Cynthia Wade is an American television, commercial and film director, producer and cinematographer based in New York City.
15 Facts About Cynthia Wade
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Cynthia Wade has directed documentaries on social issues including Shelter Dogs in 2003 about animal welfare and Freeheld in 2007 about LGBT rights as well as television commercials and web campaigns.
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Cynthia Wade has won over 40 film festival awards, won an Oscar in 2008, and was nominated for her second Oscar in 2013.
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Cynthia Wade attended Smith College where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree, and Stanford University where she received a master's degree in Documentary Film Production.
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Cynthia Wade taught advanced digital cinematography and film production in the graduate certificate program in Documentary Media Studies at The New School and runs a film production company, Cynthia Wade Productions, Inc.
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In 2003, Cynthia Wade directed and produced Shelter Dogs, a documentary about the animal welfare system in the United States and the ethics of animal euthanasia.
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In 2007, Cynthia Wade directed and shot Freeheld, a documentary telling the story of terminally ill New Jersey police officer Laurel Hester.
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In 2008 and 2009 Cynthia Wade directed the documentary Living the Legacy: The Untold Story of Milton Hershey School at Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pennsylvania, one of several films she has made for schools and non profit organizations.
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In January 2010, Cynthia Wade's documentary Born Sweet, about a Cambodian boy who is poisoned with arsenic, had its World Premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival where it was awarded Honorable Mention; it won 14 additional film festival awards, including prizes at Aspen, Palm Springs and the Hamptons Film Festivals.
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In 2011, Cynthia Wade was Documentary Director for the Prime Time Emmy-Winning Sesame Street TV special "Growing Hope Against Hunger", about food insecurity in America, as told through four children's eyes in different parts of the country.
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In 2013, Cynthia Wade was nominated for her second Academy Award for her HBO documentary Mondays at Racine.
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In 2014, during an event at the Sundance Film Festival, Cynthia Wade released her short film "Selfie" in conjunction with the Sundance Institute and Dove dealing with how social media is changing the way women define beauty.
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Cynthia Wade served as a lead producer on this film, which stars Julianne Moore, Elliot Page, Steve Carell and Michael Shannon.
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Cynthia Wade co-directed in 2016 the feature documentary Generation Startup detailing six startups in Detroit launched through Andrew Yang's Venture for America program.
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Cynthia Wade then co-directed and co-produced The Flagmakers with Sharon Liese, a documentary that follows a factory making American flags whose employees are primarily immigrants.