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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Delicate Arch

Four college kids with fracturing relationships take a camping trip to Southern Utah in order to escape an ecological disaster up North. Alone in the desert, they begin to suspect that their reality might not be as it seems and soon realize they’re being watched.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Writer/Director/Producer: Matt Warren
Producer: Larissa Beck
Producer/1st AD: Josh Long
Producer/Locations: Aaron Nelson
Cinematographer: Matthew Rogers
Composer: Randall Taylor

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Delivery

Maya accompanies her father to work on one of his usual Chinese fast-food delivery runs. However, this time, she worries her father may be in danger.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Amy B Tiong
Producer: Izzy Vasquez
Production Company: Digital Bodega

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Delta

The summer before Phoebe Lee leaves her home in Mississippi for college, she attempts to reconcile with her older brother.

Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Development
Director: Jing Ai Ng
Producer: Sandra Tan
Director of Photography: Jan Riscbieth Córdoba

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Democracy (based on the novel by Joan Didion)

Against the dynamic political landscape that marked the end of the Vietnam War, Inez Victor navigates between her role as the wife of U.S. Senator Harry Victor and her enduring romance with Jack Lovett, a CIA agent and alleged war profiteer.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Screenwriter/Producer: Carey McKenzie

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Dénouement

Dénouement is a melodrama focused on the mundane. Ned waits in a hotel suite combing through the detailed belongings of his boss Lara, as we discover not only are they having an affair, but tonight it’s coming to an end.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Brian Goodwin
Producer: Alex Jiang

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Derek Changes His Mind

Traumatic Brain Injury survivor Derek Dabkoski enrolls in a dangerous and experimental stem cell surgery to hopefully repair the damaged area of his brain as he and his wife Nadia, who has lived in the US for 30 years without ever being granted a green card, expect the birth of their first child, a daughter named Carmen.

Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director: Derek Dabkoski
Co-Director/Producer: Ian McClellan
Cinematographer: Im Joong Kim

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Devotee

1979 - James Do, a drifter, finds himself in the mystical Sedona. He meets a young GURU and her devotees who opens his mind to a new path.

Project type: Fiction Short
Director/Writer: Sharmila Ray
Producer: Matt Keene Smith
Director of Photography: Kinsey

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Dime Cuánto Me Quieres

Ten-year-old Lucca and his mother, Sonia, share an inseparable bond. But when Sonia’s manic depression becomes apparent to those around them, societal stigma and misconceptions about motherhood begin to drive a wedge between them—a gap they struggle to bridge, only to discover that love alone may not be enough.

Director/Writer: Camila Zavala
Producers: Camila Zavala, Giancarlo Nasi, Enid Campos

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Dinner

Beatrice does her best to impress her new boss at a dinner party fraught with infidelity, murder, and veganism.

Project type: Fiction Short
Director: David L. Charry
Producer: Casey Vickers
Executive Producer: Joelle Monique Smith
Director of Photography: Favienne Howsepian
Production Designer: Mikela Mosley

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Discovering Brooklynn

After reconnecting with a woman from a past she prefers to forget, Brooklynn, a self-assured perfectionist, is torn between remaining true to her homophobic upbringing or expressing her stifled sexuality.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director/Producer: Aliya Brooks

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Dispatchment

A young woman, haunted by a traumatic past, seeks out a controversial therapist who creates hyper-realistic scenarios for patients to live out their violent fantasies against abusers and those who have wronged them. But she's carrying a secret even the doctor may not be ready for.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer: Patrick Andrew Jones
Director: Michelle Beck
Producer: Aisha Jordan
Producer: Rafael Jordan
Editor: James Donahue

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Do Not Answer!

When Ezra's past and present collide in a surreal encounter with his younger self, he's forced to confront long-buried family trauma that could change the course of his life forever.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director/Producer: Jordan K. Paul
Executive Producer: Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels

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Doha – The Rising Sun
Disheartened by her deportation from Europe, Mariam is forced to return home to Western Sahara. Adrift in the very place that was once her home, she desperately searches for the means to assert agency over her own life.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Writer/Director:Eimi Imanishi
Producer: Shrihari Sathe, Eric Dupont, Virginie Lacombe, Belén Sánchez Silvero, Damon Owlia

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Don’t Ever Let Go

Mia and her brother Alex find a powerful stone that thrusts them into different paths while bringing them closer then they've ever been.

Project type: Animation
Writer/Director: Fabian Molina
Producer: Ariel Mahler

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Down Below

A reclusive young classical composer with writer’s block attempts to find inspiration at an old family lake house but instead discovers a mysterious sound emanating from the bottom of the private lake. In the face of failure, she must confront the lake, her family’s dark past, and her broken present, to uncover the music she has deep within her.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Writers/Directors: Matt Valdez and Collin Davis
Producer: Sid Ganji, Alex Knapp, Alex Schwarm

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Downstaged

Downstaged is a coming-of-age drama depicting women desperately seeking love and validation from men who, in turn, can’t even love or validate themselves. These lives suddenly intersect on a fateful night, catapulting forever changes. Viscerally explore our culture’s intrinsic patterns of toxic masculinity, self-doubt, and internalized homophobia where trauma is nurtured and pain is cyclical.

Project type: Fiction Feature
Project status: Development
Director/Producer: Ana-Julia Cavana
Producer/Director of Photography: Valentina Martinico

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Draft Night

A young Black basketball prodigy struggles with the burden of single-handedly saving his family from hardship on the night of the NBA draft.

Project type: Fiction Short
Director: Tom Glinkowski
Writer/"Pops": Shawn Williams
"Number One": Joseph David-Jones
Producer: Jillian Nordby, Sierra Oleson, Avery Chung-Melino
Cinematographer: Kenzen Takahashi

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Dragstrip 66: The Frockumentary

Never before seen archival video reveals the untold story of an underground LGBTQ nightclub that became a political and creative center for a community besieged by AIDS and discrimination. As club owners Paul V. and Mr. Dan prepare for the Dragstrip 66 finale, patrons, staff, and celebrities reflect on their memories and impressions as the beloved nightclub comes to the end of its historic run.

Project type: Nonfiction Feature
Director/Producer: Phil Scanlon
Co-director/Co-producer: Paul Vitagliano

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Earl’s Gotta Die

After having her bright and spunky spirit beaten down one too many times by her abusive husband, Earl, Frankie accidentally kills him. Her best friend Ava Mae helms the escape, and in their police chased mad dash to ditch the body, Earl transforms into a loveable zombie. Breaking up really IS hard to do... But one way or another, EARL’S GOTTA DIE.

Project type: Fiction Short
Writer/Director: Heather Shapiro
Writer/Co-Executive Producer: Amanda Hinkley
Producer: Faoileán Cosgrove

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Echo Worlds

In 1986, a spirited high school student attempts to find his long-lost father by setting off a device that sends him and a young diner server into a dangerous parallel world.

Project type: Fiction Short
Director: Travis Misenti
Producers: Hadrien Fages, Miriam Arghandiwal
Cinematographer: Dante Cheng

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