Sundance<\/a> 2026 speech that honored her late father Robert Redford, Hadley said, \u201cFilmmakers and the creative community at large are the shaman of our culture. Whether we are looking at it through screens, or in a theater, or streaming at home, or however you are consuming media, that is literally our proverbial campfire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tHadley added, \u201cThat is why we are doing what we are doing at Harbor. To match philanthropists or patrons of the arts with these kings and queens of culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIt comes as no surprise that celebrities are looking for money from millionaires \u2014 in some cases, billionaires \u2014 to fund their projects. Corporate consolidation in Hollywood has led to less risk and diversity across studios and streamers, and to more in-house content to create bulletproof IP.<\/p>\n
\n\tFilms with strong social impact elements that inspire social justice and humanitarian action \u2014 think \u201cErin Brockovich, \u201cThe Constant Gardener,\u201d and \u201cBlood Diamond\u201d \u2014 aren\u2019t being made anymore. When Jeff Skoll decided to shut down Participant in 2024, he put the proverbial nail in the coffin on \u201cdo-gooder\u201d films and Hollywood business models that prioritized social impact slightly more than profits.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn June 28, Silverman, Zachary Levi, Matthew Modine, Kristen Schaal, Rhys Darby, and Edward James Olmos traveled to the Sundance Mountain Resort for the third annual, invitation-only, four-day Harbor Film Forum to pitch their projects to high-net-worth individuals handpicked by Hadley.<\/p>\n
\n\tModine pitched \u201cThe Splendid Thing,\u201d a film that the actor said, \u201cbegs the question of what is real.\u201d The actor wrote and will direct the movie starring John Cleese, Liam Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave, and Eddie Izzard.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m out of pocket on everything right now,\u201d said Modine, who is currently scouting locations in Italy. \u201cI\u2019ve even said I will defer my salary to get the film made.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tEdward James Olmos pitched \u201cValley of the Heart.\u201d Written by Luis Valdez, Olmos plans to direct the movie about secret lovers, one Japanese-American and one Mexican-American, whose lives are torn apart by Pearl Harbor. The film\u2019s budget is $41 million.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is not simply a period film,\u201d Olmos said. \u201cIt\u2019s a deeply human love story about endurance, identity, sacrifice and hope, and it reminds us that even in the darkest moments in American history, humanity survives through compassion, resilience and love. At a moment where division, intolerance and fear once again are rising in our world, this story feels more urgent than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGeralyn Dreyfous, co-founder of the documentary equity fund Impact Partners, has spent the last two decades pairing documentary filmmakers, including Oscar winners Alex Gibney, Roger Ross Williams, and, most recently, \u201cAsk E. Jean\u201d director Ivy Meeropol, with patrons of the arts.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cScripted films have a much bigger footprint and audience than documentary films do,\u201d Dreyfous said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean that documentary films are not important, but both forms are at risk right now. Independent cinema is very vulnerable. What you are seeing at the Harbor Forum is people like Bob Redford, 40 years ago, who don\u2019t want to do what the studios want them to do. They want to find a way to do things independent of the studios and streamers. So, they are pitching their projects to people who can make them possible, and hopefully that will help them get distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tExecutives from Amazon and Angels Studios attended the Harbor Forum.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile Harbor\u2019s mission sounds similar to Participant, don\u2019t call the Harbor Participant 2.0.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe stand on the shoulders of giants like Jeff Skoll and his team because they set a precedent for this type of filmmaking and he brought his capital as a philanthropist into it,\u201d Hadley said. \u201cBut even though Participant would have a \u201cGreen Book\u201d or a success with \u201cWonder\u2019 or \u201cSpotlight,\u201d it never made up for the entire overhead of their studio. They had over a hundred employees hemorrhaging capital, and that\u2019s why it shut down. It wasn\u2019t built sustainably. \u201c<\/p>\n
\n\tHadley added, \u201cSo the difference is that they were a studio that made the movies. We are just investing. We are just the venture capitalists that are on the finance side, which allows us to be ridiculously lean. So even if we had a billion dollars in this fund one day, we would never have more than 10 full-time employees.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCurrently, the goal is to bring $100 million into the Harbor Fund over the next two years.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFlight of the Conchords\u201d stars Kristen Schaal, Rhys Darby, and producer Rosie Carnahan-Darby also attended the Forum to pitch \u201cWool Kings,\u201d a comedy about two feuding New Zealan sheep farmers vieing to be the number one sheep station in the country. The trio said that while the film is a comedy, it is just as essential as social impact films.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cPeople need to laugh,\u201d said Carnahan-Darby. \u201cEspecially right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe scipt for \u201cWool Kings\u201d is complete. Schaal, Darby, and Rosie Carnahan-Darby are seeking development funding.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOne thing I\u2019ve realized with \u201cWool Kings\u201d is that I can\u2019t rely on anyone but myself and my friends,\u201d said Schaal. \u201cThrough my agents it didn\u2019t work. Through the typical studio producing model it didn\u2019t work. It feels like reinventing the game because a good idea for a movie is met with blank stares.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSchaal said that when she received the invite to attend the Harbor Fun, she read the email a few times.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI was like, \u2018Wait. We can come and talk about our idea to people who might give us money to make it real,\u2019\u201d said Schaal. \u201cIt is like Willy Wonka. Rhys, Rosie and I were all a little skeptical, to be honest, because it\u2019s not how it works. Right now, how it works is you don\u2019t get to make your movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDarby said he felt optimistic following the \u201cWool Kings\u201d pitch and another project he pitched called \u201cGordon\u2019s Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFunders have approached us and asked me how much we are looking for,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to say \u2013 $4,000, $40,000 or $40 million. I just kind of stood there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe state of Utah was the title sponsor of the third annual Harbor Film Forum.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cUtah\u2019s film industry has generated more than $736 million over the past decade, and we remain focused on investing in film and the creative energy and collaboration that drive it,\u201d Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox\u2019s Office of Economic Development said in a statement to Variety. \u201cGatherings like Harbor Film Forum are an important part of this effort. We want meaningful films to be showcased, financed, developed, and created in Utah.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHarbor Fund\u2019s advisory board includes filmmaker Patty Jenkins and Mark Burnett.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout history, artists have relied on powerful, rich individuals and families to fund their artistic visions. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo had the Medici family. Jackson Pollock had Peggy Guggenheim. For over two decades, the documentary community has relied on wealthy investors from Impact Partners and Artemis Rising Foundation. Now Hollywood A-listers, including Chris Pine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2485523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[348511,331637,377829],"class_list":["post-2485522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-chris-pine","tag-sarah-silverman","tag-sundance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Is-Harbor-Fund-Participant-20-Movie-Stars-Hope-So.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2485522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2485522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2485522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2485524,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2485522\/revisions\/2485524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2485523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2485522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2485522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2485522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}