Cynthia won the Academy Award and 16 film awards for her HBO short documentary FREEHELD, about a dying policewoman fighting to leave her pension to her female life partner. Wade was a lead producer on the Lionsgate feature adaptation also entitled FREEHELD, starring Julianne Moore, Ellen Page and Steve Carell..
In 2013, Cynthia received her second Oscar nomination for her award-winning HBO short documentary MONDAYS AT RACINE, about a hair salon that caters to women undergoing chemotherapy. Cynthia’s 2010 short documentary BORN SWEET, about a Cambodian village poisoned with arsenic well water, was short listed for an Academy Award and won 17 festival awards worldwide.
Cynthia is the director of the feature length documentaries GRIT (PBS), GENERATION STARTUP (Netflix), SHELTER DOGS (HBO), LIVING THE LEGACY (Sundance & IFC Channels), GROWING HOPE AGAINST HUNGER (Sesame Street Prime Time Special, Emmy Winner), and GRIST FOR THE MILL (Cinemax). She has directed commercial campaigns for Kelloggs, Unilever, Abbott, Kimberly Clark, Sanofi, Pfizer, Hershey, Incyte, Salix and Bristol Myers Squibb, including the viral branded films SELFIE (Dove Real Beauty) and #ENDMOMMYWARS (Similac).
She has won more than 50 film festival awards around the world.
