr, Julie Lunde Lillesæter BAD HOSTAGE – Directed by Mimi Wilcox. Produced Max Asaf MADE IN ETHIOPIA – Directed by Xinyan Yu, Max Duncan. Produced by Tamara Dawit, Xinyan Yu, Max Duncan SUGARCANE – Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie. Produced by Kelle ..read more

“If you want your life to get better, you’ve got to fight for it!” These powerful words from Ruby Duncan set the tone for the unforgettable event centered around the screening of the award-winning WMM release STORMING CAESARS PALACE (dir. Hazel Gurland-Pooler) at The National Women’s History Museum. This free event provided attendees with a unique opportunity to watch the film and engage in a meaningful discussion with the filmmaker, Hazel Gurland-Pooler, and Ruby Duncan’s daughter, Sondra Phillips-Gilbert. The event was more than just a screening; it was a space to connect with community memb ..read more

We are excited to announce that Doyla Gavanski, director of CONFESSIONS OF A FEMALE GAMER, has won the inaugural Jacob Burns Film Center/Women Make Movies Artist-in-Residency Award at DocsBarcelona. Presented to the best project by a woman director, the award comes with a 4-6 week residency at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY, access to editing suits, and honorarium, as well as acceptance into the WMM Production Assistance Program with all of its benefits including mentorship and a 1-year subscription to WMM’s webinar and more. CONFESSIONS OF A FEMALE GAMER follows the story of ..read more

WMM and Jacob Burns Film Center have joined together to offer the inaugural JBFC/WMM Artist-in-Residency prize to the Best Project presented by a Woman Director at DocsBarcelona. We are very pleased to be collaborating with the wonderful Jacob Burns Film Center in acknowledgment of DocsBarcelona’s ongoing commitment to gender equity. The award will come with a 4-6 week residency at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY, access to editing suits, and honorarium as well as acceptance into the WMM Production Assistance Program with all of its benefits including mentorship and a 1-year s ..read more

Women Make Movies is deeply appreciative of continued support from the Jerome Foundation; we are honored to be one of the recipients of their recently announced grants to arts organizations. We will be using our 2-year grant to support the Next Step Fellowship, a new initiative that will provide additional one-on-one support to a select cohort of emerging NYC and MN-based filmmakers in our Production Assistance Program. An official announcement will be released in the coming months. The Jerome Foundation invests directly in early-career artists, in nonprofit arts organizations that support the ..read more

The 2024 Whitney Biennial, called “the most prominent showcase of American art” by the New York Times, is open now through August 11, and three WMM filmmakers have new works in this prestigious exhibition. SPIRIT EMULSION, an experimental short by Siku Allooloo (Indígena), explores the rich narratives of Indigenous life through Super 8mm film and digital video, revealing deep connections to place and belonging. TOO BRIGHT TO SEE, an installation by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich (The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire), explores the life of Suzanne Césaire, one of the mo ..read more

Courtesy of Joseph Michael Howarth   The Hot Docs Forum, the central industry event at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, recently concluded with its awards announcements this past Wednesday. For the second year in a row, a WMM filmmaker won the First Look Pitch Prize. This year’s winner ARREST THE MIDWIFE, directed and produced by Elaine Epstein, and produced by Robin Hess and Ruthann Harnisch, is supported by WMM’s Production Assistance Program, and received a cash prize of 20,000 CAD. ARREST THE MIDWIFE captures the intense story of three midwives in Amish and Mennonite communities whos ..read more

Originally posted on February 23, 2024 Republished: May 1, 2024 at 11:15 AM ET   “BYE BYE TIBERIAS cements Soualem’s status as a documentary filmmaker to watch.” – Variety “Suffused with the scents of Palestine, the film is an instructive and touching mosaic where past and present overlap, and a keen sense of heritage and transmission shines through.” – Cineuropa After extended, mostly sold-out, theatrical runs in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, WMM Release BYE BYE TIBERIAS (dir. Lina Soualem) continues to screen in festivals and theaters across the U.S. See below for updat ..read more