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Author:
Erin Condron
Erin is a screenplay writer - the development of her DANNY: Stories I Know By Heart has been funded by the Irish Film Board, and she is an administrator - she has served as administrator for the WIF/GM Alliance for a year and a half.
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THE 2008 FILM FINISHING FUND WINNERS ARE IN! “Once again, the Film Finishing Fund judges have had the opportunity to see films submitted from all over the US and the world. The wide variety of subjects that these filmmakers take on and the skill with which they weave their tales is truly breathtaking. It is a great pleasure to have a part in helping these films get completed and to introduce the talents of the 23rd Annual grant winners to a new audience.”
Stephanie Austin, Chair, The Film Finishing Fund
Over the last 23 years, the Women In Film Foundation has provided annual cash awards and in-kind production services to deserving women filmmakers or to films about women to ensure that these films can be completed and seen by audiences.
Since the Fund’s inception in 1985, the Foundation has awarded more than $2 million in cash and in-kind services to 170 films. The number of grants vary from year to year, and cash awards range from $1,500 to $5,000 (typically for music purchases, graphics or theatrical prints). The in-kind grants include post services such as online editing, sound mixing, color correction, and closed captioning, among others.
It’s been a very successful and rewarding program. Film Finishing Fund recipients’ films have won many major awards including Emmy and Academy Awards and have screened at festivals worldwide including Sundance, Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco, Montreal, Berlin, Avignon, and Chicago. They have aired nationally on PBS (“Frontline” and “POV”) and Showtime, and internationally on various European, Asian, and Australian television channels.
Cynthia Wade, a recipient in 2007, subsequently received an Academy Award for her documentary short Freeheld. Says Wade: “The Film Finishing grant was a vote of confidence - it’s lonely as an independent filmmaker. There is still an assumption that you are just “a girl with a camera.” It felt really good, not only from a financial standpoint but an emotional one as well.”
In order to apply for a grant through the Film Finishing Fund, filmmakers must have completed principal photography and a rough-cut at the time of the application. The program funds filmmakers working in both short and long formats and in all genres – narrative, documentary, educational, animated and experimental.
Entries were reviewed by industry professionals many of whom sit on the Women In Film Boards. Ten finalists were chosen from the field of applicants. The Women In Film Foundation is thrilled to announce the six winners, all of whom received grants this year for documentaries. They are:
 Amanda Pope of Los Angeles, CA, for her documentary feature The Legend of Pancho Barnes. Legend chronicles the extraordinary times of aviation pioneer Florence Lowe “Pancho” Barnes, an ill-behaved woman who made history.
 Lonnie Lardner of Thousand Oaks, CA, for her documentary feature Angel in the Hood, about two tough Latina Gangster girls who discover a powerful source of spirituality and inspiration through on of the world’s most celebrated icons, Disney’s Tinkerbell.
 Heather Ross of Los Angeles, CA, for her documentary feature Girls on the Wall. Girls follows the teenage girls of Warrenville Prison as they are offered a shot at redemption in the most unlikely form: a musical.
 Jessica Gerstle of New York, NY, for her documentary feature Travels With My Dad. Travels tells the story of Claude Gerstle and his daughter. When Claude, a surgeon, suffers a tragic bicycle accident that leaves him a quadriplegic, he and his daughter begin an odyssey to track down the thinkers, politicians, crusaders and naysayers in an effort to understand the quagmire that is stem cell research.
 Rebecca Schanberg of Chicago, IL, for her documentary feature Do No Harm. Do No Harm explores a critical issue at the forefront of American life and politics: the need for affordable health care. It shines a spotlight on the emerging scandal inside America’s non-profit hospitals while following the courageous story of two men in a small, southern town who endure relentless attacks as they try to draw attention to the plight of the uninsured in an effort to bring about reform.
 Roberta Grossman of Los Angeles, CA, for her documentary feature, Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh. Match follows the story of Hannah Senesh as she parachutes into Nazi-occupied Europe to help save Hungary’s Jews, only to be imprisoned alongside the person she wants to rescue most – her mother. Match is the harrowing account of the only military rescue for Jews during the Holocaust and a moving tale of the love between mother and daughter.
The Film Finishing Fund is the only funding scheme of its kind in the United States. You do not have to be a Women In Film member in order to apply and applications from around the world are welcomed and encouraged. The Foundation begins accepting applications for its 24th Annual Film Finishing Fund on March 2nd, 2009. You can learn more about it at www.wif.org.
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