“WINNER of the “We Make Movies” MAKE YOUR FEATURE COMPETITION 2022”

We Make Movies is putting its money where its mouth is and officially greenlighting three of YOUR feature films in 2022! Our Make Your Feature competition invited anyone with a kernel of an idea or a full screenplay to pitch their project to a panel of investors and the WMM community for the opportunity to land a $25,000 investment, tens of thousands of dollars worth of resources and assistance to ACTUALLY shoot their movie. Submissions opened on May 5 2021. We received 127 submissions, narrowed it down to 36 semi-finalists, then we had 14 filmmakers pitch our judges one last time on October 20th, 2021.

Speaking of WMM, Mestman is overjoyed that one of the recipients of the 25K investment and production deal is "homegrown," adding "the sheer amount of content she has created is a great sign from the standpoint of a developmental model." He is referring to our third winner, longtime member, writer, actress, music producer Datgirl Serene Zloof, whose film Unicorn Admirers Club focuses on the self discovery of a people-pleasing Iraqi-American DJ girl with a traditional family and a long-term partner. The slant? When inspired by a liberated polyamorous couple to sample the non-monogamous lifestyle and explore a new world of sexual encounters, she takes on the challenge from her boyfriend to prove she can keep her explorations casual and her relationship intact. An early adopter of Zloof's premise, Rob Ness championed the project by serving as a development and structural writing coach because he believes "this is a story whose time has come, and that cinema can incite social change."

Similarly, prolific award-winning director-choreographer- writer-producer Cate Caplin chose to invest in the film because she welcomes the challenge to direct something on the "other side of the spectrum of stories" she's told before. "The contrast of background and training makes for a dynamic collaboration and perspective. We've been discussing how best to transcend the obvious, overt, stereotypical characters and situations typically depicted when exploring this sort of subject matter. I'm looking forward to finding a highly stylistic approach to telling this personal and provocative story." Caplin's feature film Mating Dance, also about the complexities and nuances of interpersonal connections, recently won an Accolade Award and Best Indie Feature at the 2021 New York City Oniros Film Festival.

A graduate of UC Berkeley, Zloof is a trained actor and improviser who studied at several prestigious institutions on both coasts, including American Conservatory Theater, Lee Strasberg School of Acting, the Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade, and Second City. Also an alumna of NYU's Writers Boot Camp, she penned and performed an award-winning solo show at the New York Fringe Festival and is currently refining the sequel to the solo show (Girl Power aka Adventures of Girlcules) for the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Additionally, her comedic web series Pop&Spin was developed, workshopped, and released through the WMM lab pipeline before acquiring distribution through Amazon Prime.