A filmmaker grant is looking to help independent female filmmakers shoot their projects on celluloid.
Women Behind the Camera, which is founded by filmmaker and actress Armida López (Boss Level, El Chicano), is behind the grant along with production company 33 & Change Films, MasterBuilt Lenses and ASCF, a nonprofit founded by Thom Kuo and managed by Jessi Spickard that is dedicated to teaching and preserving the art of celluloid filmmaking.
The grantees, which were chosen from a pool of 500 applicants, will receive a full lens package from MasterBuilt Lenses and an additional camera package from ASCF. For the selected winners who will choose to shoot on film, 1,200 feet of free scanning will be provided. A complimentary one-year free membership with the Alliance of Women Directors will also be offered to the grantees.
Grant recipients are filmmakers Anna Remus and LaTajh Simmons-Weaver, and the filmmaking team Mack Breeden and Riley Scott.
Remus has led visual storytelling projects for major brands such as Planet Fitness and Pfizer, and was recently selected for the 2027 cohort of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women. Her project is titled Eternal.
Simmons-Weaver, whose supported project is titled Rubble, has made films for The Guardian and the Museum of African Diaspora. Most recently, they were behind documentary shorts Hold Me Close and Budget Paradise, the former of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
Breeden and Scott, who collectively run the production company Ginger Tits, will be behind a project titled Gorge. Breeden co-wrote and produced the feature film Horsegirls, and her directorial debut, Praying Mantis, made its international debut at Fright Fest U.K. Scott produced her first feature film, Sisters, winning the Audience Award for Best Film at the InsideOut Festival, and has written films produced by Mar Vista, Lifetime and Tubi.
