Since 2011, at least one Kickstarter-funded film has been nominated for an Academy Award each year. In 2013, Inocente even won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject.

And this year, the Kickstarter Film team is thrilled to announce that the cinematic results of two Film projects we worked closely with have been recognized with Oscar nominations.

Kahane Cooperman’s Joe’s Violin is nominated for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Post-production — including additional shooting, editing, animation, archival fees, and music — was completed with the support of 272 backers who pledged more than $49,000 to the project. You can watch the short here on the New Yorker’s website.

Robert Valley’s Pear Cider and Cigarettes is nominated for Best Animated Short Film. Eight-hundred ninety-five backers pledged more than $29,000 for music rights and help with post-production. And did you know? The Canadian animator also ran a campaign for the graphic novel series that sparked the idea for the film. His past works include Aeon Flux, Wonder Woman shorts, and Gorillaz music videos.

We’ll be crossing our fingers for a win (or two) this weekend!

“Kickstarter is a huge part of our success — it’s the platform that allowed us to complete all the fundraising we needed to make this film possible. It also helped us reach new supporters that we would never have otherwise reached,” says Joe’s Violin producer Raphaela Neihausen. Pear Cider and Cigarettes director Robert Valley added, “I could have never fished this project without my backers on Kickstarter. It also helped to promote my film project in the crucial early days of this project.”

Kickstarter’s Director of Documentary Film, Liz Cook, who worked with Cooperman and their team on the Joe’s Violin audience engagement campaign says, “I am so incredibly excited for Kahane and the team behind Joe’s Violin for their nomination. It’s an emotional story that immediately resonates with everyone, making it a perfect film to bring to Kickstarter for initial support in getting it made. As one the backers of this film, I feel that we — the backers — are privileged to have played a role in bringing this film to life.”

Indeed, backers on Kickstarter have played an essential role in getting these incredible works nods from the Academy. And to date, 16,349 backers have been a part of the Oscar journey for the thirteen Kickstarter-funded projects that have been nominated since 2011.

If you’re curious, here’s the complete list of Kickstarter-funded films that have been nominated for Academy Awards:

2017: Joe’s Violin, Nominated for Best Documentary Short

2017: Pear Cider and Cigarettes, Nominated for Best Short Film (Animated)

2016: World of Tomorrow, Nominated for Best Animated Short

2016: Anomalisa, Nominated for Best Animated Feature

2016: Racing Extinction, "Manta Ray" Nominated for Best Original Song

2015: Finding Vivian Maier, Nominated for Best Documentary Feature

2014: The Square, Nominated for Best Documentary Feature

2013: Inocente, WINNER for Best Documentary Short

2013: Kings Point, Nominated for Best Documentary Short

2013: Buzkashi Boys, Nominated for Best Live Action Short

2012: Incident in New Baghdad, Nominated for Best Documentary Short

2012: The Barber of Birmingham, Nominated for Best Documentary Short

2011: Sun Come Up, Nominated for Best Documentary Short

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Help shape the future of independent film. Explore live Film projects on Kickstarter.

Versión en español a continuación.

Today marks 100 days since we opened Kickstarter to artists and creators in Mexico. During that time, more than 500 independent artists, photographers, filmmakers, designers, developers, musicians, and more have launched projects, raising 16 million pesos from backers around the world.

Together, they’re bringing some incredibly creative ideas to life — from a new electronic–Afro-Latino fusion album to a collection of leather goods that promotes positive social change to a fantastically weird series of short animated films. And we’re particularly excited to report that 25 percent of backers are from the United States. At this moment, we see a clear desire in our community to reach beyond borders and build bridges across cultures.

 

Since Kickstarter’s launch in 2009, we’ve been eager to cultivate new opportunities for the public to engage more meaningfully with contemporary art. From nightmarish political satire in the form of a haunted house to a free art school in a traveling winnebago to a collection of thirty-foot-tall fluorescent rainbow towers in the Las Vegas desert, backers from across the globe have shown their support an incredible array of arts projects on Kickstarter. By bringing together a dynamic community of creators and backers, Kickstarter endeavors to support ideas that break new ground, take on important issues, spark meaningful dialogue, and offer imaginative opportunities for public engagement.

A few months back we introduced you to Kickstarter Live, a powerful new way to bring creators and backers closer together through live video. It’s helped creators generate greater support for their ideas at the earliest stages of development, and it’s given backers a front row seat to the creative journey in real time. Starting today it gets even easier to discover and enjoy the best of Kickstarter Live as we put it front and center on our homepage, and in our app for iPhone and iPad.

From tell-all documentaries to archive projects and brand-new instruments, Music on Kickstarter is home to quite a range of sonic creativity. But at the heart of the category is music-making itself — recordings by artists at all stages of their careers who’ve decided to bring their songs to life with the direct support of their fans. 

Long before Adam Poots raised a record-breaking $12.4 million on Kickstarter, he raised… much less than that.

Just weeks after Kickstarter launched in 2009, Adam put up a project seeking $1,500 to create a single board-game miniature. He said of his team: “We all share a burning passion for old-school board games, the kind where friends can sit down together at a table playing mighty heroes fighting scary monsters in fantastical settings that fueled our imaginations.”

Early this morning Kickstarter signed onto an amicus brief alongside 96 leading American companies to stand up for our country’s long tradition of immigration. Signing our name to this friend-of-the-court brief reflects our belief that restricting immigration on the basis of one's national origin or faith contradicts core values of our democracy, and Kickstarter’s commitment to a more equitable world.

This February 3–7, Dance Films Association — the Brooklyn-based nonprofit that’s worked to preserve the art of dance on film for 60 years — is teaming up with the Film Society of Lincoln Center to host the spectacular Dance on Camera Festival. It’s an annual must-attend event for dance lovers here in NYC — and we’re thrilled to announce that four Kickstarter creators have films premiering in the festival, including world premieres and the coveted opening night slot.