Cynthia Wade

Cynthia Wade is a NYC-based documentary filmmaker. Her short documentary FREEHELD won the Academy Award Best Documentary Short Subject 2008, a Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and eleven other festival awards in cities such as New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Wade’s five-time-award-winning HBO documentary SHELTER DOGS was broadcast in seven countries. Wade directed the 1999 Cinemax Reel Life documentary GRIST FOR THE MILL, which The Hollywood Reporter called “a delight…full of quirky moments and clever humor” and Variety called “a jewel…extremely comical.” She was co-producer and principal verite cinematographer for the 1998 PBS documentary TAKEN IN: THE LIVES OF AMERICA’S FOSTER CHILDREN, which won a duPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Journalism. Wade has been a Director of Photography for PBS, HBO/Cinemax, Bravo, AMC, MTV, A&E, Discovery, TNT, Oxygen, LOGO and The History Channel. She received a BA cum laude from Smith College and an MA in Documentary Film Production fromStanford University. Wade runs a video production company and teaches advanced digital cinematography at the New School.
Wade lives in New York City with her husband and two children.