MASTERCLASS: The Business of Filmmaking with Kirk Wolfinger — DCIFF 2026

Join DCIFF 2026 at THE BUSINESS OF FILMMAKING: BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION COMPANY masterclass. Many filmmakers dream of building their own production companies, but the path from freelancer to sustainable business owner is challenging. Emmy Award-winning producer Kirk Wolfinger, co-founder of Lone Wolf Media, shares hard-won lessons from decades of building and running a successful documentary production company. Topics include developing a viable business model in the documentary space, managing cash flow, budgets, and multiple projects simultaneously, building and maintaining relationships with networks, broadcasters, and funders, hiring, training, and retaining talented teams, diversifying revenue streams and adapting to industry changes, balancing creative vision with business realities, and scaling from solo filmmaker to company owner. This masterclass is essential for filmmakers ready to take the next step in their careers and build production companies that can weather industry disruptions and sustain long-term success.

SPEAKER:

Kirk Wolfinger is an Emmy and Peabody Award winning filmmaker who has been making films since 1985, producing and directing numerous critically acclaimed television specials and series broadcast nationally and internationally on major networks, streamers and cable outlets. His forte is adventure and science programming, having produced over 30 hours of PBS NOVA specials on topics ranging from biological weapons to lost Nazi U-boats to climate change in Antarctica, working with Nobel Laureates and world-renowned explorers including Dr. Robert Ballard. Since 2020 he has Executive Produced three seasons of Paramount Plus's America's Hidden Stories and two seasons of History Channel's Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters, and recently produced Holocaust Escape Tunnel (NOVA's 2017 most-watched show), USS Indianapolis: Final Chapter for PBS, and co-directed the independent documentary Resistance: They Fought Back. Notable past work includes executive producing 35 episodes of History Channel's Deep Sea Detectives, the limited series D-Day in HD, and the 90-minute independent feature documentary The Rivals (Best Picture, Phoenix Film Festival). Kirk and his Lone Wolf team won a national Emmy for their NOVA/New York Times production Bioterror and founded Lone Wolf Media in 1997 with Lisa Wolfinger, nurturing the film careers of dozens of young producers, directors, editors and cinematographers.

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Host or Publisher DC Independent Film Festival (DCIFF)