Named after a street corner in Chicago, Madison Wells is an award-winning independent production company built on grit, curiosity, humor, and heart. These qualities define our projects and the people who make them. Shining a light on women and unlikely heroes, our work has garnered two Academy Awards®, five Emmy Awards®, 21 Tony Awards®, and one BAFTA®.
OUR WORK
Recent film and television credits include the Oscar®-winning The Eyes of Tammy Faye; Netflix's Emmy-nominated global #1 hit Nonnas; the two-time Emmy Award-winning and Sundance Audience Award-winning Prime Minister (HBO/CNN); the Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize-winning The Baddest Speechwriter of All (Netflix); National Geographic's anthology series Genius; and the Emmy-nominated HBO Original Miss You, Love You.
Madison Wells Live credits include Broadway productions Hadestown (Tony Award, Best Musical), Swept Away, Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Tony-nominated, Best Play), and Shucked (Tony-nominated, Best Musical), with additional projects presented Off-Broadway, on tour, and on the West End.
Madison Wells strategically partners with leading entertainment companies, including Breakwater Studios and the global streaming platform MUBI, to widen the aperture for bold storytelling and innovators advancing independent film.
Recent Projects
During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and secrets will be revealed in Jaja’s bustling hair braiding salon in Harlem.
STUDIOS
Madison Wells Studios develops and produces award-winning film and television across a wide array of genres. Our projects spotlight distinctive voices and pressing stories with global resonance.
Recent releases include the Emmy®-nominated Nonnas, which debuted at #1 on Netflix with more than 20M views worldwide; the two-time Emmy Award- and Sundance Audience Award-winning Prime Minister, released in partnership with Magnolia Pictures, HBO, and CNN; and the Emmy-nominated HBO Original Miss You, Love You, starring Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells.
The third season of the Emmy Award-winning anthology series, Genius, will explore Aretha Franklin’s musical genius and incomparable career, as well as the immeasurable impact and lasting influence she has had on music and culture around the world.
Nine-year-old Sophie catches JJ, a hardened CIA operative, spying on her family during a routine surveillance operation.
After uncovering a massive conspiracy, an embattled NYPD detective joins a citywide manhunt for two young cop killers.
Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton), a lonely private detective living with Tourette Syndrome, ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend, Frank Minna.
Starring Antonio Banderas. Pablo Picasso confronts the threat of fascism in Spain, and Young Pablo rejects traditional painting to search for his own voice.
In 1995, a teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan discovers that her father is having an affair.
From Ron Howard. The story of Albert Einstein, seen through glimpses of his twilight years and flashbacks to his time as a student in Munich and Zürich in the 1890s.
Justice isn’t a crime. A divorced father and his ex-con older brother resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family's ranch in West Texas.
Based on a true story. Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari is detained by Iranian forces who brutally interrogate him under suspicion that he is a spy.
Young Ender Wiggin is recruited by the International Military to lead the fight against the Formics, a genocidal alien race which nearly annihilated the human race in a previous invasion.
Shy 14-year-old Duncan goes on summer vacation with his mother, her overbearing boyfriend, and her boyfriend's daughter. Having a rough time fitting in, Duncan finds an unexpected friend in Owen, manager of the water park.
There are no clean getaways. A mysterious Hollywood stuntman and mechanic moonlights as a getaway driver and finds himself in trouble when he helps out his neighbor.
The only way out is through. Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
LIVE
Madison Wells Live develops and produces a curated slate of artist-driven work across Broadway, Off-Broadway, the West End, and national tours. Our work has garnered 64 Tony Award® nominations and 21 wins.
Select credits include Hadestown (Tony Award, Best Musical); Company (Tony Award, Best Revival of a Musical); The Inheritance (Tony Award, Best Play); Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Tony-nominated, Best Play); The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Olivier®-nominated, Best New Play); Swept Away;Shucked (Tony-nominated, Best Musical), and Hold On to Me Darling. At the heart of it all is a belief that great storytelling can provoke, inspire, and move audiences around the world.
During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and secrets will be revealed in Jaja’s bustling hair braiding salon in Harlem.
After 7th grader Suzy Swanson receives the news that her best friend has drowned, she can't believe it was an accident and vows to solve the mystery of what really happened.
When a violent storm sinks their whaling ship off the coast of New Bedford, Mass., the four survivors face a reckoning: how far will they go to stay alive? And can they live with the consequences?
Inspired by the young Egyptians who took to the streets amidst the throes of the Arab Spring, We Live in Cairo follows six student activists using their street art, photography and song to overthrow a regime older than they are.
During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and secrets will be revealed in Jaja’s bustling hair braiding salon in Harlem.
Returning to his childhood home, a man finds himself transported to his 12th birthday where he and his friend Lettie are plunged into a magical world where their survival depends on their ability to reckon with ancient forces that threaten to destroy everything around them. From the imagination of best-selling author Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane takes audiences on an epic journey to a childhood once forgotten.
Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley come together again to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. Sun Records, now donned with a Christmas tree, garland, and mistletoe, rings with the sounds of the season and chart-toppers that made these four famous. Follow along with the gang’s usual antics as we journey through a story of Christmas past, present, and future.
Seven Deadly Sins takes audiences on a tantalizing tour of their inner demons, exploring the perils and pleasures of the Biblical sins outdoors as they rotate through a series of cleverly designed storefront windows in New York’s Meatpacking District.
This re-gendered revival of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical, Company, follows bachelorette Bobbie who on the night of her 35th birthday, contemplates her life of singledom as her friends begin to wonder why can't she find the right man to settle down and start a family with.
Awards
In the Press
Prime Minister, the HBO/CNN original documentary about popular New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern, was named best documentary at Thursday’s Documentary Emmy Awards. The doc, directed by Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz, had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary.
The 47th News & Documentary Emmy Awards has concluded, with Madison Wells’ Prime Minister winning Best Documentary.
Andrew Rannells says getting to work with Allison Janney "felt like I had won the gay acting lottery" in their new movie, which debuts on HBO May 29.
The world premiere of “Heartbreakers,” the “Romeo and Juliet” adaptation using the rock catalog of Grammy winners Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, is slated for May 4 to June 6, 2027, in CST’s small Upstairs Studio.
Film and TV veteran Dan Steinman has joined Gigi Pritzker’s Madison Wells production venture as president and chief content officer.
After a secret screening at Sundance, Miss You, Love You, a film that stars Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells has found a home. HBO has snapped up the rights to the film, which was written and directed by Jim Rash.
In the best documentary category, the nominees are Black Snow, Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, Life After, Love + War, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, Prime Minister, Turning Point: The Vietnam War and Union.
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding peeks into the lives of an older generation, in 2019, having emigrated from the same part of the continent. Both plays probe Black female identity using a single setting yet this one takes it a step further by confining the story to one working day.