ROBIN BERGHAUS

2016 Feature Film Finishing Fund Grant Recipient ($3000)

"The WIFD grant accelerated post-production
which prepared us to screen at top film festivals."

Robin has written, produced, directed, filmed and edited more than 100 short documentaries and commercials. Her partners include Spectrum Media, Mental Health Channel, Boston University, Dorel Juvenile Group, Captains of Industry and ArtsBoston. Her award-winning projects have screened at Oscar-qualifying festivals and on news websites. She has received film grants from Austin Film Society, LEF Foundation and Women in Film Dallas. In 2012, she founded Berghaus Productions to direct and produce independent documentaries, educational videos and commercials.

Click the links below for more information about her grant project STUMPED.

Production Photos      StumpedTheMovie.com       Twitter      Facebook

JESSICA COLE

2016 Undergraduate Scholarship Recipient ($1,000)

Jessica is a rising senior at SMU double majoring in Film & Media Arts and Art. She states, “I have always been surrounded by stories. My family is full of them and they have inspired me to tell my own. Film production is one way of bringing to life the stories that I have in my imagination. I’ve enjoyed creating film shorts since middle school and continued the learning process by taking IB film courses in high school. Through university studies I have discovered that, even though I excel in leadership roles, my natural talents fit the role of Production Design. I enjoy creating and collaborating to achieve my own and other’s ideas for film projects and refining them into something special. Courses in production, sound, script writing, cinematography and others have gone a long way in getting me ready for the coming year’s thesis film and on into the future.

BETYH ALEMAYOH

2015 WIFD Short Finishing Fund Grant Recipient ($500) 

Beth received a grant to complete her film, I FOUND MYSELF SEARCHING (IFMS).  Beth was born and raised in Dallas and earned a degree in Business Administration at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her business background assists her film projects through making and keeping schedules, creating budgets, and following deadlines. IFMS - the second short film Beth has directed and produced – is a narrative about the inward journey a young woman takes to rediscover her true passions and connect with her authentic self. Receiving the $500, 2015 WIFD Short Finishing Fund Grant was used to correct, enhance, and complete the audio in IFMS. Since its completion, Beth has entered IFMS in several film festivals throughout the state of Texas. Beth is expanding her knowledge in filmmaking by taking acting classes and completing self-study on screenwriting and directing. Beth moved to Austin in the summer of 2015 and is currently working as an office assistant for Detour Filmproduction.

AUDREY BILLUPS

2015 Undergraduate Scholarship Tuition Recipient ($1,000) 

Audrey aspires to be an environmental/social documentary film director to inspire positive change through art. Originally from San Antonio, she is a senior at Southern Methodist University pursuing a Film and Media Arts BFA. She has pursued her passions through internships at production companies such as Chapter One Productions in Los Angeles and Sixtine Creations in Paris. She has also created her own short documentaries such as Chronique d’un printemps (Paris 2015) about Parisian society, Keeping Hermosa about a community organization in California, and The Yellow of the Egg, a story about organic farmers in Austria. After graduation, she hopes to continue directing original environmental/social driven documentaries throughout Texas and abroad to help make a difference in the world.

MARIE-LOUISE NKASHAMA 

2015 WIFD High School Production Grant Recipient ($250) 

 “Receiving the high school production grant enabled me
to complete this film. I'm very thankful for the opportunity
to receive this grant and am honored to be amongst great names in this industry."

Marie-Louise received a production grant to complete her short film, THE PARTY. Marie-Louise is currently a junior at Lake Dallas High School. Her past works include short class films, “What it Takes to Bake”, a “Special Olympics Montage” (a documentary), and “A Conversation with Chloe” (a narrative short film). Marie-Louise plans to plans continue her film making career in college, including applying for an NYU Film and Television program for high school students. 

POLLY O'HAIR
2015 WIFD High School Production Grant Recipient ($250)

Polly received a production grant to complete her short film, MISFORTUNE. She is currently a junior at Lake Dallas High School and has taken AV courses for three years. Her other works include a short documentary film, "How to Clean Your Lens", which she wrote, produced, directed. She filmed a short documentary, "Special Olympics"; and filmed, directed and edited Lake Dallas High School's version of "Shattered Dreams" (a PSA drunk driving awareness film). In the near future, Polly plans to create a series of original music videos with Dallas musician, Annika Horne.  

LAUREN CATER
2014 Undergraduate Tuition Scholarship Recipient

 “For me, documentary filmmaking is a beautiful art form,
bringing an audience closer to a feeling of
being connected to other people. It is more than an honor
to be in a field that can carry so much importance in the lives of others.  I am grateful that WIFD helped me achieve my educational goals .”

COURTNEY WARE

2014 Feature Film Finishing Fund Grant Recipient

“This is a huge help and I couldn’t be more thankful
for WIFD’s support.  I couldn’t complete this project
without you.  What an honor!”

Courtney is a 2014 IFP Narrative Lab Fellow for her producing work on Cameron Bruce Nelson’s SOME BEASTS. As a director, her award winning short film work has been seen in over 40 national and international locations. Her feature directorial debut, SUNNY IN THE DARK, received the 2014 Women in Film Dallas Finishing Fund Grant as well as “Best First Feature” from the Arizona International Film Festival; screened at Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, and Hannah Ward received BEST ACTRESS at Hill Country Film Festival. Both films will be released in 2016.  She has been the owner of Aware Films since 2011.

JADE BASINSKI

2014 High School Production Grant Recipient

“With the WIFD Grant I was able to purchase a camera in order
to finish my project. I used the camera to record audio, as well as re-shoot scenes that I was not completely happy with. Since our school didn’t have enough cameras for everyone, the WIFD High School Production Grant allowed the purchase of my camera, enabling me to finish this film. I couldn’t have completed the film without WIFD’s help.”

Jade's 2014 WIFD High School Production Grant submission JUST YOUR AVERAGE JOE was selected to screen at 2015 South by Southwest Film Festival as well as Sun Valley Film Festival. Jade graduated from Greenhill School, graduating in May 2015 and is attending NYU in Singapore. Jade’s first stopmotion short, AGAIN, screened at the Texas High School Division of South by Southwest in 2013; and her second stopmotion film, JUST YOUR AVERAGE JOE, screened at the Highschool Division of the Dallas International Film Festival and at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas in July, 2014.

ABBEY HOEKZEMA

2013 College Tuition Scholarship Recipient

“The WIFD Scholarship helped me further my career
as a documentary film maker and I wouldn't be where I am today without WIFD's help”. 

Abbey is a documentary film maker. She is the 2013 WIFD College Tuition Scholarship Recipient.  I’ve accepted a job teaching film production at Georgia Southern University starting this fall! But I am researching a new documentary project that will be filmed in Dallas/Brownsville/and Georgia starting this summer (2015).

Photo Coming Soon

ALYSSA EVANS
2012 Finishing Fund Grant Recipient 

"Receiving this grant was the difference between being film students
and becoming professional filmmakers. Maintaining that balance is essential to the survival of this industry, and it is founded on mutual respect between artists and businesses. I have Women In Film Dallas to thank for giving me an opportunity to learn that. I am grateful for their tireless campaign to assist the filmmaker in the face of impossible odds." 

Sharie Vance
2007 Tuition Scholarship

“Receiving two generous scholarship awards from
Women In Film Dallas helped fund my undergraduate education
in film easing financial worries for those semesters.
Additionally, and more importantly in my opinion, being chosen helped quiet my internal monologue… that I could be a filmmaker … giving me a much needed confidence boost”.  

AMY TALKINGTON
1997 College Tuition Scholarship Recipient

"My WIFD scholarship award helped to finance
the short film which got me my agent and launched my career as a screenwriter and director. Without that early on financial support and prestigious acknowledgement from WIFD, I'm not sure I'd have the career that I have today."   

Amy is a writer and director living in Los Angeles.  She wrote and directed the feature film, "the night of the white pants," which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival (2008) and has written screenplays for Fox 2000, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Summit Entertainment and New Line Cinema.  In the television arena, Amy has written for the Disney Channel, for which she won a 2010 WGA award. She also wrote the ABC family movie "Brave New Girl" which starred Oscar-nominee Virginia Madsen and Lindsay Haun.  Amy's short films were selected for numerous distinguished festivals including the Sundance film festival; received the New Line Cinema Award for Best Director.  She was selected as one of filmmaker magazine's "25 New Indie Faces to Watch" and was singled out as one of four up-and-coming female directors by Vogue Magazine. She has also been featured on MTV, the Sundance Channel, the Independent Film Channel, CNN, E!, MSNBC, and the BBC.  Amy graduated Magna Cum Laude from Barnard College with a degree in Art History. She went on to receive an MFA in film from Columbia University's Film Division.