The NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre has presented grants to 94 music, stage, film, and digital media projects from and/or about women. A press release from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) confirmed that, with these awards, it has launched the second wave of its planned three-year, $5 million fund program for women-made and -driven works.

All in all, the Women’s Fund bestowed $2 million in grants to help artists finish their projects. Twenty pop music, 15 classical/jazz/experimental music, seven fiction webisode/web series, and seven documentary websisode/web series projects received $20,000 each. Nine fiction shorts and eight doc shorts were awarded $25,000 each. Sixteen stage productions, eight doc features, and four fiction features received $50,000 each.

The Women’s Fund received 1,357 applications for its 2020 grants. Among the winners are Jenny Lester’s film “What She Said,” a “traumedy” exploring the aftermath of a sexual assault, and Helen Nwosu’s doc about two Puerto Rican women from the Bronx who win a car in Vegas, “My Mighty – Dos Boriquas Se Encuentran en Idaho.” The grantees also include Ibiwunmi Olaiya’s dance music EP “Little Girl” and Kamala Sankaram’s cast recording of techno-noir opera “Looking at You.”

Last year, the fund awarded $1.5 million to 63 projects.

“Women are more than half of the population, but they are still woefully underrepresented in music, theatre, film, and digital media industries,” said NYC Media and Entertainment Commissioner Anne del Castillo. “We are proud to have increased the number of awardees by 50%, as we take gender equity head on by helping female-identified artists get their projects over the finish line.”

Head over to the NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre’s web page to check out all the winning projects.