The company, named after the protective seawall Proudfoot and his father built on the south shore of Nova Scotia when he was 12[4], was opened in the same Los Feliz neighborhood building the original Disney Bros Studios was founded in 1923[4].
From 2019 to 2022, a watershed partnership between Breakwater Studios and The New York Times produced some sixteen films including A Concerto is a Conversation which was executive produced by Ava DuVernay and nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 93rd Academy Awards[7], and The Queen of Basketball, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 94th Academy Awards[8].
Other notable films in the Almost Famous series include The Silent Pulse of the Universe, a film about astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell whose instrumental role in the discovery of pulsars was not recognized when the Nobel Prize went to her professors Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle[10], and The First Report, which features Jason Berry, the Louisiana reporter who broke the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in the 1980s before it gained traction[11].
The Boston Globe covered the story in 2002, receiving a Pulitzer Prize and inspiring the Academy Award-winning feature film Spotlight.
tells the story of Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color elected to the U.S. Congress and who helped author the pivotal Title IX law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education.
In 2024, Netflix acquired The Turnaround, Breakwater’s short documentary about Jon McCann, a devoted Philadelphia Phillies fan who helped spark a standing ovation for struggling shortstop Trea Turner.
The film was produced in partnership with Major League Baseball, Dick’s Sporting Goods’ Cookie Jar and A Dream Studios, and Barack and Michelle Obama-led Higher Ground Media[17].