Cynthia Wade
Cynthia won the Academy Award and a 2007 Sundance Special Jury Prize (as well as 15 other awards) for her documentary FREEHELD, about a dying policewoman fighting to leave her pension to her female life partner. Wade is a producer on the major motion picture based on her documentary (also called FREEHELD) starring Julianne Moore, Steve Carell and Ellen Page. In 2013, Cynthia received her second Oscar nomination for her HBO documentary MONDAYS AT RACINE, about a hair salon that caters to women undergoing chemotherapy. Cynthia’s 2010 short documentary BORN SWEET, about a Cambodian village poisoned with arsenic well water, won 17 festival awards worldwide, including Sundance Honorable Mention. She is the director of the feature length documentaries LIVING THE LEGACY (Sundance & IFC Channels), GROWING HOPE AGAINST HUNGER (Sesame Street Prime Time Special, Emmy Winner), SHELTER DOGS (HBO) and GRIST FOR THE MILL (Cinemax). Her camerawork has been seen on HBO/Cinemax, PBS, A&E, AMC, The History Channel, LOGO, Oxygen, MTV and Discovery. Cynthia holds an MA in documentary filmmaking from Stanford University and BA cum laude from Smith College.