Fiscal Sponsorship is a fundraising tool that serves as an alternative to a filmmaker establishing her own 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation. It allows a filmmaker's non-commercial project to apply for funding from organizations requiring that the recipient have nonprofit status. As fiscal sponsor, Arts Engine, Inc., serves as the nonprofit tax-exempt umbrella organization that accepts and administers contributions made to a filmmaker's project.
Arts Engine has served as fiscal sponsor for such outstanding films as The Trials of Darryl Hunt by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, Matt Mochary and Jeff Zimbalist's Favela Rising, and God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan by Christopher Dillon Quinn and Tommy Walker.
For more detailed information and an application, click here.
We have a rolling deadline and projects are reviewed as they come in. Processing time is between 2-4 weeks from receipt of complete application materials.
Meet Our Filmmakers
Fantastic news greeted Greg Barker, as Sergio, his documentary about the late Sergio Vieira De Mello, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, premiered to great acclaim at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The film won its editor, Karen Schmeer, an editing award for U.S. documentaries.
Sony Pictures acquired international media distribution rights for By the People: The Election of Barack Obama. The documentary, by veteran producers Alicia Sams and Amy Rice (along with Edward Norton’s Class 5 Films), follows then junior senator Barack Obama as he campaigned for the Office of President of the United States. Previously, HBO had obtained domestic television rights to the film.
Jenn Shaw’s project, My Fellow Organizers (PDF), was highlighted in the Winter 2009 issue of Filmmaker magazine. Her film documents the cadre of community organizers volunteering for Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign in Pennsylvania.
More kudos are in order for Jeremiah Zagar’s In a Dream, which was nominated for an award at the second annual Cinema Eye Awards last March.
One of our newest fiscally sponsored filmmakers, Stephen Maing, was selected along with his project, High Tech, Low Life, for Tribeca All Access 2009. The program is an initiative run by the Tribeca Film Institute aimed at providing mentorship and guidance to filmmakers of underrepresented communities. Maing received an honorable mention for the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in May.
The Good Pitch forum made its first stop in North America in May at Hot Docs after debuting last Fall at the Britdocs Festival. Out of 150 applications, five projects were selected. Three of those projects are fiscally-sponsored by Arts Engine: Resilient, produced by Salty Features with directors Sean and Andrea Nix Fine; Burma Soldier, the directorial debut of photographer Nik Dunlop and produced by Annie Sundberg of Break Thru Films; and Sean Flynn and Beth Murphy’s The Promise of Freedom. The filmmaking teams presented their projects and outreach plans to representatives of various human rights organizations, foundations, NGOs, and media. Enrico Cullen, Arts Engine’s Director of Development and External Affairs, was among those on hand to assist with strategizing about effective means of spreading their films’ messages.
Filmmakers Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, along with ITVS, screened Lioness to more than 150 people at the House Veterans Affairs Committee Hearing Room. The event was a partnership between two veterans’ service organizations: the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). The film was shown to members of Congress, Congressional staff, veterans’ service organizations, veterans and active duty soldiers. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with the members of “Team Lioness.”
Congratulations go out to Landon Van Soest and Jeremy Levine, whose Good Fortune will be competing in the Sterling U.S. Feature category at SILVERDOCS. The film is an incisive critique of the international aid industry and how its efforts—although well-intentioned—can end up undermining the communities it seeks to assist.
Keir Moreano’s As The Call, So the Echo was released by Cinetic Media and Amazon.com, and is now available for purchase online. The remastered DVD includes the film, trailer, director’s commentary, and media interviews with some of the contributors to the film. For more information about the film and to purchase the DVD, go to www.asthecall.com.
Arts Engine welcomes several filmmakers to its stellar roster of fiscally-sponsored projects: Nik Dunlop and Annie Sundberg with Break Thru Films, Burma Soldier; Maital Guttman, Whatint Abafazi: When You Strike a Woman; Kirsten Johnson, Back to School: Armed With Books; Sandy McLeod and Dallas Brennan-Rexer, The Inheritance of Loss; Allison Berg, P&G: The Center of the Universe; Stephen T. Maing, High Tech, Low Life; Danielle DiGiacomo and Chris Kelly, The Cause of Progress; Sam Cullman, Parallax Sounds: Chicago on the Postrock; Ben Herson, Bronx to Bamako; Melanie R.W. Oram, Indelible; Andrea Eisenman, Nobody Should Know; Sarah Teitler, The Werewolf Effect; and Julie Gribble and Martha Davis, Doctors and Detainees. We look forward to helping them along in the paths to the completion and distribution of their films.