Primetime and Breaking Through The Lens have unveiled a strategic partnership at the Cannes Film Festival designed to create new financing channels for women and non-binary filmmakers working across film and television.
The two organizations are combining Primetime’s model of bundling in-kind production support, star talent and private finance with BTTL’s dual-jurisdiction nonprofit infrastructure – the latter carries 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in the U.S. and is registered as a social support charity in Greece – to give filmmakers access to grants, philanthropic donors and private investors.
“Primetime and BTTL were both born at Cannes, from a shared conviction that lasting change in begins at the financing stage. Our partnership builds a natural bridge from short form to long form, supporting women and non-binary filmmakers at the moment so many careers stall. With only five of the 22 Palme d’Or contenders this year directed by women, it is clear this is a systemic issue still that needs addressing. We must re-examine our own biases. Nothing changes unless we change something,” said Daphne Schmon, founder and CEO of Breaking Through The Lens.
The partnership formalizes an ongoing collaboration on “Last Train Home,” a project from BIFA-nominated writer-director Jessi Gutch, starring Emma D’Arcy. Primetime founder Victoria Emslie is producing with Cat Marshall of Commonplace Films, with double Oscar-nominated Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, founder of End Well, serving as executive producer under the BTTL fiscal sponsorship arrangement.
