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.
Primetime’s community-driven reinvestment model is also evolving. Following Cannes, founder members will vote on how to allocate funds earmarked for the annual cohort, with options including film funds and development grants; founder membership remains open year-round.
“Storytelling has always been a vehicle for connection, resistance and understanding our shared humanity. If that tapestry does not include voices from marginalized communities, both on screen and behind the camera, our collective perspective becomes narrower and less resilient. Finding new and innovative ways to finance these projects is essential, not only to tell great stories, but to protect the richness of our collective imagination and to ensure the future we shape reflects the full spectrum of the human experience,” Emslie said.
Primetime’s inaugural fund winner, “Truckload,” is currently running in the short film corner at Cannes. Directed by Aella Jordan-Edge, with Emslie and Arpita Ashok producing, the film stars Jodie Whittaker and Evie Jones, who also wrote the script, drawing on her experience of becoming a disabled adult.
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