Gwendolyn Giovanna Wynne

GWEN WYNNE is an award-winning Director, Documentarian, Producer, and Screenwriter. She champions untold stories, new talent and emphasizes unheard, mostly censored and buried narratives to inspire action and change.  She started her career as a theatre director and co-founded a theatre company in Washington, D.C.  THE NO-NECK MONSTERS THEATRE COMPANY.  She directed new plays including one of the first rap musicals at a regional theatre which wasnominated for three Helen Hayes Awards including Best New Musical.  As a narrative film director, The Huffington Post’s Tom Gregory describes Wynne’s debut feature film WILD ABOUT HARRY “an indie gem... the why that drove early activists like Harvey Milk and the Stonewall demonstrators to demand equality…”  In film festivals around the world, WILD ABOUT HARRY received “Best of the Fest"at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival and won“Best Feature” and “Best Cinematography”at the 2010 Cinegear Expo at Paramount Studios.   

Wynne and her production company Apricot Films, LLC produced the documentary feature about TYRUS about Hollywood's greatest concept artist Tyrus Wong. The documentary had its national broadcast on PBS’s American Masters and nominated for an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Documentary or Non-fiction Series” in 2017.  In 2021, Wynne won two Telly Silver Awards, “Outstanding Directing” and “Social Impact” for her segment in the mini-series HOPE BUILDERS: MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE INLAND EMPIRE. Her assignment DANCING ON ICE for KVCR/PBS in San Bernardino highlighted the front-line work of “Rapid Response Network’s” life-saving advocacy for immigrants detained in what are essentially prisons in southern California. 

Ms. Wynne recently Executive Produced with her production company, Apricot Films, Ameer Fakin Eldin’s debut feature film AL GARIB(THE STRANGER) which had its World Premiere at the VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL in September, 2021.  Palestine submitted AL GARIB to be considered for THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES Best International Film. AL GARIB was also nominated for the Giornate degli Autori Awardand the film won Edipo Re Award (Università degli Studi di Padova e ResInt Rete dell' Economia Sociale Internazionale) and acclaimed as a “masterpiece” by Screen International. 

Wynne’s latest screenplays and companion project are “BIRTH OF THE ASSASSIN” and “THE LADY & THE SPY,” two original spy dramas for episodic television with a companion documentary series MOST SECRET: STORIES OF ASSASSINATION & RESISTANCE.  Wynne credits her Cape Cod upbringing shaping her love of story and inspiration to find the lost histories that have shaped cultures and our global history. 

In 2018, Wynne founded THE EOS WORLD FUND (Eos), a new initiative to champion emerging and established visionary filmmakers around the world. Presently, EOS WORLD FUND has helped to restore two of Nina Menkes’ films, QUEEN OF DIAMONDS and MAGDALENA VIAGRA, screened at a Retrospective of Menkes’ films by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and American Cinematheque in Los Angeles.  

EOS WOLRD FUND is also presenting BRAINWASHED, a new documentary by Nina Menkes which screened at Sundance Film Festival 2022 and Berlin International Film Festival 2022. Kino Lorber is distributing BRAINWASHED nationwide.  This documentary reveals how shot design in the western world’s canon of “masterful cinema” has served to diminish women in the last 100 years around the world. 

Ms. Wynne graduated from Brown University and later received an M.F.A. in Production at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.  Ms. Wynne is a directing member of the Directors’ Guild of America and serves on its Women’s Steering Committee since 2010. During Award seasons 2020/21 & 2021/22, Ms. Wynne was involved with BESTDIRECTHER, a grassroots organization amplifying the latest female filmmakers in the effort to garner attention for nomination at the Directors’ Guild of America Awards.

Film and Television Credits

Executive Producer, Al Garib(aka The Stranger) World Premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September, 2021. Nominated for the Giornate degli Autori Award and the film won Edipo Re Award (Università degli Studi di Padova e ResInt Rete dell' Economia Sociale Internazionale) and acclaimed as a “masterpiece” by Screen International. Playing at festivals throughout the world.

Directed & Produced by: "Dancing On Ice" HOPE BUILDERS: MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE INLAND EMPIRE (mini-series),  KVCR/PBS in San Bernardino (2021). Won two Telly Silver Awards, “Outstanding Directing” and“Social Impact”for her segment in the mini-series.

Produced by: Tyrus. National broadcast on PBS/American Masters on September 8, 2017. World Premiere at 2015 Telluride Film Festival,  Winner of the Special Jury Award at Center for Asian American Media Festival (CAAM Fest), Hawaii International Film Festival, Spring Showcase, Chicago Asian American Showcase; Winner of Best Feature Documentary at Austin Asian American Film Festival, Vancouver Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, Boston Asian American Film Festival, Reel Asian International Film Festival, Brattleboro Film Festival; other festival screenings around the country and Europe include: Southern Circuit Tour, Sheffield Doc Festival in England, Cinetopia, Asian American Film Series. Cited as one of the ten best documentaries on art in the 21st century.

Director, Producer, Screenwriter, American Primitive (aka Wild About Harry) (Cape Cod Films, 2009). Ensemble with Susan Anspach, Johanna Braddy, Stacey Dash, Tate Donovan, Adam Pascal, Josh Peck, Anne Ramsay, Danielle Savre, Corey Sevier, James B. Sikking, Skye McCole Bartusiak. Film Festivals include The Seattle Film Festival, Outfest, The Palm Springs International Film Festival (Won Best of the Fest)

In Production & Development

Director, Producer, Screenwriter: MOST SECRET: STORIES OF ASSASSINATION & RESISTANCE (aka Most Secret: Agent 0017) (2003 - present)

Since 2003, Wynne has been interviewing and filming World War II Secret Agents in England and France. In Europe, Wynne secured permission to film secret ceremonies for the World War II heroes from Buckingham Palace and MI6.  Some of the personalities and events already filmed are the World's greatest living explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Princess Anne, French resistance veterans gathering in the countryside of France, Ambassadors throughout Europe marking the birth of S.O.E.,the Louvre, and national French treasure Frederique Hebrard, a famous French author and actress, who as a little girl famously slept with Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa because her curator parents led a cabal of museum officials to remove priceless masterpieces out of the Louvre to hide from the Nazis. Filmed Interviews of WW II secret agents and various cultural heroes include: Bob Maloubier - French agent with the S.O.E. who worked with the most famous and notorious of agents such as Violette Szabo, Christine Granville, and Henri Dericourt. He performed heroic missions during the World War II known only to a select and secret elite.

Director, Producer, Screenwriter: Birth of the Assassin To be filmed in England, Scotland, Svalbard, North Africa, Corsica, Italy, USA

Screenwriter, Producer: The Lady & the Spy  To be filmed in Jamaica, Spain, England, USA

Producer, Minotaur Rex directed and written by Nina Menkes.  To be filmed in the Middle East.

Professional Theatre:

Director, Producer. Sanctuary, D.C: A Rap Musical by Ralph Brown, music composed by Scott Davenport Richards. (No-Neck Monsters Theatre Co.)

Director, Producer. Angel by Stuart Browne (both productions nominated for Helen Hayes Awards) (No-Neck Monsters Theatre Co.)

Director, Producer. Kingdom of Earth by Tennesse Williams with Jeffrey Wright. (No-Neck Monsters Theatre Co.)