Synopsis
AWE is the gripping true story of polar explorer Ann Bancroft in her relentless quest to lead the first all-woman expedition across the harsh wilderness of Antarctica—the coldest place on Earth.
Eager to lead her own expedition, she plans the American Women’s Expedition (AWE), a transcontinental crossing of Antarctica, the coldest, driest, windiest place on Earth. In this remarkable true story, Ann assembles an all-woman team of extraordinary outdoor athletes to make the historic three-month journey, each pulling their 200-pound sleds of survival gear through brutal subzero temperatures and blizzard conditions.
Key Personnel
Melissa Silverstein is the creative force behind Women and Hollywood, an initiative focused on educating, advocating, and agitating for gender equality and inclusion in the film industry. She founded and published the seminal site Women and Hollywood (2007-2023) and continues to publish a weekly newsletter highlighting media content by and about women. She is the co-founder and artistic director of the Athena Film Festival, which champions diverse, nuanced, complex stories of women leaders, and leads the Athena Creative Development Program, supporting filmmakers working on women-centric projects.
Jon Levin has forged one of the most respected careers in the Hollywood community as a business affairs executive and motion picture and television literary agent with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for 38 years. Jon’s clients and their films have garnered over 100 Academy Award nominations and 25 Oscar wins. He has packaged such diverse films as CONTACT, MRS. DOUBTFIRE, KARATE KID, Bram Stoker’s DRACULA, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, SHREK, and ICE AGE. In 2021, he co-founded and became president of Sustainable Imagination.
Kristen Golden is a writer/producer whose creative work runs the gamut of genres. She wrote the screenplay AWE, for which she won the 2023 Chinonye Chukwu Emerging Writer award from the Athena Film Festival, and she was one of six screenwriters selected for the 2022 Athena Film Festival’s Writers Lab. Kristen is a producer of the narrative short film IRVING BERLIN’S VIEW OF THE EAST RIVER (release date 2026). She is the co-author with her wife, Barbara Findlen, of the book Remarkable Women of the Twentieth Century: 100 Portraits of Achievement. Kristen is currently the speechwriter for the Women’s Media Center.
Kidda Rokk is the co-founder and CFO of the Icelandic production company Polarama. She is known for building lean, expert teams and managing full-service production logistics while maintaining creative excellence. Projects include INTERSTELLAR, BATMAN BEGINS, NOAH, GAME OF THRONES, FORTITUDE, and THIN ICE, Iceland’s most ambitious TV drama to date. Kidda has also led prestigious commercial productions for Land Rover, Coca Cola, and Google in Iceland’s most challenging locations.
