Endemol Shine NA partners with Everywoman Studios to expand female-focused accelerator

Abby Greensfelder

Endemol Shine North America has partnered with with Abby Greensfelder’s Everywoman Studios and Realscreen to expand the annual Propelle Program, which aims to support the careers of up-and-coming women creators by pairing them with leaders in the industry for mentorship and project workshopping. 

The expansion will allow the women-focused content accelerator to double the number of creators it mentors and give out an additional Accelerator Award for unscripted formats, alongside its existing original documentary/docuseries program.

The new category will be headed up by Endemol Shine North America’s chief content officer Sharon Levy and Greensfelder.

Administered by Realscreen, the format program will select three projects, and the creators of each will be paired with a female producer/mentor (industry trailblazers, CEOs and executives). Each creative team will further workshop and develop the project to prepare it to pitch to buyers in June 2022 at Realscreen West.

Endemol Shine North America, in partnership with Everywoman Studios, will also provide financial support to further develop the winning format project.

Executive mentors for the inaugural format program will be Westbrook Studios’ head of unscripted Sahara Bushue; Bunim/Murray Productions’ president Julie Pizzi with VP of development Myiea Coy; and Allison Wallach, EVP and head of FOX Alternative Entertainment.

Say Yes To The Dress producer Greensfelder founded Everywoman Studios in 2019, with a focus on female-fueled content” that can create positive cultural impact. Its first feature documentary, LFG, launched on HBO Max.

“We launched this initiative to remove barriers of entry for women with incredible stories to tell, and I’m ecstatic to be expanding upon that mission in partnership with Endemol and Sharon to help bring the next great woman-created format to viewers around the globe,” said Greensfelder.”

“After serving as a mentor for Propelle’s last cycle, which was a truly rewarding experience, Abby and I discussed the idea of expanding the program to include a format-focused program and I’m thrilled that we are making it happen in 2022,” added Levy.

“We need more talented women getting real opportunities in the unscripted industry and with the help of our all-star team of mentors, hopefully we will be doing just that through this program.”