A 22-Year-Old Filmmaker Is Giving a Stranger on the Internet $100K to Make a Movie

The competition is open to anyone and requires only a one-minute application video. WWM will fly the top ten applicants to New York and place them in a high-energy creative competition with real deadlines and real stakes. The winner will receive $100,000 to produce an original film or show co-owned with WWM and released directly to its audience. The entire process — from applications through the competition and production of the winning project — will be documented in a reality-TV style YouTube series.

The competition introduces WWM’s larger model: fund original proof-of-concept projects at a fraction of traditional production cost, release them on YouTube and social platforms, and use real-time audience response to determine which ideas should grow into feature films, series, and full franchises.

Wang developed this model after experiencing both sides of the system. He made nothing, except everything while still in high school, financing it with money earned from teaching chess and finding a producer by cold-emailing 200 people through IMDbPro. After a year of festival submissions, he uploaded the film to YouTube. It reached one million views in ten days and has since surpassed 9.5 million.

Four studios bid on the feature rights. Sony’s TriStar Pictures acquired the project, Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa joined as producer, and Wang (then 19 and studying economics at Harvard) was attached to write and direct. After experiencing the slow, approval-heavy development process firsthand, Wang and Sony ultimately agreed the project was not the right creative fit. In early 2026, he left Harvard to build the studio he wished had existed when he was 17. The studio has already raised $1M from angel investors.

WWM’s belief is simple: the internet should greenlight the next generation of films and shows, not outdated executives.

Applications are open now at wesleywangmedia.com/apply. and close on October 4th.