Wide Awake Films

02/06/2026

Wide Awake Films is proud to announce that it received seven 2026 Telly Awards for five different projects, including our first award (a Gold) in the Museums & Galleries category. And this year, we earned awards with three new partners. Competition was stiff - this year’s Telly Awards received more than 13,000 entries. Check out the details of our award-winning productions below.

1. Call to Arms: The Battle of Bunker Hill
National Museum of the United States Army
https://vimeo.com/1077646166/9491e2e478?fl=tl&fe=ec

GOLD TELLY: Museums & Galleries
SILVER TELLY: Immersive, Interactive, and Mixed: Editing

2. The Battle of Sullivan’s Island
South Carolina 250 & SC250 Charleston
https://youtu.be/V065pp-iZ0w?si=f6qYSa71EGYRsmVy

SILVER TELLY: History
SILVER TELLY: Motion Graphics & Design

3. Battle of Franklin Animated Battle Map
American Battlefield Trust
https://youtu.be/ecZKHn301so?si=FdkBw3JAsYG-ap2j

SILVER TELLY: History

4. Our Enduring Legacy: Preserve. Educate. Inspire
American Battlefield Trust
https://vimeo.com/1074487168

SILVER TELLY: Not for Profit

5. The Battle of Honey Hill
Friends of Honey Hill Battlefield
https://youtu.be/uCIDGDFVGKY?si=YU0Bg5X2UHaTfHx2

BRONZE TELLY: History

As always, we are grateful for every opportunity to partner with top-notch organizations like these to produce museum displays and educational videos designed to bring our history to life.

29/04/2026

Check out our latest Civil War Animated Map - this one, produced for American Battlefield Trust on the 1864 Atlanta Campaign. https://youtu.be/bh4vSOx2cMI?si=FvBeNDUjOz9qBuFX

592 likes, 36 comments. "The Atlanta Campaign | Animated Battle Map"

21/04/2026

We produced this for national PBS broadcast last year…
Now it’s finally live on YouTube—and it’s taking off.

In just a few days, it’s already racking up serious views.
This one means a lot to us.

It tells the story of 22 United States Colored Cavalry soldiers—men who escaped slavery, enlisted at Camp Nelson, and were ultimately ambushed and killed near Simpsonville, Kentucky. For years, their story sat buried. This film follows the effort to find them… and finally bring that history back into the light.

Huge credit to the historians, archaeologists, and partners at Camp Nelson National Monument who helped bring this story forward.

We had an incredible team on this—researchers, historians, archaeologists, and a full production crew recreating the world of the 5th USCC with absolute attention to detail.
Proud of the work. Proud of the story.
Give it a watch if you haven’t yet 👇

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HnIwmO2ZZE

Watch more: https://to.pbs.org/3mHxfbj | a supply depot for Union forces in Kentucky, Camp Nelson became the site where 10,000 Blac...

02/04/2026

We’re growing at Wide Awake Films — and we need a couple of sharp people to help us keep up.

We’re currently looking for:

• Motion Designer (After Effects / Adobe Suite — 3D a big plus)
• Post Production Generalist (Premiere-heavy, organized, utility knife type)

We work on museum films, large-scale projections, historical storytelling, and some pretty unique stuff across the country.

If you’re someone who:

takes pride in your work
can move fast without cutting corners
and plays well on a team

—we’d love to take a look. History Nerds with these skills should definitely apply.

These are contract roles (1–6 months to start) with the potential to grow into something more if it’s a fit.

📍 In-studio only (Kansas City)

Drop your reel, tag someone, or send them to [email protected].

Links to job descriptions in the comments 👇

26/03/2026

We are excited when any one watches one of our productions, but we get extra excited when students check out our work. Here’s a room full of 4th graders from Sullivan’s Island Elementary School taking in a showing of The Battle of Sullivan’s Island film that we produced for South Carolina 250. Loved all the thoughtful questions they asked.

You can view this film here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/V065pp-iZ0w?si=ed-sU4ZYG7SNNzzs

25/03/2026

Today, March 25, is National Medal of Honor Day. In honor of all those who have earned our nation’s highest military decoration, we would like to share this brand new production that we produced for the American Battlefield Trust. This video looks at Medal of Honor recipients tied to the state of North Carolina. https://youtu.be/MEsL2_fcu58?si=Z_xuQME5UP9o38wl

The more than 3,500 recipients of the Medal of Honor have stories that touch virtually every corner of our nation, but the Medal’s connections to North Carol...

09/03/2026

On this anniversary of the historic naval battle between the CSS Virginia and USS Monitor in Hampton Roads, Virginia, we share this excerpt from "The Boilermaker Legacy", a longer documentary film we produced for IBB almost 13 years ago!

Excerpt from "The Boilermaker Legacy," a documentary film (146 minutes in length) produced in collaboration with International Brotherhood of Boilermakers ab...

16/02/2026

Excited to showcase our latest animated map, produced for our friends at the American Battlefield Trust. This new Manassas map explores both the first and second battles of Manassas (Bull Run) during the American Civil War. Enjoy….and support ABT’s mission to preserve these hallowed battlefields.

Although the Civil War officially began when Confederate troops shelled Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the fighting didn’t commence in earnest until the Batt...

23/01/2026

Check out this new film we produced for the Friends of Honey Hill Battlefield. The Battle of Honey Hill was fought on November 30, 1864 - a battle that led to the awarding of four Medals of Honor to soldiers who fought in this Civil War battle in South Carolina. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCIDGDFVGKY

Friends of Honey Hill Battlefield

The Battle of Honey Hill, fought during General William T. Sherman's advance through the Carolinas following his March to the Sea, was one of the final Confe...

21/01/2026

The Wide Awake Films team is just back from two days of filming at Washington Crossing Historic Park. We are all so grateful for the support of the Washington Crossing Historic Park staff and volunteers, the amazing living history/reenactors who braved the winter weather, and for our production partners who make all this possible. The weekend also brought exactly the kind of weather that we dreamed of - snow, ice, cold.....all the ingredients for some proper historic winter misery! Stay tuned for more as we work with Washington Crossing on this important 250th anniversary production.