Sponsored Projects

Film Independent Fiscal Sponsorship

New and innovative work, fiscally sponsored by Film Independent.
The Fiscal Sponsorship program opens the door to nonprofit funding for independent filmmakers and media artists, supporting a diverse slate of projects at every stage of the filmmaking process – from development to distribution and beyond. Support Film Independent's creative community and help bring these projects to life by donating below.
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Arezou

A Persian tale set in the dead of winter about a 11-year-old girl who discovers the underground, illegal ballet group of post-Islamic revolution Tehran and rewrites her own destiny.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Director/Writer/Producer: Sophia Kiapos
Producer: Beth Hubbard
Executive Producer: Chelsea Winstanley

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Aria

After a sexual encounter turns harrowing, a young woman in New York City learns how to stand her ground.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Federica Belletti
Producer: Nina Cochran

Producer: Mahak Jiwani

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Asharu

Asharu, a queer performer, lost custody of his only daughter after his wife committed suicide…he desires to reunite with his daughter one day.

Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director/Producer: Buddhadeb Barman

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Ashes

When Ray, a 40-year-old gay Chicano, returns home after serving a 20-year prison term, he must learn to navigate familial and emotional terrains he hardly recognizes, eventually leading to a cathartic encounter with Leo, the high school friend with whom he had a closeted relationship.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director/Producer: Miguel Angel Caballero
Writer/Lead Actor: Luis Antonio Aldana

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Ashland

Ashland is a feature length documentary about a diverse group of young people living on the plains of Eastern Montana. Their hopes and dreams for the future laid bare in a wild landscape full of history and mystery where the past still dances with the present.

Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director: Wyatt Maw
Co-Producer/Editor: James Carson
Cinematographer: Hatti Beanland
Executive Producer: Julian Cautherley

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Atitlán: Echoes of the Lake

Maro, a resilient young Mayan woman, navigates the stunning landscapes of Lake Atitlán, confronting the urgent reality of its decline and the threats it poses to her community’s future.

Director: Jasper Soloff
Producer: Sarah Sutton
Cinematographer: Alberto Mojica

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Atomic Bamboozle: The False Promise of a Nuclear Renaissance

Atomic Bamboozle follows anti-nuclear activists, tribal leaders, scientists and attorneys as they draw lessons from the decades-long campaign to shut down the Trojan Nuclear Power plant in Oregon and extend those lessons into a new struggle to stop small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that are being aggressively promoted by the the Department of Energy and nuclear industry in response to the climate crisis.

Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director: Jan Haaken
Producer: Samantha Praus
Associate Producer: Cathy Sampson-Kruse
Associate Producer: ​Cathryn Chudy
Editor: Jeremiah Fueres

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Auschwitz Bagel

Based on a true story, Auschwitz Bagel is a short film that explores three sibling’s dynamic as they are forced to reckon with their father’s new sexuality and familial dysfunction at a particularly awkward time - their great aunt’s funeral.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Alex Silberberg
Executive Producer: L.E. Seydel
Cinematographer: Madison McKamey

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Baby Love

A female MMA fighter on the brink of self-destruction finds a lifeline in a court-ordered equine therapy program, leading her to confront her past and redefine her future.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Director/Writer/Producer: Joseph Marconi
Producer: Lysette Urus
Producer/Actor: Maury Sterling
Associate Producer: Chance Housley

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Baby Tooth

An ostracized young gay man faces personal challenges when he returns to his rural Florida hometown to provide caregiving support for the family he left behind before they reach their breaking point.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Writer/Director: Drew Lewis Brown
Executive Producer: Trey McIntyre

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Bad Egg

A thirty-something preschool teacher discovers she was adopted and, desperate to belong, fights frantically to build a family of her own before her biological clock runs out.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Writer/Director: Izzy Shill
Producer: Lysette Urus
Producer: Diana Irvine

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Barrio Television

Barrio Television is the untold story of a band of Puerto Rican filmmakers who refused to let the first all-Latino produced TV show in American history be canceled.

Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Writer/Director/Producer: Christina DiPasquale
Producer: Kristofer Ríos
Associate Producer: Madison Cofield

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Bashert

Before and after Eliza and Kieran, the world is in black and white. Together, they’re in color: racing toward the next inside joke; the next first time, the next diner all-nighter, the next shared Jewish ritual. Everything between them is magnetic, alive, and just for them — from 2012 to 2016 in New York City.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director/Producer: Elana Rubin
Producer/Casting Director: Chip Kass
Producer/1st AD: Elena Weinberg

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Beachy Floaty Thingys

Sisters Grace and Hope have been looking forward to this much-needed vacation to exotic Myrtle Beach, SC all year long. But their girls' weekend gets derailed when they are asked to bring their four rowdy nieces and nephews along. Beachy Floaty Thingys is an ode to vacations gone wrong, a love letter to relatives who step in as guardians, and more importantly, a reminder that no matter what, no one can take away your joy.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Amina Sutton
Producer: Crystal Isaac
Producer: Ellie Shanahan
Editor: Janna Emig
Animator: Nijah Brown

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Bee Stings

A shopping spree turns into an anxiety-ridden nightmare when a prepubescent Arab American girl struggles to tell her father that she wants a bra.

Project type: Fiction Short
Director/Writer/Producer: Kali Davis
Writer: Nadine Nonn
Cinematographer: Haley Min Young Kreofsky
Production Designer: Rebecca Muench

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Bertie the Brilliant

A young boy takes on chores and small jobs around his neighborhood to raise money for a ticket to a magic show; but when his grandmother loses her job, he is faced with a difficult decision.

Project type: Fiction Short
Director/Writer/Producer: Gabriela Garcia Medina
Producer:Vicki Syal
Producer: Moana Sherill
Producer: Dylan Costa
Co-Writer/Production Designer: Joshua D. Sankar
Cinematographer: Bongani Mlambo
Choreographer: Reina Hidalgo
Editor: Dominique Pieb Espinosa
Cast: Terri Hoyos, Cheryl Umaña Bonilla

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Betta Fish

Betta Fish is a heartfelt coming-of-age story where recent college graduate Elle grapples with her shifting family dynamic and her mother's deteriorating mental state. Support the film to spark conversations about mental health, family, and resilience, while absolving this issue in BIPOC community.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director/Producer: Louvinia "Lou" Robinson
Actor: Lori Laing

Actor: Courtney Bledsoe

Director of Photography: Erin Collett

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Better Than They Found It

What starts with the filmmaker’s simple curiosity about her father’s unlikely rise to a coveted role in professional sports, comes to embody a dramatic, thorough, and adventurous origin story about the Black coach movement in football.

Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Project status: Production
Director/Producer: Tarana Mayes
Producer: Shannon Doyle Bell

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Big Mike’s Cabin

A year after closing their flower shop, two women struggle to save their friendship at a cabin in the Ozarks, until they receive help from a mystical maintenance man, a benevolent ghost, and a wise pet rooster.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Co-Writer/Director/Actor: Rebecca Holopter
Co-Writer/Actor: Verity Butler
Producer:Martina Silcock
Director of Photography:Sarah Whelden

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Bind

Set in Southern California in the late 1970s, Bind is a film about a teenage girl who tries to come to terms with her abusive father during a road trip to the desert.

Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Production
Director/Writer: Inka Rusi
Producer: Sara Fenton
Director of Photography: Richard Van
Executive Producer: Nina Menkes
Co-Producer & First AD: Tanja Rusi

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