Recipients of the 25th Annual Women In Film Foundation's Film Finishing Fund were announced on November 10, 2010 by Fund co-Chairs Betsy Pollock and Nancy Rae Stone. This year saw us with over 140 grant applications from 11 countries: the U.S., New Zealand, England, Spain, Finland, Philippines, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Canada, and Australia. For the first time, the Film Finishing Fund awarded grants to three narrative features as well as three feature documentaries and a narrative short film.
The Women In Film Foundation’s Film Finishing Fund’s cash grants have been generously donated by Netflix, Inc. Netflix provides WIF and the Fund invaluable support by providing the funding for our awards, consultation for our winners on marketing and distribution, and brand association at screenings. We look forward to a continued association with Netflix and greatly appreciate their support of not only Women In Film but of women making films by, for, and about women.
This year’s Film Finishing Fund winners are:
Narratives Features: Karin Chien’s Circumstance, Susan Youssef’s Habibi Rasak Kharban, (Youssef was one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film this year), and Frances Lausell’s America.
Documentary Features: Lisa Gossels‘ My So-Called Enemy, Yoav Potash’s Crime After Crime, Nisha Ligon’s Twiga Stars: Tanzania’s Soccer Sisters
Narrative Short: Melissa Dodds' Whakatiki.
Additionally, Sonia Fritz, the director of America won the Film Finishing Fund Director's Award, generously donated by WIF Founding Member, Nancy Malone.
Please click on the individual films for more information about the filmmakers and/or to connect to their websites.
The Foundation sincerely thanks Netflix and our amazing panel of judges for their invaluable support.
The 2010 Film Finishing Fund Recipients:
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AMÉRICA América is a woman who struggles to give her daughter a better life in Vieques,
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CIRCUMSTANCE Through the telling of a teenage love triangle, Circumstance is a narrative film that follows Atafeh, Shireen and Iran's newest generation fighting for personal freedom in the face of ongoing, multi-faceted repression. |
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CRIME AFTER CRIME 26 years in prison cannot crush the spirit of Debbie Peagler, a woman sentenced to life behind bars for her connection to the murder of Oliver Wilson, the man who abused her and forced her into prostitution.
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HABIBI RASAK KHARBAN www.habibithefilm.com |
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MY SO-CALLED ENEMY In July 2002, 22 Palestinian, Israeli and Palestinian Israeli teenage girls traveled to the United States to participate in a women's leadership program called Building Bridges for Peace. My So-Called Enemy is the story of 6 of the girls and how the experience of knowing their "enemies" as human beings meets with the realities of their lives at home in the Middle East over the next 7 years. |
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TWIGA STARS: TANZANIA'S SOCCER SISTERS The film follows a year in the life of the Twiga Stars, Tanzania’s national women’s football team, as they prepare for their biggest competition ever and struggle to overcome the countless obstacles along the way.
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WHAKATIKI Whakatiki visits an afternoon in the life of Kiri, an overweight Maori woman, as she takes a trip to the Whakatiki River where she spent so many summers as a girl. With her goes her husband Dan, his friend Seb, and Seb’s newly arrived and beautiful cousin, Josie. As tensions mount and the façade of Kiri and Dan’s relationship rapidly crumbles, Kiri is forced to make the decision of her life.
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